July 9, 2026

Honoring Dr. Donna Harrison: AAPLOG Advocate and Pro-Life Medical Pioneer

It’s no overstatement to say that Dr. Donna Harrison is one of the most influential modern leaders in the pro-life movement.

Dr. Harrison, AAPLOG CEO Emerita and Director of Research, retired in June after decades of service to the medical community and to the patients we took an oath to protect, born and preborn. While Dr. Harrison may be retiring, her life’s work lives on in AAPLOG’s leadership and in each and every one of you, as long as we continue fighting for evidence-based, compassionate, and life-affirming medicine.

Her legacy certainly wasn’t built overnight. It began when she attended medical school at the University of Michigan, where she met her husband, Dr. Mark Harrison. During their time there, our partner in the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA), became an incredibly formative influence on their medical careers and helped lay the foundation for what was to come.

Dr. Harrison’s career has been marked by research, scholarship, and lectures that have shaped the medical conversation around numerous abortion-related topics, including abortion-related morbidity, abortion drugs, and bioethics. Her visionary work spans multiple initiatives over the past 30 years. She has:

Authored peer-reviewed publications on abortion drugs, maternal mortality, abortion complications, and contraceptive mechanisms.

Spoken before Food and Drug Administration advisory committees regarding mifepristone and ulipristal.

Addressed congressional committees on abortion-related medical issues.

Presented internationally on abortion policy, maternal health, and bioethics.

Served as an educator in continuing medical education programs and graduate bioethics training.

In 2013, when AAPLOG separated from ACOG (where we had previously been a special interest group), Dr. Harrison became AAPLOG’s CEO, and her leadership ushered in a period of significant growth and innovation. Her dedication and vision helped establish us as a leading medical voice in pro-life policy discussions and positioned the organization to play a major role in the post-Dobbs era. She was serving as CEO when Roe v. Wade was overturned and has been a leading public voice about the dangers of abortion drugs and what would happen if REMS (the safeguards put into place by the FDA) were removed. Her foresight and direction have put AAPLOG on the forefront of the mail-order abortion fight.

Under her leadership:

AAPLOG’s membership grew to include thousands of physicians, medical professionals, residents, and students.

AAPLOG expanded its educational and advocacy efforts through a stronger online presence and enhanced educational infrastructure.

The Matthew Bulfin Educational Conference (MBEC) was expanded and became a cornerstone training opportunity for life-affirming physicians, residents, and medical students.

AAPLOG increased engagement with policymakers, legal organizations, media outlets, and medical professionals nationwide.

AAPLOG helped found the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine.

Even after passing the CEO baton to Dr. Christina Francis in 2023, Dr. Harrison continued strengthening AAPLOG as a trusted medical voice. As our first ever Director of Research, she remained deeply involved in research, advocacy, education, and media engagement.

At the end of the day, there are not enough words to sum up the lasting impact of Dr. Harrison’s decades of leadership, advocacy, scholarship, and personal investment in both AAPLOG and the broader medical community. Because of her legacy, AAPLOG’s work can continue to grow stronger as we pursue the mission she—and the AAPLOG leaders who came before her—helped build: to raise up the next generation of medical professionals, protect the integrity of medicine, and ensure every American knows there is a pro-life medical organization fighting for every patient, born and preborn.

Thank you, Dr. Harrison, for your dedication!