Pro-Life News of the Day

Abortion and the Death Penalty

2012-01-27T12:06:00.000-05:00

I am against the death penalty. Inspired largely by the work of the Innocence Project, I believe our system is too fallible to justly implementing the death penalty. I’m certainly not alone in my stance; there are many people against both abortion and capital punishment.

That being said, I can understand how a person could work to end abortion without trying to end the death penalty. Yes, both practices kill a human being; that is their similarity. Now, can you think of any differences?

Capital punishment is far less frequent. Approximately 50 million abortions were performed in the United States from 1973-2008. In contrast, from 1977-2008, 1,234 inmates were executed. In other words, abortions occur (roughly) 36,000 times more often than death row executions. Even those who feel abortion and capital punishment are equally wrong may understandably devote more energy to the more pressing issue of abortion.

Capital punishment requires due process. Before being sentenced to death, the accused is given the opportunity to defend his or her case. We have a carefully established system meant to fairly determine whether a person is guilty of a crime and, if so, whether that guilt forfeits his or her life. Imagine the outrage if people could be sentenced to death without any accusations, any evidence, or any defense. The fetus has no defense before death; the fetus’s life is subject to the mother’s will alone.

Capital punishment is designed for the guilty. Many pro-lifers believe taking an innocent human life is wrong; capital punishment is meant to fall outside this realm. At least in theory, all those on death row have committed heinous crimes. In contrast, the fetus cannot be said to be guilty of anything, seeing as a fetus never has the opportunity to make a decision.

Over the past several decades in the US, abortion has taken tens of millions of defenseless and innocent human lives. Capital punishment has taken less than 2000 previously defended and presumably guilty human lives. People weighing diverging factors will often come to diverging conclusions. I see no hypocrisy in this.

Exciting announcement!

2012-01-26T15:19:00.000-05:00

Coming off an incredibly successful weekend in San Francisco, CA and Washington, D.C., we are excited to announce that Secular Pro-Life will be sharing the pro-life, pro-woman, and pro-science message at the American Atheists convention on March 25-26!

American Atheists has no official position on abortion, but supports the idea that "human beings are capable of creating a social system based on reason and justice." It is our mission to show how pro-life values and policy fit into that system.

As the number of atheists increases, outreach to atheists absolutely vital if the pro-life movement is to make abortion unthinkable. Currently, less than one fifth of atheists openly identify as pro-life. Among religiously unaffiliated women facing unplanned pregnancies, half have abortions. Secular Pro-Life is the only pro-life organization with the credibility and resources to address this problem.

We have calculated that we can organize an effective outreach at the American Atheists convention for under $900! This includes the booth sponsorship fee, first trimester fetal models, a new banner, and literature on maternal mortality and abortion.

Please use button below to make a contribution toward this important work. Your donation will be earmarked for the American Atheists convention, and used for no other purpose. Thank you!

Quick News Update 1/25/12

2012-01-25T22:23:00.006-05:00

Illinois - Abortion rate reached a 37 year low in Illinois in 2010. 41,859 abortions were reported in 2010; 32,760 were performed in 1973. This is also 9% lower than 2009 numbers. The reason? Differing groups in Illinois are unsure, but the bottom line - fewer abortions is a step in the right direction.

Virginia - While the Virginian legislature discusses the issue, it appears that 54% of Virginians support requiring an ultrasound to be viewed before performing an abortion. Women are more supportive than men of the measure (57% to 50%). State Senator Jill Vogel (R) is leading the charge to get this legislation passed in Virginia.

Washington, DC - Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ) has proposed legislation to prohibit abortions in DC after 20 weeks. Franks cites the study showing that a fetus can feel pain after 20 weeks into the pregnancy. National Right to Life Committee plans to make this a top legislative priority in the coming year.

Secular Pro-Life on National Public Radio

2012-01-24T14:59:00.000-05:00

We had a very busy weekend! Hundreds of campus pro-life advocates visited our table at the Students for Life of America conference, obtaining solid information and adding their names to our email list. Many also added their names to our pledge: "I pledge to treat every pro-lifer as an ally, even if their religious or political beliefs differ from my own." You can see photos of our D.C. activities on the facebook page.

Yours truly (SPL president Kelsey Hazzard) also got to be on National Public Radio's "Tell Me More." It was a great success. Secular Pro-Life was mentioned by name numerous times, and we are already receiving emails from pro-life listeners who learned how to better articulate their position on secular grounds! Listen for free here.

I was a bit concerned going in. SPL member Sean C. pointed out that the program featured pro-life activist Ryan Bomberger (of the Too Many Aborted campaign) back in July, and he complained that some of his strongest comments were edited out. In my case, the broadcast was edited for time, but I did not find the cuts to be unfair or biased. Without further ado, here is the transcript, with some editorial comments of my own in [bold brackets].

MARTIN: I'm Michel Martin, and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News.

Coming up, if you've ever cared for an elderly parent or needed care yourself, you know it can be an overwhelming and exhausting experience. Our next guest has some wisdom to share that we hope will be helpful. We'll speak with Jane Gross. She's the author of "A Bittersweet Season: Caring For Our Aging Parents and Ourselves." That's a little later in the program.

But first, we wanted to spend some time talking to women about an issue that still fires some of the most intense political disagreements of our time. That issue is abortion.

Despite dreary skies, demonstrators are in the nation's capital today for the March for Life, the annual event marking the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. That's the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.

The debate over abortion rights is still raging in state legislatures. A new report by the abortion rights group, NARAL Pro-Choice America, says that in 2011, some 69 new laws were passed around the country that made it more difficult for a woman to get an abortion. That's just one short of the record for new restrictions that was set in 1999.

To mark this anniversary, we thought it would be a good idea to hear from those who are most likely to be affected by the legal status of abortion. That is to say young women. Fifty-one percent of women who have abortions each year are 24 years old or younger, according to the latest data available from the Guttmacher Institute. That's a research group that focuses on reproductive and sexual health issues.

We have with us today three young women who were born well after Roe v. Wade was decided, but whose lives continued to be touched by that decision. Joining us now, Kelsey Hazzard. She is a law student at the University of Virginia. She founded a group called Secular Pro-Life, a group that opposes abortion rights.

Mara Hollander is a senior at Georgetown University here in Washington, D.C. She supports abortion rights. And Lauren McEwen is a senior at Howard University, which is also in Washington, D.C. She's the life and style editor for that campus' newspaper, The Hilltop. Welcome to you all. Thank you all so much for joining us.

KELSEY HAZZARD: Thank you.

LAUREN MCEWEN: Thank you.

MARA HOLLANDER: Thank you.

MARTIN: And I'm going to start with you, Kelsey, because you are active in this issue.

HAZZARD: I certainly am.

MARTIN: And I wanted to ask how you got interested in the issue and how you arrived at the position that you have now. Did you grow up with it?

HAZZARD: You know, I really didn't grow up with it. My parents certainly inculcated me with certain values about treating other people the way that you want to be treated and caring for weaker members of society. But they really didn't talk to me specifically about abortion and they weren't, you know, activists in any way.

[Here, I talked about becoming involved in the pro-life movement in college, with the help of Students for Life of America. SFLA arranged my appearance on the program, so I was eager to get a plug in. Unfortunately, that got cut.]

For me, it really has to do with the science and human rights-based arguments against abortion. You know, if someone is a human being - and science tells us that the unborn are - I'm just very, very uncomfortable with making these political distinctions that a certain age group or ethnicity group or whatever group - however you're going to define it - that a certain group isn't going to have a right so basic as the right to life.

MARTIN: Mara, what about you? You support abortion rights for women. How did you arrive at your point of view?

HOLLANDER: I do support abortion rights. I think abortion rights are important for women. I grew up surrounded by a lot of strong women who taught me that women should be able to make their own decisions and have a certain level of bodily autonomy that is the ultimate level of bodily autonomy to decide what happens to them in their existence.

And as I grew older, this became more and more important to me. I think, while I respect Kelsey referring to the science, I do think the science is not as clear as some people will suggest. I think, when people talk about life beginning at conception, I do not believe that. And because I do not believe that life begins at conception, because I don't think the science demonstrates that life begins at conception, women should be able to make their own decisions...

[After we left the studio, Hollander and I went out to lunch (McEwen couldn't go), and I asked her when she thinks human life begins. Her answer was "At birth."]

MARTIN: Did your parents - I asked Kelsey this question, too. Did you grow up with your parents talking to you about this?

HOLLANDER: My parents did talk to me about it. I think when I was younger it was harder for me to understand. I think that abortion is a bit of a complicated issue, so just being told by my parents was helpful, but it wasn't enough for me to understand. I really had to come into the beliefs on my own, I think.

MARTIN: Interesting. OK. And, Lauren, you know, we're glad you're here because a recent survey from the Pew Research Center found that most Americans - actually, 60 percent - fall somewhere in the middle when they're asked whether they think that abortion should be legal or illegal. And also, as an African-American, African-Americans tend to have an interesting perspective on this. They tend to believe for themselves, personally, that abortion is not the right choice, but they don't tend to think they can make that choice for other people. And I understand that that's kind of where you are.

MCEWEN: That's exactly where I am. My mother always raised me not to believe that abortion was really an option for myself, mostly because she never wanted me to feel that kind of guilt and she just was afraid of - girls, like, making that kind of decision and then regretting it later.

MARTIN: Do you have an opinion that you claim as your own about this?

MCEWEN: Definitely. I just think it's very easy to be either/or when you're not in the situation. Luckily, I haven't had to face that kind of decision - and knock on wood. Just God forbid. But I don't know what I would do.

[McEwen made a comment along the lines of "I bet you one unplanned pregnancy that you're secretly pro-choice." It got cut, which makes my subsequent disagreement seem a little out of the blue.]

HAZZARD: I understand. I would like to...

MARTIN: Kelsey?

HAZZARD: Sorry. This is Kelsey. I'd like to just politely disagree with Lauren a little bit. And I know that every person is different. But among my pro-life friends and activists who I know, a lot of them have become even stronger in their views or come to the pro-life position as a result of personally experiencing pregnancy.

MARTIN: You have had friends who've had what we would call unplanned or...

HAZZARD: Yeah.

MARTIN: ...what some people call crisis pregnancies?

HAZZARD: Oh, yes.

MARTIN: And did they all choose to keep the...

HAZZARD: Not all. No. Some - you know, I do know people who've had abortions and that doesn't prevent me from being friends with them. I know a lot of pro-life people who have had abortions and they were pro-choice. They had an abortion and then, through that experience, wound up, you know, getting to a point where they said, I don't want any other woman to have to go through what I've been through.

MARTIN: If you're just joining us, you're listening to TELL ME MORE from NPR News.

It's been 39 years since the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion, to some extent, in this country. I'm joined by three young women with different perspectives on abortion rights. They were all born after the decision - well after the decision - but they're living with it now.

Lauren McEwen is the student editor of the Howard University newspaper. Mara Hollander is a student at Georgetown University and is an abortion rights supporter. And Kelsey Hazzard is a law student at the University of Virginia and founder of a group called Secular Pro-Life.

You know, one of the interesting things about Mara and Kelsey that both of you are activists and have strong points of view on this issue. So, you each said you started with a position and then you studied more that reinforced the position you already had.

[I had mentioned earlier, in a bit that got cut, taking a course in prenatal development offered by the University of Miami.]

HAZZARD: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: And I'm curious about. Mara, if that tells us something about why we continue to fight over this.

HOLLANDER: Yeah. I mean, I think people become very ingrained in their positions on these issues. Obviously, it's a very complicated issue. If you do believe that life begins at conception, I do see where Kelsey is coming from. If you do believe that life begins at conception, it would be very difficult to sit across the table from me while I'm saying that abortion is OK.

That said, because I don't believe that life begins at conception, most of the arguments that I see support your point of view. And I think that is at the very heart of the abortion debate.

MARTIN: Let me ask you this, though. Kelsey says that she has met people - she's known people who have had abortions and she can still be friends with them. What about you? Can you still be friends with somebody who has a very strong position against or who feels that women should not have the right to choose abortion?

HOLLANDER: I definitely am. One of the great things about being at Georgetown is that I'm surrounded by people with all sorts of political views. It is a Catholic, a Jesuit university where the...

MARTIN: Position is...

HOLLANDER: The position is one of a pro-life position. There are a lot of pro-life conferences on campus. And I do have friends who are very strongly pro-life and who will be attending the march and some of the rallies this week. I'm still friends with them. I don't think I would go to them were I in a situation where I felt I needed to make a choice and that's unfortunate to me.

MARTIN: Kelsey, can I ask you a question? Because this is something that came up when, you know, Sarah Palin was running for - was on the ticket to be vice president of the United States. And she - Mrs. Palin, Sarah Palin, as a public position, strongly opposes Roe v. Wade and does believe it should be repealed.

HAZZARD: Oh, yes.

[I was confused by this next question. Martin first asked if I thought the actions of Sarah and Bristol Palin were hypocritical because they chose to keep their babies in tough circumstances. My first answer was to say, well, the Palins can't control the fact that we have Roe v. Wade, so we can't fault them for "exercising choice" in carrying their kids to term. She then rephrased the question, but I still didn't completely understand what she was trying to get at.]

MARTIN: And the argument that her critics have made of her is that she - this is - your conviction about this arises from the fact that you have a choice. Does that make sense?

HAZZARD: To me, it really doesn't because, I mean, she did give birth to that child and Bristol did give birth to that child because they were not going to deny the right to life of their children, even if the law of the land is that other children may not have those rights. They were going to say, well, this is my public position and I'm going to live my private life, you know, consistently. Well, I think that's not hypocritical at all.

MARTIN: I think the argument that some people make - that critics make is that what's wrong with the position that Lauren has enumerated, which is that, if that's your personal conviction, that's fine for you. But why do you feel you have the right to deny others the right to make a decision that's best for them? I think that's the argument.

HAZZARD: What I would say to that is simply that, if you look at abortion as a violation of the rights of the fetus, then it's not enough to just say, well, you know, it's up to you. It's your choice. Because there's another individual in the mix here who doesn't have a voice in the decision. And because of that, the legal system has to step in to protect those individuals even if their parents, you know, do not want to step up and take that position.

MARTIN: Lauren, you wanted to add something.

MCEWEN: I do. I just struggle with that because of the fact that, nine times out of 10, when most young women especially are thinking of aborting a baby, they're thinking about this because they are afraid that they can't provide for that child because of their status in life.

HAZZARD: That's absolutely true. I do understand that. And I think that the pro-life movement is making strides toward, you know, creating more resources, but that a lot of work needs to be done.

MCEWEN: I just struggle with that because...

MARTIN: Go ahead, Lauren.

MCEWEN: I'm sorry. I struggle with that because the majority of the people who I've spoke to who have usually been pro-life also don't support things like WIC and welfare for these mothers. So, the only time the baby is actually important to them is when it's in the woman's womb.

And I struggle with that. As with a lot of people I've met. You might not feel that way, personally, but I just struggle with that idea because most of the time, these are just girls who feel like they don't have any other option other than to either put their baby in foster care once they have it or to get rid of it while it's in the womb. And it's just so many girls who have done it before regret it. But they don't regret it because it hurts them to think about it again. But they don't regret it thinking that, my child wouldn't be able to make it on what I make.

HOLLANDER: I think another important - this is Mara. I think another important factor to consider here is what is happening to the woman while she is pregnant. There is precedent that says that human beings cannot be forced to forego their bodily autonomy for other - pretty much anything. You can't be forced to consent to a medical procedure if you are declared competent. You cannot be forced to donate an organ to another person, to give up a kidney, to donate blood.

And one of the biggest issues that strikes me here is that we are - if it's even just for nine months, even if you do have an option for foster care at the end of that, even if there are resources for women at the end, which I do think need to be there, you're still removing women of their bodily autonomy and their ability to make decisions for those nine months.

[I was itching to respond to this but, unfortunately, we ran out of time.]

MARTIN: What about those who would argue that, except in the cases of rape and incest, that the woman made the choice to have sex and, therefore, the consequences of that, she should be responsible for?

HOLLANDER: I think that sexual development is different for a lot of different people. I think that some people can be healthy sexually while remaining abstinent and that's great for those people. I think we also need to consider people who approach their sexual development differently. Some who use contraceptives incorrectly because they don't know how, they weren't taught. People who don't know how to use contraceptives at all and, therefore, don't use them. I think it's more complex than just the rape and incest issue.

MARTIN: OK. Kelsey, what about - would you respond to Lauren's point, which is that her perception is that a lot of the people she sees as being pro-life only care about the fetus as long as it's in the mother's womb, but don't care about the child after that and don't seem to show any regard for the child's quality of life afterwards.

HAZZARD: Right. I think that problem really arises from this political alliance that is somewhat strained, the political alliance between the pro-lifers and these fiscal conservatives. And that's done so that we can elect pro-life people to office. But pro-life pregnancy centers rely greatly on WIC. You know, pro-life pregnancy centers are connecting women in crisis to government programs. They rely on those things.

So the pro-life movement - there is this tension in trying to get our representatives, especially the ones who are more fiscally conservative, to say, hey, you know, I realize that the budget is a mess, but these are vital programs. And, you know, please don't eliminate them.

MARTIN: We only have a couple of minutes left. And so, before we let you go, this has been an interesting discussion. Obviously, we're not going to resolve this issue here that has bedeviled this country for - what - you know, 40 years and truly even before that.

But I did want to ask each of you for a closing thought and I think I'm interested in this whole question of - if we were to get together - you all are very young. As I said, you're of an age where - and I'm not going to ask each of you what you think you would do if faced with this. I mean, Lauren, you talked about that a little bit because - a little personal. But I do wonder whether when you are no longer of the age when this is a pressing issue, when you're - you know, as we mentioned, a majority of the people who have abortions in this country are younger than 24.

HAZZARD: Right.

MARTIN: Five years from now, if we get together - 10 years from now, if we were to get together, where do you think we'll be?

HAZZARD: That's a really interesting question. I do think that it's a more pressing issue for young people. We see a lot of young people at the March for Life. It's become a very youth-oriented issue. But I certainly think that I'll still be involved in the pro-life movement and working on those issues in 10 years, 15 years.

MARTIN: You think there'll still be issues to work on?

HAZZARD: Oh, absolutely.

MARTIN: You think the issue will still be with us?

HAZZARD: Even if Roe v. Wade is overturned, then it just goes to the states. Even if abortion is outlawed entirely, then we still have to be working on resources for women and educating people about how to have a healthy pregnancy. There is always going to be pro-life work to be done.

MARTIN: Mara, what about you?

HOLLANDER: Well, I hope that this remains an issue in 10 or 15 years because I can't imagine this going in the direction I would like it to by then. [Best quote of the whole show.] So, I hope that we're still discussing it. And I think that one area that it seems that all three of us have been able to agree on is that we'd like to see more resources for women throughout their pregnancies and as well as after.

And I think that, at least my personal opinion would be that it would be beneficial to work with pro-life advocates on an issue which most of us can agree, which is stopping pregnancy before it happens. And one of the - and some of the ways that we can do that include contraceptives, birth control and, for some people, abstinence if that is a decision that works for them.

Ultimately, though, I think that women do need to be able to have the choice. And I think that this probably will eventually go back to the states. And I hope that each state is going to make decisions that recognize where its women are and what kind of resources they have available to them.

MARTIN: Lauren, what about you?

MCEWEN: I still think I'll feel the same way. I still think that I'll feel that I don't agree with it for myself, but for other people - my friends who have come up to me and said, I'm thinking of doing this, I can't tell them, no. I can't tell them that's not their right. And I still hope that we'll still have this option because I'm afraid that if we don't, women will turn to back alley people who will do things for them and will turn to alternatives that could leave them in more danger than actually having an abortion at Planned Parenthood or some welcome and friendly resource for them. [Again, I really wish there was time for me to respond to this.]

MARTIN: Do you think this issue will still be here 10 years from now?

MCEWEN: I definitely do.

MARTIN: Because?

MCEWEN: Just because people are always going to have unplanned pregnancies and people are always going to have situations where they might want to have an abortion. It's never - that want and that need isn't going to go away, but our argument about it will still be here, regardless of what happens.

MARTIN: Lauren McEwen is a senior at Howard University. Mara Hollander is a senior at Georgetown University. Kelsey Hazzard is a law student at the University of Virginia and she founded a group called Secular Pro-Life. She's actually here in Washington, D.C. today to attend the annual March for Life and they were all here with us in our Washington, D.C. studio. Ladies, thank you all so much for joining us.

HAZZARD: Thank you so much for having us.

MCEWEN: Thank you.

Walk for Life West Coast

2012-01-23T18:50:00.000-05:00

Over 50,000 people came together Saturday January 21 to attend the Walk for Life West Coast! Young, old, and of different backgrounds were together to walk in solidarity for the lives lost and affected by 39 years of legalized abortion since the Supreme Court decision of Roe v Wade.

The pictures say it all:

Hundreds of young people came together earlier in the morning

Young people jump for joy on their way to Civic Center

Over an hour before the rally even started

Film crews interview attendees

Love these shirts

Occupy sign had to be in there

Another great sign

Dear Mommy

Just before the end of the walk

Groups filter in at the end of the walk with their awesome signs

For theDignity of the Born and Unborn,

Timmerie

www.Timmerie.com

Stay intouch on Facebook

Walk for Life West Coast 2012

2012-01-23T18:39:00.004-05:00

Last Saturday (January 21^st) was the Walk for Life West Coast in downtown San Francisco. Secular Pro Life representatives Neil and Ellen Snyder attended, carrying the SPL banner with the slogan: “Call me an extremist, but I think dismemberment is wrong.” (This is my personal favorite slogan. If you like it too, you can get the bumper sticker at the SPL Zazzle Store.)

After the Walk, Neil and Ellen shared some of their impressions (and photos) with me.

The Walk began at City Hall. Neil and Ellen arranged the SPL banner in front of the Asian Art Museum while listening to some of the speakers.

Neil noted the speakers talked a great deal about faith and how abortion is against God’s rule. Ellen found the speeches emphasized sin. It’s completely understandable that a large gathering of people with common beliefs will view abortion through the perspective of their faith. However each year I can’t help but wonder how many potential pro-lifers feel too alienated by a religious-specific perspective to join us.

This is not to say the religious marchers are unwelcoming. On the contrary, during the 2011 Walk I received many compliments and support regarding our SPL signs. During this year's Walk several young Catholic marchers helped Neil and Ellen carry the considerably large SPL banner. With their assistance, our representatives were able to hold the banner high while discussing the secular perspective on abortion with fellow protesters.

The banner could be seen quite well from a distance. :)

The Walk was as large as ever, numbering in the tens of thousands.

Of course there was plenty of religious expression:

(Prayer circle.)

And plenty of reaction to religious expression:

("Not the Church. Not the State. Women decide our fate!")

With this ongoing religious/anti-religious conversation, I’m all the more grateful that we were once again able to have an SPL presence at the Walk. Many thanks to Ellen for getting the photos, and to Neil for getting, as he put it, "quite a workout" as he steadfastly carried the banner for the duration. :)

(Photo courtesy of HappyCatholic.org)

(Neil fighting the good fight.)

Update

2012-01-23T07:55:00.000-05:00

The Students for Life of America conference yesterday was a great success! The internet access here leaves a lot to be desired, so details (and pictures!) will have to wait. Thank you for your support!

The meaning of choice

2012-01-22T10:46:00.001-05:00

Today is the second annual "Ask Them What They Mean by 'Choice' Day," a pro-life response to the "Blog for Choice" abortion effort.

As I write, I'm promoting Secular Pro-Life to campus activists at the Students for Life of America conference, so I've been thinking about what "choice" means to this age group. (I myself am 23 years old-- plus 9!) Arguably, American teens and college students have more choices than any generation at any time and place in history. We choose where to go to school, what to study, whether and who to marry, and what type of career to pursue. We need to remember how incredibly fortunate we are to have these choices.

We are also incredibly fortunate for another reason: we are alive. We are not forgotten, rotted away in landfills or burned in incinerators. We made it out of the womb and took our first breaths.

One third of our generation was not so lucky. That is the dark side of "choice."

The power of choice must be exercised responsibly. Some choices are good, and some neutral, but the "choice" that abortion proponents speak of is harmful. As the old saying goes: "It's easy to be pro-choice when you're not the one being killed."

Appearance on NPR's "Tell Me More"

2012-01-20T10:32:00.001-05:00

Kelsey Hazzard, who is a Students for Life of America Wilberforce Fellow and the founder and president of Secular Pro-Life, will represent pro-life youth in an upcoming broadcast of NPR's "Tell Me More." The episode will air on Monday, January 23 at 2:00 p.m. EST. If your affiliate does not carry "Tell Me More," fret not! A recording will be available online after the broadcast. Learn more here.

See you soon

2012-01-16T15:31:00.002-05:00

The blog will be on hiatus for the next few days, due to travel and preparation for Roe memorial activities.

March with Secular Pro-Life

2012-01-15T12:17:00.000-05:00

We invite you to join us for the March for Life in Washington, D.C. and the Walk for Life in San Francisco, CA. You can get all the details in our January e-newsletter. Hope to see you there!

Amnesty International doesn't get it

2012-01-14T12:38:00.000-05:00

"Justice is never advanced in the taking of human life." --Coretta Scott King

Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Dr. King is widely regarded as one of the world's great human rights leaders.

Today and every day, [we] stand together to defend the full body of human rights that Dr. King so bravely and eloquently espoused.

. . .

"Morality is never upheld by legalized murder," [Coretta Scott King] said.

More killing is not the answer.

Dr. King described violence as, "a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Returning violence for violence multiples violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars."

The above quote, eloquently invoking the King legacy in defense of human life, is excerpted from an e-mail that arrived in my inbox on Thursday. The sender? Amnesty International, seeking my support for their campaign to abolish the death penalty.

This is the same Amnesty International that defends the taking of preborn human lives by abortion. They say that pro-life efforts to extend human rights to the weakest members of our society are "misguided" attacks on the "right to health."

Sorry, Amnesty International, but you just don't get it. Justice is never advanced in the taking of human life.

39 Years of Roe v Wade

2012-01-13T17:38:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe that January 22nd marks the 39th anniversary of a supreme court decision that changed our country forever. This decision made it a private right to legally kill your unborn child in the womb through all nine months of a woman's pregnancy. Roe v Wade = 55,000,000 children dead today. 55,000,000 who never took their first breath and whose children we will never meet. That number does not even include chemical abortions which are extremely common; nor does it include the many abortions that aren't required to be reported in various states.

In nine days our country will mourn the loss of these children. We will walk in solidarity for the lives that are missing. Many will never know an aunt, uncle, brother, sister, cousin, or perhaps best friend. What are you going to do to mourn the loss and tell the world this is enough and you are pro-life?

Walk for Life -- San Francisco, CA

The 8th Walk for Life will be on January 21, 2012

*50,000 participated in 2011

March for Life -- Washington D.C.

The 39th March for Life will be on January 23, 2012
*200,000 participated in 2011

Who will stand up and say no if we don't?

Are you scared to say you're pro-life? They're not. Why not join them? Visit the links above for event details.

For theDignity of the Born and Unborn,

Timmerie

www.Timmerie.com

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Too weird to be true?

2012-01-12T21:20:00.000-05:00

Karen Santorum with her husband,
GOP presidential candidate Rick.

Various articles in the pro-abortion blogosphere are repeating a bizarre tidbit about GOP candidate Rick Santorum's wife, Karen. They claim that in the 1970s, before she met future husband Rick, Karen dated an abortionist named Tom Allen. Not only that, Allen was 40 years her senior and had actually delivered her, before he got into the business of killing unborn babies instead. Their conclusion: Karen Santorum is a big, fat hypocrite for switching to the pro-life side.

Everything traces back to a single source: a 2005 article in the Philadelphia Citypaper. No offense to the Citypaper, but it isn't exactly the New York Times; for one thing, the article in question begins "Rick Santorum is taking a piss." This whole story strikes me as too sensationalist to be 100% legitimate.

But if it is, what should be the pro-life response?

We know that it's possible for pro-abortion people to turn around. If abortionists (like Bernard Nathanson and Anthony Levatino) and abortion workers (like Abby Johnson and Jewels Green) can come over to the side of life, then certainly having dated an abortionist is not disqualifying.

On the other hand, Nathanson, Levatino, Johnson, and Green had very open conversions. They all told the world, very publicly, how they came to realize that they could no longer support the killing of unborn children. Karen Santorum is openly pro-life today. But to the best of my knowledge, she has not addressed the allegation that she used to support abortion, nor, if she is a convert, what caused her to change her mind. (Her story seems to be that she was always pro-life because she was raised Catholic.)

I'm sure that the Santorums are furious with the pro-abortion movement for their recent exploitation of the death of their son Gabriel. They have every right to be angry, and I completely understand why they might feel like the best response is to not engage at all. But these rumors are not going to go away. Karen Santorum is the only person who can shed light on the story. I hope she will speak up soon.

Gay Rights > Preborn Rights?

2012-01-11T12:50:00.002-05:00

[Today's post is by Kristan Hawkins, the Executive Director of Students for Life of America. It was originally posted on LifeNews and on the SFLA blog.]

Like many of you, I made time to catch the most recent GOP debate this past Saturday night hosted by ABC and Yahoo. I winced through the usual back-and-forth between candidates and, at times, their evasive answers to controversial and defining questions. Per usual, abortion, gay rights, and health care were all hot topics.

After noticing the candidates’ responses to questions tailored toward gay rights and, more specifically, how ABC’s hosts were tailoring those questions, I couldn’t help to think of abortion.

Why is that the ABC debate hosts humanized and made you sympathize for gays who are treated unfairly – and rightly so – yet they wouldn’t even utter the words “unborn”, “child”, or even “fetus”? It seemed that the questions surrounding abortion heard in the debate were crafted from an aloof, constitutional rights perspective, but the issues of gay marriage came up from a connecting, human rights perspective.

I posed this very question on my Facebook status Saturday night.

One user promptly commented that maybe if pro-lifers acknowledged the humanity of homosexuals, homosexuals would begin to acknowledge the humanity of the preborn.

Should pro-lifers acknowledge the humanity of homosexuals? Absolutely. And we do. Should we also recognize the humanity of heterosexuals? Of course.

But the abortion debate isn’t about whether or not pre-born babies who are victims of abortion are gay or straight. Any attack on the humanity of anyone – born or pre-born, gay or straight – goes against the fundamentals of the pro-life movement. And anyway, this user’s comment assumes that most supporters of abortion are gay, and this simply isn’t true.

In our society, it has gotten far too easy to brush abortion under the carpet as just another option within the culture of convenience. We are right to condemn the dehumanization of homosexuals – or heterosexuals – in any context.

This isn’t a gay marriage debate; this is a recognition of the basic right to Life for all people.

Stealing is wrong, arson is wrong, embezzlement is wrong, and murder is wrong. But our moral compasses are rendered useless with the pressure to remain “politically correct.”

Abortion has been pegged as a “necessary evil”, something a woman “would never freely choose to do unless she had to”. Something that makes her life easier. But using a derogatory term to refer to a homosexual is downright chastisable. And we are right to chastise those who use these words to dehumanize anyone.

But how has the murder of pre-born children become an easier pill to swallow than ill-suited word choice? Both are wrong, but one is far, far worse.

Support for Abortion: Republican Versus Democrat

2012-01-09T10:28:00.000-05:00

This post was sent to me by guest blogger Sarah T. - M

When thinking about the abortion issue, most people assume that the respective stances of the two major political parties in the United States are rigidly defined and set in stone. Republicans are pro-life. Democrats are pro-choice. That is all. In reality, however, things are not that clear. While the pro-life position is the official stance of the Republican Party and the pro-choice position is the official stance of the Democratic Party, the opinions of the rank-and-file of Republicans and Democrats do not always line up neatly with their parties' platforms.

Here are the statistics:

If the life/health of the woman is in jeopardy abortion is approved by 90% of Democrats and 90% of Republicans
If the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest abortion is approved of by 82% of Democrats and 82% of Republicans
If the woman has low income and cannot afford more children abortion is approved by 48% of Democrats and 41% of Republicans
If a woman is not married abortion is approved of by 44% of Democrats and 43% of Republicans
Abortion for any reason is approved of by 40% of Democrats and 36% of Republicans

So as we see here, there is not a huge difference between the way Republicans and Democrats view abortion. Large majorities support keeping abortion legal in cases where the woman's life or health is in danger or when she has been raped. However, there are only four percentage points between Democrats and Republicans who approve of abortion for any reason. If a woman is not married, the difference between Republicans' and Democrats' opinions is only 1%. This flies in the face of popular belief that Democrats are always pro-choice and Republicans are always pro-life. There are more pro-life Democrats than most people believe. The Democratic Party does not have a dead lock on the pro-choice position.

Pro-life Democrats need to speak out and reclaim our party. 60% of Democrats oppose abortion in at least some circumstances. Currently, in the United States, abortion is legal at any time in pregnancy for any reason. The Supreme Court cases Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton have seen to that. 60% of Democrats feel that this is wrong. This is a majority. The extremist position taken by many Democratic candidates, who say that there should be no restrictions at all on abortion at any time, is not in step with what the people of the party actually believe. Planned Parenthood and NARAL do not speak for the majority of Democrats.

Source: James A. Davis, Tom W. Smith, and Peter V. Marsden "General Social Surveys, 1972- 2004 (Chicago: National Opinion Research Center, 2008)

A New Understanding of Bodily Integrity

2012-01-08T15:17:00.001-05:00

This post was sent to me by guest blogger Julie W. - M

It could be said the core belief of pro-lifers is that every human life is significant. From this belief, we deduce that the right to life supersedes any discomforts, inconveniences, and difficulties (save a threat to her own life) a woman experiences during pregnancy. However, pro-lifers - particularly those that have never been pregnant - should be careful not to belittle what a woman experiences and endures while gestating a fetus. This was my own mistake: I had held the view that pregnancy is only nine months long and is that so much of a sacrifice for a human life to be spared?

And then I myself became pregnant, unexpectedly. I had always pictured having children after my husband and I had finished our academic careers, maybe done some world traveling, and had settled down with a stronger source of income. At the very least, I had promised myself I would finish my bachelor’s degree before having children. And here I was, two semesters away from graduating, with a positive pregnancy test in hand. The very next day I met with my school counselor and absorbed the harsh reality that I couldn’t possibly have a baby and complete two 16 credit semesters while my husband worked 40+ hour weeks. I left the counselor’s office, went home, and promptly burst into tears as I relayed this new information to my husband. Why did this have to happen now, when I was so close to finishing? How could I possibly complete my program while trying to care for an infant? How would we afford the medical expenses? What about everything else we had planned for our lives before having children? My husband, ever-the-awesome, calmed me down from hysterics and reassured me that although this was drastically different from what we had planned, we would get through it and everything would be ok.

As the weeks went by, I was still trying to cope, but things just worsened as I began to experience the effects of pregnancy. The baby inside me changed everything: smells and tastes, what I could and couldn’t eat, how often and what kind of exercise I could perform. My energy level plummeted and in addition to sleeping 9-10 hours a night, I took 2 hour naps each day, making my days seem an endless cycle of class, studying, sleep, repeat. My emotions would also fluctuate arbitrarily and I would start crying for no particular reason at all (which, in case you have never experienced it, is immensely frustrating – can you imagine having just a regular day and all the sudden you start crying and can’t stop?) I was often nauseated for long periods of time before I threw up, regardless of whether or not there was anything in my stomach.

On top of all of this, there were a select few people who knew I was pregnant and seemed bent on always showing their jubilance – “That’s wonderful! Aren’t you SO excited?!?” I struggled not to feel angry and bitter. I did not want to admit it, not even to myself, but at times I resented what was inside me, feeling more like it was a parasitic blob of cells rather than a beautiful baby. There were a small handful of dark moments when I secretly hoped I would miscarry – my life would be easier if this all just went away. I felt ashamed of these thoughts and horrified at myself for thinking them. I had always been strongly pro-life, how could I be so selfish as to imagine these things? Ironically, the people I felt safest talking to about all this were my two very pro-choice friends. Knowing how I felt about abortion, they did not at any point even mention the prospect of having one, but they were sympathetic to the fact that I did not want this baby. I was afraid of what anyone else would think, should I reveal my feelings toward them.

As time passed, my feelings changed with the small milestones of my pregnancy. The first time I really felt unconflicted joy was at my 10 week obgyn appointment when we got to see our baby on the ultrasound – such a tiny little being, but with a heart beating away! With every new week, I would read about how the baby was slowly developing. The ill-effects of pregnancy lessened and my excitement slowly started to build. Not long ago, we finally found out the gender – my baby is a girl and her name is Zoey. Now I am counting down the days until we get to meet her and I could hardly care less about putting off my graduation.

In hindsight, I am not ashamed of the feelings I had early on in my pregnancy. However, they serve as a staunch reminder to me that it may not be possible to help how you feel; what really matters is what you do with those feelings. Even when I felt most angry, bitter, and frustrated, I knew that none of this was the baby’s fault and she should not have to suffer for it. But I have also learned to treat the concept of bodily integrity with much greater respect. What a woman goes through during pregnancy, physically and psychologically, should not be belittled. Furthermore, pro-lifers should be cautious not to underestimate the life-changing effects pregnancy can have even after the baby is born. The better we understand and care about the mother’s circumstances, the more effective we will be at saving lives.

Our Countries' Turning Point to Life

2012-01-06T15:42:00.000-05:00

Planned Parenthood’s 2009-2010 fiscal year brought in over $487.4 million in tax dollars and in the same year performed 329,455 abortions.

Over the last year more Planned Parenthood employees have blown the whistle exposing how Planned Parenthood works around the system to fraudulently pay for women’s abortions with medicaid funding.

What can be done?

In 2012 we will see a turning point in our country. Why? Because this year we have the opportunity to bring to office a new president; a president who will stand for the rights of the unborn and who will work to defund Planned Parenthood, not block them from being defunded with illegitimate reasons and bullying. President Obama is the most radically pro-abortion president our country has ever seen, and he must and WILL be stopped because I trust that the citizens of America will not sit by as long as he is in office tearing down laws and creating news ones that promote a culture which completely disregards the most innocent and helpless people in society -- the unborn children in the womb.

We need a president who will stand firmly and boldly in his convictions to promote the sanctity of human life. Who our future president will be, I don’t know. However, we must be educated and must support a man with character. Character that will outlast the presidency.

Not only must he have character but he must be confident. I encourage you to start following a candidate who will do this. I’m not telling you to pick Rick Santorum (although I do like him), but do choose a candidate whose character reflects Santorum’s perfect example of confidence on the issue of life as seen expressed by presidential GOP contender, Rick Santorum, "I don't believe life begins at conception. I know life begins at conception."

For theDignity of the Born and Unborn,

Timmerie

www.Timmerie.com

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Special delivery

2012-01-06T11:29:00.001-05:00

Look what came in the mail:

Hey abortion advocates: pick on somebody your own size!

We ordered 1000 of these stickers to give away at the Students for Life of America conference. Stop by our table for this and other goodies!

Not going to the conference? You can still get a sticker of your very own on Zazzle ($5.50 for a sheet of four).

Hillary Clinton: What's she's done right, and wrong, for women

2012-01-04T11:47:00.002-05:00

In response to a recent Gallup poll finding that Hillary Clinton is the most admired woman in the United States, the Oregonian has a commentary about some of the strong stances that Clinton has taken on behalf of women in her role as Secretary of State:

Late last month, at Georgetown University, in language not particularly diplomatic for a secretary of state, Clinton warned: "Recent events in Egypt have been particularly shocking.... This systematic degradation of Egyptian women dishonors the revolution, disgraces the state and its uniform, and is not worthy of a great people."

After her speech, asked a question about different cultural standards, she responded: "There are certain actions that are beyond any cultural norm. Beating women is not cultural, it's criminal, and it needs to be addressed and treated as such."

. . .

In September, Clinton told the Women and the Economy Summit in San Francisco, "When it comes to the enormous challenge of our time -- to systematically and relentlessly pursue more economic opportunity in our lands -- we don't have a person to waste, and we certainly don't have a gender to waste."

American foreign policy often consists of complicated choices, picking and choosing, with more hope than certainty, among various foreign politicians, selecting from a wide range of potentially disastrous policy choices. But there's something at once simple and defensible about taking a stance that it's wrong for a people to savage its women, that no country has a gender to waste.

These foreign policy positions are pro-woman, pro-life, and laudable. Unfortunately, Clinton's legacy is sullied by her consistent abortion advocacy, which not only destroys the human rights of unborn children but is detrimental to the health of women in developing nations. This mixed record is troubling, but not at all surprising, given Clinton's political allegiance to the abortion movement.

Interestingly, there is no mention of abortion whatsoever in the article, despite the fact that Oregon is generally thought of as a pro-choice state. Evidently, the Oregonian recognizes that Clinton's encouragement of the spread of abortion should not be listed among her feminist accomplishments.

Iowa Caucus

2012-01-02T11:11:00.001-05:00

The Iowa GOP caucus begins tomorrow, and the race is very close. Political forecaster Nate Silver, of FiveThirtyEight, gives Romney a 40% chance of winning, Ron Paul a 36% chance, and Rick Santorum a 21% chance. All three are campaigning on pro-life platforms. (Whatever happens in Iowa, Romney is almost certain to win the next primary, in New Hampshire.)

Two distinct questions for our readers:
1) Who do you think will win?
2) Who do you want to win?

Bad Week for the Abortion Industry

2011-12-30T13:02:00.002-05:00

It's been a bad week for the abortion industry, which means a great week for babies!

Two notoriously skeevy abortionists-- Steven Chase Brigham and Nicola Riley-- have been charged with murder. They allegedly killed viable babies while operating an illegal abortion mill in Maryland. Already, their licenses to practice medicine had been revoked, bringing some measure of protection to women and their babies. But criminal charges send an important message to other abortionists: What you are doing is killing, and while we may not be able to criminalize your chosen "profession" directly, you will be held accountable the minute you step over the legal line. You are not above the law!

Another abortionist, Bruce Ferguson of New Mexico, has decided to retire today. Although his departure isn't due to any moral insight, we're still glad to know that he has left his lethal business. The abortion facility he worked in will close.

Last but not least, Planned Parenthood's latest annual report was released this week, and it confirms what pro-life advocates have been consistently pointing out in the de-funding battle: Planned Parenthood is first and foremost an abortion group. Despite its rhetoric, it is far from being a neutral provider of women's health care and pregnancy options.

The new document the abortion organization posted shows Planned Parenthood did 329,445 abortions in 2010 while it provided prenatal care to only 31,098 women and referred only 841 women to adoption agencies.

The number of women receiving prenatal care dropped significantly from 2009 to 2010, as the abortion business helped 40,489 women in 2009 — meaning almost 10,000 fewer women received prenatal support from Planned Parenthood last year than the year prior, or a drop of almost 25 percent.

The number of women getting adoption referrals also declined — from a low 977 in 2009 to 841 last year, or a decline of 14 percent.

Examined another way Planned Parenthood does 391 abortions for every adoption referral it makes and almost 11 abortions for every woman it helps with prenatal care.

Rick Perry: Pro-life in cases of rape

2011-12-29T13:15:00.002-05:00

Rick Perry recently announced that he has become pro-life in cases of rape and incest, a change that he attributes to a conversation with a woman who was conceived in rape:

Perry said his change of heart came after meeting with Rebecca Kiessling, a pro-life attorney who was born after her birthmother was a victim of sexual assault.

“This is something that is relatively new and it goes back to a meeting with Rebecca Kiessling, who was at the The Gift of Life,” Perry said about meeting her at a recent showing of the new movie. “We had a fairly lengthy and heartfelt conversation about how she was conceived in rape. Looking in her eyes, I couldn’t come up with an answer to defend exceptions for rape and incest.”

“Over the course of the last few weeks, the Christmas holiday, reflecting on that – I would suggest that my pro-life position has been rather strong as the Governor of Texas. But she made a statement to me that was really strong and pierced my heart. As I signed that document, I will suggest to you that all I can tell you is God was working on my heart,” he said.

Whether or not you believe that God was at work behind the scenes, this is a fairly typical example of a crucial influence on one's stance on abortion: personal experience. One study that attempted to quantify influences on pro- and anti-abortion opinion found that personal experiences have a major impact, nearly equal to the impact of religion and education. Knowing someone who was a "poster child" for abortion-- someone who was conceived in rape, in incest, in poverty, or with a genetic illness-- is extremely powerful ammunition against the propaganda that death is in the best interest of certain "unwanted" babies. The victims of abortion are usually invisible, incinerated as medical waste; but the survivors remain with us, putting a face to the issue. In a similar vein, numerous commentators have suggested that a survivor mentality ("It could have been me") is at least partially responsible for the stronger pro-life beliefs in Americans under the age of 30; about one third of that generation was killed before birth.

Long before her conversation with Rick Perry, Rebecca Kiessling brought her message to thousands of college students with this secular advertisement for Feminists for Life of America that really brings the point home:

Did I deserve the death penalty? My "crime" was being
conceived through rape. So the next time you hear
people talking about "exceptions" to abortion for
rape and incest, think of me. My name is Rebecca.
I am that exception.

GOP candidates to address pro-life issues tomorrow night

2011-12-26T19:23:00.000-05:00

Via a Students for Life of America email:

We are excited to announce the first ever Presidential Pro-Life Forum, a national tele-town hall and radio simulcast presented by Personhood USA in partnership with Champion The Vote and other national pro-life organizations tomorrow, December 27 at 8:00 - 9:30 pm CST.

All current Presidential candidates have been invited to participate, and as of now, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Santorum are confirmed.

We hope you'll attend this 90-minute town hall conference call to hear the candidates discuss their views on right to lifeissues. On the tele-conference, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions and to give instant feedback to thoughts and ideas shared. The programwill also be heard live on Steve Deace's nationally-syndicated radio show on the Salem Network. Please visit www.ChampionTheVote.com to register!

While it's good to see that life issues are getting attention, I have some concerns about the Presidential Pro-Life Forum. Champion the Vote describes itself as a group of voters who "are passionate about America and God's word" and "long to see our nation return to the timeless truth of a Biblical worldview." Many of the co-sponsoring organizations have similar missions. It appears likely that the Forum will frame the right to life in religious terms, potentially alienating non-Christian voters.

On the plus side, the Forum will provide opportunities for live questions and answers. It is entirely appropriate for pro-life voters to ask the candidates how they would advance science, promote pro-life cooperation, and represent citizens of all faith backgrounds as president. Secular Pro-Life encourages you to ask those questions of Gingrich, Perry, Bachmann, and Santorum tomorrow night. All four are pro-life: but which would best guide us into a pro-life future?

A pro-life holiday message

2011-12-24T09:16:00.000-05:00

This Christmas Eve, I'd like to share a poem with you. It comes from the Unitarian Universalist Church, which is not Christian but celebrates Christmas "to honor the message" of Jesus, which they say reflects "the inherent worth and dignity of every person."

Ironically, the Unitarian Universalist Church is pro-abortion-choice. Nevertheless, a UU friend tells me that this beautifully pro-life poem by Sophia Lyon Fahls is read aloud at his church's services every Christmas.

And so the children come.

And so they have been coming.

Always in the same way they come --

Born of the seed of man and woman.

No angels herald their beginnings,

No prophets predict their future courses,

No wise men see a star to point their way

To find a babe that may save humankind.

Yet each night a child is born is a holy night.

Fathers and Mothers --

Sitting beside their children's cribs --

Feel glory in the wond'rous sight of life beginning.

They ask: "When or how will this new life end?

Or will it ever end?"

Each night a child is born is a holy night.

We wish a very merry Christmas to all who celebrate. And for those who don't, we hope that you have a great day tomorrow anyway!

End-of-semester update

2011-12-23T12:28:00.001-05:00

[Today's blog post is by our friend Phil E., the Northeast Regional Coordinator for Students for Life of America.]

The Fall 2011semester has ended, and what a semester it has been!

Pro-life students at Houghton College connect mothers
in need with life-affirming resources.

The Northeast is a rather hostile area for pro-liferscompared to other parts of the country, but that hasn’t stopped students acrossthe region from boosting their pro-life involvement these past few months. It’s a trend that has been mirrorednationwide, as we’ve tracked more events this semester than any in the past,and the number of pro-life student groups has increased to a whopping 678unique organizations in operation!!

In New York and New Jersey, the number of student groupsqualifying for our highest activity ranking has almost tripled, and I fullyexpect that number to triple again by the end of the next semester!

There have been some fantastic achievements that individualgroups made, and I thought I’d take the time to highlight a few of them.

University of Buffalo Students for Life
have overcome adversity.

Fordham University hosted a pro-life conference in October that drew students from nine schools in the region, and organizers remain determined to quadruple attendance next October!
At Houghton College, almost two hundred studentshave taken part in the L.I.F.E. group’s activities.
Pro-life students atHofstra University and Felician College started their efforts in October, andsince then have performed or hosted almost 40 activities and events between thetwo of them!
University of Buffalo’s Students for Life groupexpanded from a few people to dozens of interested pro-lifers, most of whom are international students! UB SFL receivednational media attention when their pro-life “Cemetery of the Innocents”display was vandalized by not one, not two, but twelve abortion advocates!
Rebecca Purdy and her merry band of activists atThe College of New Jersey faced an uphill battle as Planned Parenthood has aclinic right there on campus. Thishasn’t deterred them, though, and the group (which is just now turning one yearold) had sixteen pro-life actions this semester alone!

I had the pleasure of visiting 22 colleges and universitiesthese past few months, and witnessed the birth of thirteen new pro-life studentgroups at schools across New York and New Jersey – including six high schoolgroups!

I’ve also had the privilege of meeting so many wonderfulpeople that are involved in their local pro-life movement, and want to thankseveral of them for their support this semester: Betty and Neil from Life Education Council; CherylCalire in Buffalo; Nancy Monette and Mary Skillan in Plattsburgh; CelesteBroyles on Long Island; Natalie and Laurie at NYS Right to Life; and ChristineDiNovo and the entire CNY Network for Life team (especially Lisa Hall!) inSyracuse.

Pro-life students at the New Jersey Institute
of Technology bring female pro-life
voices to the largely male campus.

A fitting finale to my semester in the field was spendingMonday afternoon canvassing at New Jersey Institute of Technology with RebeccaMadrigal. She’s a junior at NJIT, andher passion for life has spurred her on to form a new pro-life group there oncampus. I remember telling Rebeccabeforehand that chances are most of the people signing up would be female, butshe reminded me that the campus is mostly male….well, according to Wikipediathe school’s male to female ratio is 4:1, but 4/5ths of the students thatsigned up were women!

This was a rough semester for everyone in the Students forLife family, after a violentcar crash took the lives of Jon, Kortney, and her baby Sophy. But it’s been heartening to hear so manypeople tell us that even though they may never have met Jon or Kortney, theystill took inspiration from them, and I think that inspiration has been key tothe successes the pro-life student movement has seen these past few months.

So take some time to rest up this holiday season, becausewe’re going to keep this momentum going into the next semester. I have a feeling that 2012 is going to be theyear that the pro-life student movement makes monumental gains in theNortheast!

Pro-life attorneys stop coerced abortion

2011-12-22T18:19:00.002-05:00

Via LifeNews.com:

Attorneys with Texas Center for Defense of Life representing a 14-year-old girl secured a temporary restraining order yesterday from a Texas court that blocks several of her family members from forcing her to have an abortion against her will.The teenager’s family members had scheduled an appointment for her to have the abortion at a local Corpus Christi clinic this week. The girl has been under intense pressure to have the abortion, was physically assaulted last week by one family member, and has been prevented from attending school.

Despite the rhetoric of "choice," coerced abortion is disturbingly common. And teenagers, who can be threatened with being kicked out of the home, are especially vulnerable. Most are not lucky enough to have a pro-life law firm on their side.

We do need more pro-life lawyers. But if you aren't a lawyer, there are still ways for you to help. The easiest and most effective way is to connect at-risk women with attorneys who will enforce their rights. Familiarize yourself with the Justice Foundation's "Dear Parent" letter, and if you are a sidewalk counselor or otherwise in a position where you may encounter teens in crisis, keep copies on your person. This letter unambiguously informs parents of their daughters' legal right to refrain from killing their grandchildren.

Plans for January

2011-12-20T11:10:00.008-05:00

It's that time of year! No, not Hanukkah. Not Christmas, either. I'm talking about the time of year that pro-life organizations prepare for the flurry of activity that surrounds the anniversary of Roe v. Wade on January 22nd. Secular Pro-Life is no exception. Here's an outline of our schedule.

All day on Sunday, January 22, 2012, we will have a booth at the Students for Life of America conference in Bethesda, Maryland. We're sharing the booth with our friends at the Life Matters Journal. If you have registered for the conference, please come by and say hello-- we'll have Secular Pro-Life goodies for you! Registration is now full, but you can still access some of the conference via an online feed.

On Monday the 23rd, we will join hundreds of thousands of pro-life activists from across the country for the March for Life in Washington, D.C. Our meeting place and time are TBD. We welcome anyone to march behind our "For the embryology textbook tells me so" banner. Immediately after the march, all are invited to the second annual National Pro-Life Youth Rally.

Can't make it to D.C.? For the second consecutive year, Secular Pro-Life will also have a presence at the West Coast Walk for Life in San Francisco, California! The 2012 Walk will take place on January 21st. We encourage participants to carry secular slogans; our favorites include "Pro-Science, Pro-Life" and "Call me an extremist, but I think dismemberment is wrong."

We hope to see you at one or more of these events. In the meantime, have a happy holiday!

To help us reach as many pro-life activists as possible during the Roe anniversary events, please consider making a donation.

Life Matters Journal releases issue #2

2011-12-19T17:12:00.014-05:00

The Secular Pro-Life blog is back! Thank you for bearing with us during our hiatus.

Today, we're excited to spotlight the second issue of the Life Matters Journal! (Read about the first issue here.) This issue is entitled "Allies in the Culture War" and features numerous articles that will be of interest to secular pro-lifers, including: a fictional short story about a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy, by Muslim SPL member Angel Armstead (page 47); an essay on the unique religious demographics of the pro-life generation and what they mean for restoring the right to life, by SPL president Kelsey Hazzard (page 22); and commentaries by pro-life Catholics, gays, Quakers, libertarians, and much more.

The entire issue is embedded below. You can also find it at the Life Matters Journal website. To purchase the print version of any issue, go here.

Open publication - Free publishing - More abortion

Batman Star Reaches Out to Persecuted Chinese Human Rights Activist

2011-12-16T15:37:00.001-05:00

As many of your are probably already aware, Chen Guancheng, is a blind human rights activist who has been instrumental in speaking out against, and exposing, the One Child Policy in China. In 2006 Chen revealed that over 130,000 forced abortions and sterilizations took place in Linyi County in 2005 alone (this is just ONE county in all of China); because of this Chen and his family have been brutally beaten and have been kept hostage by the Chinese government for the last year after Chen spent roughly 4 years in prison.

After many rumors a few months ago that Chen may have been dead activists across the world amped up awareness of Chen’s and his family's situation, and not long after word was received that Chen is still alive. Not only did we hear that Chen is still alive, but that he is being treated better because of the pressure people across the world are putting on the Chinese government.

Many organizations are stepping up to demand the release of Chen Guancheng. Nationwide awareness campaigns have been taking place to shine light on China’s One Child Policy and China’s barbaric treatment of Chen. I’m so grateful that popular actor Christian Bale, from the classic film Little Women and the Batman movies, has taken action to reach out to Chen. This may seem like a small action to some, yet it has made a huge impact on creating awareness about how the Chinese government has treated Chen and the bigger issue of China’s One Child Policy and abuse of its citizens that violate that policy. I encourage you to be courageous like Christian Bale by reaching out in love and creating awareness about injustices like these.

For theDignity of the Born and Unborn,

Timmerie

www.Timmerie.com

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Pro-Choice Writer: Lack of Access to Abortion Often Means Choosing Life, Not Reaching for a Coat Hanger

2011-12-10T12:05:00.003-05:00

[Today's piece, by Eleanore S., is cross-posted from her blog Naturally Pro-Life.]

I recently happened upon this post at "The Abortioneers," a blog that chronicles the experiences of various people who work directly in the abortion industry. This particular writer was working at an abortion clinic in the South at the time Hurricane Katrina hit, and is now living in a "large metropolitan city" that was also just hit by a hurricane. (I'm guessing she is in D.C. and is talking about Hurricane Irene, which hit the East Cost on the last weekend of August - although the post doesn't specify.)

In the post, she expresses regret that natural disasters sometimes force women to miss their abortion appointments because the clinic can't open or they can't get themselves there. She describes ways in which her clinic still tried to help such women, by rescheduling their appointments and offering to "freeze" the fee for the procedure until they could come back, since abortions are more expensive the further along a pregnancy is. Yet, she acknowledged, waiting an extra week could mean that some women would end up being too far along to legally have the procedure.

Let's forget for a moment the fact that there are legal ways for a woman to get an abortion in the U.S. at pretty much any time during pregnancy, so technically she would never be "too far along." Instead, let's consider the following remark that the writer made about such women:

My heart breaks for any woman who tried to get an abortion this past weekend and will now have to carry to term.

Now hold on a minute. A pro-choice person, arguably one of the most passionately pro-choice out there because she has actually worked in the abortion industry, is actually stating on record that there are women who are going to end up having their babies in a few months because a hurricane prevented them from going to their abortion appointments?

Doesn't that directly contradict one of the most widely-touted pro-choice talking points? Namely, that if abortion isn't available, all women who would have sought one will definitely try some kind of dangerous self-abortion procedure instead?

If that's really true, why isn't she predicting that all those women trapped by the ravages of Irene will be so desperate to end their pregnancies that they will use coat hangers on themselves once they manage to take shelter? If a legal barrier is supposed to guarantee that women will do this, why wouldn't the same be true of a logistical barrier?

The real truth is, many women are ambivalent about their abortions, largely because others are often pressuring them into the decision. In fact, they are sometimes so ambivalent that they decide to leave it up to "fate" to make the decision for them. I can't tell you how many stories I've heard of women who found out that there weren't abortion appointments available, or ran into a friend who said she'd help with the pregnancy and child care, or any number of circumstances that they decided to take as a "sign" that they shouldn't have the abortion.

The former clinic worker even acknowledged this point within the same blog post:

I wonder if they see this Hurricane as a sign that they were not meant to abort?

For the sake of all of those precious women, who have already been through so much, and for the sake of the precious children they're carrying, I sure hope that this pro-choice writer was right.

Tis' the Season

2011-12-09T12:38:00.001-05:00

As we quickly approach Christmas and are immersed in the holiday season, the precious children in the womb and their mothers need our help. There are many ways we can reach out to women and children in need this holiday season and I’ve put together a list of a few things you should know and ways you can help save and touch lives with joy:

‘Profits from Popular Christmas Flowers are Paying for Abortions’ -- be careful what poinsettias you buy, one of the major poinsettia farms that supplies to most of the United Sates donates large amounts of their proceeds to Planned Parenthood in California.

A ProLife Christmas Carol -- Organize a group to Christmas Carol outside of a local abortion clinic!

Operation Christmas Baby -- Donate Christmas presents to pregnant mommies and their family.

Have aWonderful Holiday Season!

Timmerie

www.Timmerie.com

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On the Beginning of Life

2011-12-08T14:02:00.002-05:00

[Today's blog post is by SPL member Robert T.]

After coming under fire from established pro-life activists for his stance that life begins at implantation, Newt Gingrich has recanted this and stated that fertilization is the moment when life begins. At least one pro-life veteran is skeptical of this sudden change.

Traditionally pregnancy has been dated from the first day of the mother’s last menstrual period, which typically occurs about two weeks before fertilization. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists years ago decided pregnancy started with implantation, in part to avoid some questions being raised about birth control methods, specifically hormonal birth control and intra-uterine devices (IUDs). These are questions that needed to be addressed a long time ago, and pro-lifers are as guilty of failing to address this as the pro-choice side. When pro-lifers say that life begins at conception, they need to look at whether a given birth control method is abortive. Pro-life women and men need to know there's speculation that the birth control pill may cause early abortions. By the same token they also have a right to know there's much room for doubt that this takes place.

The belief that the pill causes early abortions is based on the observation that the endometrium is thinned out while a woman is on oral contraceptives, and this is believed to hinder implantation. Beginning around the 1990’s, however, some pro-life physicians began to challenge this, arguing that implantation can take place in environments far more hostile than an endometrium thinned by oral contraceptives, such as the Fallopian tube in ectopic pregnancy. Moreover, implantation is known to take place directly in the uterine muscle, which leads to a condition called placenta accreta requiring surgery. This suggests the uterine lining's purpose is as much to protect the mother as to nourish the child. Some other physicians have challenged this with their own papers. This became such a source of division that the American Association of Pro-life Ob-Gyns decided to shelve the debate and concentrate on other pro-life matters. They have a page that links to both papers.

There is also some disagreement over how methods of emergency contraception work, at least within the medical community as a whole. If, as some studies suggest, levonorgestrel (Plan B) does not disrupt post-fertilization events, it would seem unlikely that the much smaller doses of hormones in ordinary contraceptives would have this effect.

At this point I might add that I am not trying to encourage emergency contraception. There are indications that its effectiveness is overstated, and it has not been shown to reduce abortion.

With the IUD there’s not as much doubt that it can act abortively. The progesterone IUD is believed to thicken the cervical mucus to impede sperm transport, while the copper IUD is believed to have a spermicidal effect. The latter is also used as emergency contraception, however, and in this setting is considered much more effective than pills. Those who argue the effectiveness of Plan B and even ella can be accounted for by actions that occur before fertilization admit the IUD’s very high effectiveness means it must be able to act post-implantation. A moment’s reflection can help to explain this. Pills alter the growth of endometrial linings, while the IUD acts as a foreign object and an irritant.

Canada Underreporting Abortion Statistics

2011-12-07T14:30:00.003-05:00

New abortion statistics based on billing records have shown that Ontario has been underreporting their abortion statistics. How much so? Approximately 10-20% fewer are being reported, much of which are being performed at doctor's offices instead of at abortion clinics. Here's an excerpt from an article:

New abortion statistics based on Ontario’s health billing records show that in 2010 there were more abortions committed in doctors’ offices than hospitals or private abortion facilities.

The statistics, obtained by Patricia Maloney of the Run With Life blog through a freedom of information request with the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, indicated that there were 18,330 abortions committed in doctors’ offices while only 16,055 in private facilities and 9,612 in hospitals.

The figures revealed that in total there were at least 43,997 abortions committed in Ontario during 2010. That includes 2,108 committed after 14 weeks with 345 of those also committed in doctors’ offices.

This latest information bolsters evidence that there is vast under reporting in Canada’s official statistics on abortion. The Canadian Institute for Health Information reports that there were 30,268 abortions in the province in 2009, 32,150 in 2008, and 32,331 in 2007. But the institute makes no claim to accuracy, acknowledging that abortion clinics are not required to report.

In response to Maloney’s request, the Ministry revealed that abortionists billed for $5,470,562.36 in 2010. They noted that this figure does not represent the full cost, however, as it does not include other costs such as the facility fees paid to private abortion facilities.

The figures also reveal that there were 77 “selective fetal reductions” committed in Ontario’s hospitals in 2010 by lethal injection into the child’s heart.

Mary Ellen Douglas, national organizer of Campaign Life Coalition, said it used to be illegal to commit abortions in doctors’ offices and that they ought to be

It's that time of year...

2011-12-05T15:20:00.002-05:00

Those of you who have been following this blog for a while may recall that the principal author (Secular Pro-Life president Kelsey-- that's me!) is a law student. Final exams are approaching, and unfortunately, I will not have time to give the blog the attention that it deserves for the next couple of weeks. Sorry for the inconvenience.

If anyone would like to contribute a guest post, please email info@secularprolife.org.

Implantation vs Fertilization: When does pregnancy begin?

2011-12-03T09:58:00.008-05:00

GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has come under fire for his comment that human life begins at implantation, not fertilization. As a scientific matter, he's plainly wrong. Perhaps he's been confused by a separate debate: when pregnancy begins.

Much ink has been spilled on the definition of pregnancy. The debate has little or no practical importance, because pro-life advocates are always going to oppose the deliberate destruction of human life, whether or not that destruction also "terminates a pregnancy." For instance, there is clearly no pregnancy involved in embryonic stem cell research, which pro-life advocates almost universally oppose. Moreover, due to limitations in the current state of medical technology, most women do not become aware of their pregnancies until weeks after both fertilization and implantation have taken place, making it a moot point in the context of abortion. Nevertheless, it is an interesting debate, because it serves as a proxy for pro- and anti-abortion attitudes about pregnancy.

Pro-lifers tend to see pregnancy as a natural stage of life. It is that part of our lives which we spend in the womb, from conception to birth. From this perspective, it seems bizarre to claim that a woman can be carrying a genetically distinct human being in her womb, yet not be pregnant. That is the result, for a few days, if you believe that pregnancy begins at implantation.

By contrast, hard-core abortion supporters tend to view pregnancy as an egregious invasion of women's bodies. As an example, consider the pregnancy analogy drawn in Judith Jarvis Thomson's well-known essay "A Defense of Abortion," in which physical attachment to the body is what allegedly justifies the murder of the famous violinist. When pregnancy is viewed as an invasion rather than a natural part of life, it's no wonder that abortion advocates define pregnancy as beginning at implantation.

When an abortion advocate engages you on the topic of when pregnancy begins, recognize it as a side issue and redirect the conversation to the core question: when human life begins. And when you do, be sure to know your science better than Newt Gingrich does!

Google: “how much does an abortion cost”

2011-12-02T16:42:00.001-05:00

You know how when you Google something the most popularly Googled phrases come up as you’re typing? Well, earlier this week a friend of mine was on his Iphone Googling how much a plane ticket would be, and had only typed in the words “how much does” when Google pulled up some key phrases for him. The very first key phrase was “how much does an abortion cost”. He took this screen shot and sent it to me:

I wanted to see if the same would happen when I Googled “how much does” from other devices; and sure enough I had the same results on my Iphone, lap top, my mom’s Ipad, and other electronics that browse the internet. Of all the phrases Googled beginning with “how much does”, the cost of abortion is the most commonly searched. It always pops up as a suggestion!

I’m surprised and saddened to know this because it’s a reminder of how often women are having abortions. In addition, what if a pregnant woman was not Googling how much an abortion costs, but something else and found interest in the proposed Google search “how much does an abortion cost”? The woman now has a quick and easy way to get information about abortion -- when she otherwise may not have been pursuing one. When something is readily available to us, we often take interest or action. Right? I would think it’s probably the same in this case.

Once again, I find that we are surrounded by abortion day in and day out. I know I may say this often, but there’s a reason. We allow ourselves to be surrounded by abortion, and until our society works together to make life the better option, and not accept or give easy access to abortion, we will continue to be surrounded with the death of millions of children. Let’s take back the culture by supplying easy access to life affirming help and materials. That easy access can start with each individual being their for their pregnant friends, family, acquaintances, and those people we run into all the time who are talking about abortion.

For the Dignity of the Born and Unborn,

Timmerie

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Good news to start off your December

2011-12-01T10:54:00.002-05:00

Via LifeSiteNews:

On December 1, North Carolina will become the 37th state to recognize the humanity of unborn victims of violent crimes.

The “Unborn Victims of Violence Act,” conventionally known as “Ethen’s Law,” will allow prosecutors to charge criminals who kill a pregnant woman with two murders: that of the mother and her unborn child.

The North Carolina law is named after the murdered unborn baby of 22-year-old Jenna Nielsen, who was stabbed to death in Raleigh in June 2007. She was eight-and-a-half months pregnant at the time.

The state’s Democratic governor, Beverly Perdue, signed the bill after it passed with a veto-proof majority in April.

At an emotional press conference on Wednesday, lawmakers and family members expressed their bittersweet gratitude. Effie Steele, the mother of Ebony Robinson, who was murdered while nine months pregnant, said her daughter’s murderer was not charged with the death of her grandson, Elijah, “even though he was in the casket with Ebony, and…he was a full-grown baby.”

Dale Folwell, the Speaker Pro Tempore of the state House of Representatives who championed the bill, said bluntly, “This law is about murderers and thugs, and how we’re going to treat them.” He added, “If this prevents one pregnant woman from being murdered, it will be successful.”

Barbara Holt, president of North Carolina Right to Life, told LifeSiteNews.com she was happy that “no longer will a mother who has made a decision to carry that child be denied... the justice she deserves.”

The bill mirrors similar bills at the state and national level by specifically stating it does not apply to abortion. Despite this exemption, Holt said, “We think it’s important because it recognizes the humanity of the child.”

President George W. Bush signed the federal Unborn Victims of Violence Act in 2004 after passing the Senate by a one-vote margin. However, it applies only to federal crimes.

Holt said victims’ families in her state had been “tenacious about coming back to the General Assembly every year asking for this bill to be passed,” because “a small minority” of legislators had killed the bill for more than two-decades.

The abortion lobby has consistently opposed laws protecting unborn victims of violence, precisely because they recognize the humanity of the fetus. Governor Perdue, who is strongly supported by NARAL and has vetoed common-sense abortion regulations in the past, presumably shares that view. Fortunately, this legislation passed with a veto-proof majority. Bear this in mind-- local elections can be very important to the success of pro-life and pro-woman legislation!

Is Siri Pro-Life?

2011-11-30T20:55:00.002-05:00

For those who don't know, Siri is the iPhone's new gadget that will answer your questions, whatever questions you ask it. Or, at least try to. So, what happens if you ask Siri to find you an abortion clinic in New York City? BetaBeat has screen shots. Here's the first:

This same situation is being found across the country as people ask Siri to find them abortion clinics. In a different part of New York City, it actually directs people to Crisis Pregnancy Centers instead.

So, it begs the question - is Siri or are the creators pro-life? It's not clear, but at present - it appears Siri doesn't want you to get an abortion.

Pro-life website up and running again after denial-of-service attack

2011-11-29T09:59:00.003-05:00

In July, hackers attacked AbolishAbortion.com, a Students for Life of America activism website. The attack completely destroyed the site, which (among other things) advertised pro-life jobs and internships, and provided users with daily pro-life status updates for Facebook and Twitter.

I'm happy to report that AbolishAbortion.com has risen from the ashes, with improved security features to prevent this from happening again. However, since the site was down for several months, their web traffic will likely suffer. The site was not very old at the time of the attack. Please visit the site and help rebuild their momentum! This has the potential to be a great pro-life resource, but only if people see it. We cannot allow underhanded tactics to bring it down.

We want your feedback

2011-11-28T12:16:00.008-05:00

Welcome back! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

As was mentioned a while back, our friends at the Life Matters Journal are seeking submissions for the journal's second issue. I am writing an article that is more or less adapted from the presentation that Secular Pro-Life gave at Liberty University. Since it is not due until December 7, I thought I would share my opening paragraph in order to get some feedback from our members. What points would you like to have included in the article? Do you think that this is going in the right direction? (Note: copies of the journal will be distributed at the Students for Life of America conference in January.)

We systematically vilified the Catholic Church and its “socially backward ideas” and picked on the Catholic hierarchy as the villain in opposing abortion. This theme was played endlessly. . . . And the media drum-fired all this into the American people, persuading them that anyone opposing permissive abortion must be under the influence of the Catholic hierarchy . . . An inference of this tactic was that there were no non-Catholic groups opposing abortion. The fact that other Christian as well as non-Christian religions were (and still are) monolithically opposed to abortion was constantly suppressed, along with pro-life atheists' opinions.

~Dr. Bernard Nathanson (1926-2011), former abortionist and co-founder of the abortion lobbying group NARAL.[1]

For the past forty years, the battle over abortion has been situated within a broader culture war, pitting godless liberals against right-wing theocrats.[2] As the above quote by the late Dr. Nathanson illustrates, this understanding of the abortion issue has been deliberately encouraged by abortion advocates, who utilize religion as a distraction from the fundamental human rights claims at stake. Their approach has been remarkably successful. Pro-life victory depends upon the re-casting of abortion as more than a mere “religious issue.” Today’s pro-life students, who are more religiously diverse than previous generations, have a unique opportunity to challenge stereotypes, change the course of the debate, and make abortion unthinkable.

[1] [Citation to Nathanson's book.] Dr. Nathanson became pro-life while still an atheist, and was an atheist at the time of this quote. He converted to Catholicism later in life.

[2] Additional battles in this culture war include same-sex marriage, evolution/creationism, school prayer, and the role of religion in civic life.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-19T10:53:00.002-05:00

The blog is taking a weeklong hiatus in observance of Thanksgiving.

As you enjoy this time with your families, please don't forget about those less fortunate. Your local pregnancy resource center can always use donations of baby and maternity items.

Girl Scouts and Abortion

2011-11-18T13:21:00.001-05:00

Over the last few years tons of information has come out exposing close ties between Planned Parenthood and Girl Scouts. From money between the organizations to extreme sex and abortion education being taught to the young Girl Scouts. It is much debated whether these young girls should stay within the organization or not given these strong pro-abortion ties to Planned Parenthood. What are your thoughts? Please take the poll below or share your thoughts.

For the Dignity of the Born and Unborn,

Timmerie
www.Timmerie.com

Two must-see videos

2011-11-17T09:24:00.004-05:00

1) You may have heard by now that criminal charges against a Planned Parenthood affiliate in Kansas were dropped after key evidence was lost to "routine" document destruction. Needless to say, pro-life advocates who are familiar with the case believe that this was anything but routine. Operation Rescue outlines everything you need to know in this short video:
We have no problem recognizing and condemning government corruption when it's for the benefit of a solar energy company. But when it's for the benefit of an abortion provider, the mainstream media silence is deafening.

2) Citizens United is best known for being the plaintiff in the 2010 Supreme Court case that revolutionized campaign finance law. It all started with an unflattering documentary they had produced on Hilary Clinton. Now, they're back with another documentary: this one, on the pro-life movement. The Gift of Life is narrated by former governor Mike Huckabee, who is a Baptist pastor-- but interestingly, the trailer includes no religious references aside from using the word "miracle." (The website also mentions "individuals who were nearly the victims of an abortion, but through God’s grace were spared.")

Could this be a secular film? Or did someone just realize that a secular trailer would bring in a wider audience, who can then be proselytized (as we saw with 180 Movie)? I've ordered a copy of the DVD and will bring you a Secular Pro-Life review ASAP.

I'll close with this excellent statement from the The Gift of Life website:

Historically, America has been a shining example of a culture that respects life. But with the Roe v. Wade decision, we, as a society, exchanged our sense of responsibility toward human life for a greater heralding of the right to terminate it.

There is inherent and intrinsic worth and value in every human life regardless of that person’s age, stature, functional capacity, ancestry, personal assets, last name, level of education, or occupation. Contempt and indifference toward any life can become contempt and indifference toward every life, including our own.

Sister of abortion victim suffers the consequences of malpractice

2011-11-15T08:23:00.005-05:00

[Cross-posted from our sister blog, Abortion Safety Project. AbortionSafety.com is a project of Secular Pro-Life. The malpractice database will be launched in spring 2012.]

As AbortionSafety.com volunteers continue to research abortion malpractice across the country, I want to share one case with you. For me, it brought home the broad negative impact of abortion. It doesn’t stop with the unborn child, or even with the mother; abortion harms entire families and communities.

This case begins nearly two decades ago, when a young woman obtained an abortion at a Planned Parenthood in California. Planned Parenthood erronously told her that she was Rh-positive, when she was actually Rh-negative. As a result, she did not receive an injection of Rhogam, which is standard medical practice after an Rh-negative woman has an abortion or gives birth.

Several years later, she conceived a daughter. As a result of Planned Parenthood’s negligence in the earlier abortion of the sibling, this innocent baby girl suffered a severe case of Rh disease. The mother sued on her daughter’s behalf. In response to Planned Parenthood’s motion to dismiss the case, the plaintiffs described the girl’s injuries: she “had to be delivered prematurely at 30 weeks gestation and suffered a Grade III intra ventricular hemhorrage, hydrops fetalis, and erythoblastosis … has had multiple brain surgeries, and brain shunts placed … damages are in excess of $4,000,000 for lifelong medical and 24 hour per day nursing care.”

Planned Parenthood’s motion to dismiss was denied, and the case settled out of court in 2005— thirteen years after the abortion malpractice took place.

This case highlights the importance of informing women of the potential risks of abortion. We hope that you will help us continue to unearth these disturbing malpractice cases by making a donation. Thank you for your continued support.

[To view the court documents in this case for yourself, visit the Alameda County Superior Court website, click the “Case summary” link, enter case number C-828023, click on “Register of Actions” in the left-hand sidebar, then click on the document icon for “Memorandum of Points and Authorities in Opposition to Motion to Dismiss Filed” (09/24/04). The relevant information begins on page 8 of the document.]

"Conception to Birth: Visualized"

2011-11-14T17:16:00.005-05:00

In this TED video, medical imaging expert Alexander Tsiaras presents a fascinating animation of prenatal development, showing both external and internal features. The emphasis is on the earlier stages of pregnancy, when development is most rapid. It's hard to know where Tsiaras stands on abortion-- the language used in the video varies widely-- but it's a wonderful pro-life resource. (The meat of the video begins at 1:55.)

I apologize that the embedded video is cut off at the side; this is a Blogger problem that I can't fix. To view the video with better quality, go here.

No matter how small.

2011-11-13T16:58:00.005-05:00

Because of Initiative 26, I’ve seen a lot of debate recently about the definition of “personhood.” Our society finds it abhorrent to deny people rights. The personhood debate implies that the fetus belongs to a subset of humans that aren’t people, making the denial of rights more palatable.

Truth be told, I have a difficult time feeling emotional about abortion at the earliest stages. It’s hard to identify with an eight-celled embryo. It’s easier to empathize with an eight-week-old fetus. And so it goes. I think many people are horrified by abortion at 8 months, but less people get emotional about abortion of a microscopic “seed.”

The thing is, I don’t think rights should be based on our emotions. Rights shouldn’t be so arbitrary.

I try to consider what makes a “person” distinct from a “human being” in a non-arbitrary way—as consistently and objectively as I can. I cannot see a consistent definition that would exclude the fetus but include all other people.

If personhood requires self-awareness, the fetus is not a person. Neither are newborn infants or coma patients.

If personhood requires viability, the premature fetus born in a technologically advanced society is a person. The equivalent premature fetus born in a more primitive region is not a person.

If personhood requires physiological independence, the fetus is not a person. Neither are patients on respirators or dialysis. Neither is the theoretical Violinist.

To my knowledge, every definition of “person” that excludes the fetus also excludes other subsets of humans that society already considers people. Therefore, it seems the options are:

1) Pick a consistent definition of “person” that excludes both the fetus and patients in critical care, the Violinist, newborn infants, etc.

2) Create an inconsistent definition of “person” crafted to exclude the fetus and only the fetus.

3) Pick a consistent definition of “person” that includes everyone.

I can’t bring myself to be willfully inconsistent, nor can I bring myself to embrace a consistent definition that would consider it morally permissible to “terminate” newborns or hospitalized patients.

The only option I can accept both rationally and morally is that human beings are people. The end.

International ProLife Youth Conference

2011-11-11T15:48:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone,

I'm on my way to the International Pro-life Youth Conference in LA. I look forward to hearing from various international pro- life advocates who will be speaking this weekend, and to connecting with other pro-life youth from across the world. I know there are many who are unable to attend this weekend so I plan to bring the conference to you through various blog and twitter updates. You can attend the conference via cyberspace by following along with me online. Stay connected:

www.Facebook.com/timmeriesblog
www.twitter.com/timmerie
www.timmerie.com

The unborn, pregnant mothers, and all whom are affected by abortion need the next generation and the generations after that to help end the suffering and the cultural acceptance of abortion world wide. If you won't speak for the voiceless who will? Lets be a part of the global movement for life!

For the Dignity of the Born and Unborn,

Timmerie

International Pro-Life Youth Conference

2011-11-11T09:38:00.003-05:00

It's Friday, which normally would mean a guest post from Timmerie. She's a bit busy today, though; she's one of the organizers of the International Pro-Life Youth Conference, taking place this weekend. Good luck, Timmerie!

The 26 Effect

2011-11-10T10:13:00.008-05:00

My apologies for not posting the last few days. Let's take a look at the biggest story we missed: the vote on personhood in Mississippi.

You're probably aware that Mississippi's personhood amendment (Initiative 26) did not pass, despite looking like it would pass by a wide margin just a few weeks ago. Various groups have attempted a post-mortem examination. The most common explanations are that the sham group "Mississippians for Healthy Families" flooded the airwaves with misinformation, and that some pro-life leaders vocally opposed the amendment on strategic grounds.

Those are undoubtedly correct reasons. I'd like to offer one more theory: a cousin of the Bradley effect.

The Bradley effect, as you may know, concerns race:

[S]ome voters will tell pollsters they are undecided or likely to vote for a black candidate, while on election day they vote for the white candidate. It was named after Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, an African-American who lost the 1982 California governor's race despite being ahead in voter polls going into the elections. The Bradley effect theorizes that the inaccurate polls were skewed by the phenomenon of social desirability bias. Specifically, some white voters give inaccurate polling responses for fear that, by stating their true preference, they will open themselves to criticism of racial motivation.

Bias against unborn children is pervasive in our society. Some even feel outright hostile toward them; think of epithets like "parasite." But as the pro-life movement gains in popularity, it is socially undesirable for voters to admit those feelings to pollsters. Instead, some may publically say that they support human rights for the preborn, then vote against those rights in the privacy of the voting booth.

Call it the 26 effect.

508 babies saved in 40 Days campaign

2011-11-07T12:25:00.008-05:00

The most recent 40 Days for Life campaign ended yesterday. Campaign director Shawn Carney reports that 508 unborn children have been rescued from abortion during the past forty days!

Whether you credit God (as Carney does) or simply the kindness of the volunteers, that is simply amazing. To put it in perspective, this campaign saved the lives of a group as large as my high school class!

Who are we?

2011-11-06T07:57:00.005-05:00

For some reason, the media chose this past week to examine the makeup of the pro-life movement, or at least its leaders. Three articles are worth noting.

A) A widely circulated article from The Weekly Standard focused on Millennials, who "haven’t grown more religious, politically conservative, or queasy about gay rights," but "tend to see abortion as a human rights violation."

B) The Washington Post emphasized "youngish, Christian working mothers with children at home," citing Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser as its primary example.

C) Finally, the Huffington Post stuck to the usual pro-abortion narrative, equating the pro-life movement with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and alleging in the headline that it is anti-abortion men who are leading the so-called "war on women."

Although the USCCB made a valuable contribution during the health care reform debate, they definitely were not standing alone. Option C is wishful thinking. A pro-life movement made up of older, religious men is a much easier public relations target, so our loyal opposition would like to keep that impression in the public mind no matter how untrue it has become.

The correct answer is D) A and B.

Pro-life updates from New York

2011-11-03T11:21:00.008-04:00

[Today's blog post is by SPL supporter Phil Eddy, who works for Students for Life of America as Northeast Regional Coordinator. It is cross-posted from his Students for Life blog, where you can view more pictures. I happen to know that Phil is not Catholic, but he reaches out to any and all pro-life allies, including Catholic dioceses. He is a wonderful role model for pro-life unity!]

This past week saw me drive more than 1,000 miles around the states of New York and New Jersey, and we’re seeing great things happen on the local level. On Friday, Lisa Hall – the Respect Life Director for the Syracuse diocese – hosted a huge pro-life youth rally attended by almost 500 students. She showed them “The Tide is Turning,” and had me briefly speak on the importance of taking action as a student. They’ll be bringing a large group down to the March for Life this year, and we look forward to seeing the fantastic work coming out of the myriad of pro-life efforts in Syracuse!

Much of the Northeast saw heavy snow last weekend, but Buffalo proved to be relatively balmy in comparison. There was no snow on the ground (yet…), and I had a great time meeting with students and local pro-lifers. The leaders of the group at Canisius College expressed a desire to see greater student participation on their largely apathetic campus, and we mapped out a plan for achieving that. This will be the first year that they’re bringing a group down to the SFLA conference and March for Life in January, and we discussed logistics for their pro-life winter road trip down to D.C.

Interestingly enough, they expressed a desire to see more male students involved. This is a sentiment expressed all too often by pro-life organizations, as the majority of our movement is made up of women.

On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to visit the St. Gianna Molla Pregnancy Outreach Center in downtown Buffalo and see firsthand some of the amazing work they’re doing. Assistant Coordinator Doreen Oshirak showed me around while volunteer Sharise sorted through donated items and her baby boy played nearby. SGMPOC had two walls stacked high with diapers, and several rooms filled with donated supplies. They used to be in a much, much smaller space, but a few months ago moved to the larger three-level location downtown, and were excited to be able to better serve the hundreds of mothers and children that utilize their services each year.

I also met with Cheryl Calire, Director of the Office of Pro-Life Activities for the Buffalo diocese, and she shared with me some of the incredible work they’ve already accomplished, as well as the ambitious goals they’re working on. Buffalo can get pretty cold in the winter, and a wonderful group of local women has been donating their knitting and patchwork skills to create clothing and blankets for the children the center serves. Cheryl showed me several giant plastic tubs filled with these donated materials, and told me about Project Linus, an organization made up of thousands of crafty folks nationwide whose mission is “to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer “blanketeers.””

One of the highlights of my trip was getting to finally meet students from the now infamous UB Students for Life group. They shared with me their detailed plan for the next three semesters, as well as the alliances they’re working on with other student organizations. They asked my help with their unique problem – getting “American” students involved! You see, the UB SFL group consists of mostly international and non-white students, and they joked about the non-involvement of white students on campus. One student – Sonika – said that for her, being pro-life was just a natural part of her being Indian, and that she couldn’t fathom the idea of someone back in India actually fighting for the right to kill a child.

Gautham from Malaysia sent me a message after the meeting, with these words for the SFLA community of students and supporters: “We will certainly stand strong and make our presence felt…With your continuous support, encouragement and commitment in making UB Students for Life what we should be, we will not let you down and will definitely keep growing into a well-established student organization.”
Unfortunately, UB SFL has hit yet another roadblock on campus. Group president Sara B contacted me Wednesday afternoon to let me know that they are still dealing with an uncooperative Student Administration:

“Apparently our budget and finances were frozen by the Student Association. Instead of just punishing the dozen people who attacked our Cemetery of the Innocents display last month, the school is seeing fit to punish us as well in what we believe to be an ideologically motivated attempt to limit us….ridiculous, right? We had a meeting today with someone from SA, but they never showed up. So even though we’ve done everything right and had a big fundraising banquet with 130 people to raise even more funds for our activities, the school has essentially neutered us financially.”

Just before hitting the road for my overnight drive back down to New York City, I met with Josh, a student from Buffalo State University that is starting a pro-life group there. If Buffalo State’s administration is anything like UB’s, then it’ll be an uphill battle…but one that we will eventually win. I’m going to be focusing heavily on western New York the next couple of months, so if you know any students in that area that are interested in starting or building up a campus pro-life group, please get a hold of me [pedddy[at]studentsforlife.org].

I want to leave you on a positive note, and this observation I made while up in western NY made me smile…

The theme of our annual SFLA conference in Washington, D.C. this year is “Envision a World without Abortion,” and a huge component of getting our culture to that point involves a multitude of small steps, like making establishments more accommodating for pregnant and parenting individuals. I was pleasantly surprised to find that several Wegmans supermarket locations in the Buffalo area had changing tables and complimentary diapers and baby supplies in both women’s and men’s restrooms! It’s a small step, but an important one as we advance our goal of making our world more accommodating to parents and children.

Abortion advocates dance around personhood

2011-11-01T10:01:00.003-04:00

As many of you know, Mississippi voters will soon have the opportunity to recognize all human beings, from conception, as legal persons. Although personhood amendments have been tried before, this is the first with any real chance of passing, and so it's gotten lots of media attention.

Pro-lifers are divided on the advisability of this strategy. Setting that aside, it's interesting to see how the other side is reacting. Their responses have a clear pattern: they attack personhood for any reason other than their actual reason for opposing it. They oppose personhood amendments because they want abortion to remain legal-- but the arguments they give in the media dance around that issue entirely. Instead, they claim that the amendment will ban contraception (it won't), send women to prison for miscarrying (abortion will be subject to the same high standard of proof as any other crime), or could have all sorts of unintended consequences, like lowering the drinking age to 20 years and 3 months after birth. [That would hardly be the end of the world if it were true, but clever defendants have already tried that argument and been shot down by Mississippi courts. See McKenzie v. State, 946 So.2d 392 (Miss. Ct. App.) (holding that "a person's age is calculated from birth" because "evidence of the date of birth is easier to certify than a date of conception"-- which will still be true even if the personhood amendment passes).]

Abortion is quite clearly the focus of the personhood amendment. So why isn't that the focus of the debate?

Simply put, pro-lifers are the majority in Mississippi. Abortion advocates cannot win on the merits of their case. So instead, they are trying to trick pro-life voters into believing that the personhood amendment will do something that it won't.

This kind of innuendo and deception is unacceptable. It is also a taste of our future. As the pro-life majority grows nationwide, pro-choice groups will increasingly have to rely on these fringe issues. Let's nip that in the bud right now. Whether or not Mississippi's personhood amendment is ultimately successful, we must defeat Planned Parenthood's propaganda.

Blurred lines.

2011-10-31T21:35:00.005-04:00

I wish that stories like this got more coverage.

"Two abortion clinic workers pleaded guilty Thursday to third-degree murder in deaths that occurred at a Philadelphia clinic where seven babies were allegedly born alive, then killed with scissors..."

I think pro-choice people are more likely to dismiss such a situation as a terrible anomaly, whereas pro-life people are more likely to see this as a predictable conclusion to a mentality that readily accepts abortion.

I don't believe most abortion clinic workers would snip infant spinal cords. I think most people recoil at the thought. For now. I do, however, find stories like this extremely disconcerting:

"The Wetaskiwin, Alta., woman convicted of infanticide for killing her newborn son, was given a three-year suspended sentence Friday by an Edmonton Court of Queen's Bench judge.
...
The fact that Canada has no abortion laws reflects that 'while many Canadians undoubtedly view abortion as a less than ideal solution to unprotected sex and unwanted pregnancy, they generally understand, accept and sympathize with the onerous demands pregnancy and childrbirth exact from mothers, especially mothers without support,' [the judge] writes."

Apparenly in Canada you can kill your infant and get a 3-year suspended sentence in order to be consistent with the Canadian view of abortion.

It's understandable that people are blurring the line between abortion and infanticide. They aren't, after all, all that different. When pro-lifers suggest equivalency we are derided for being sensationalistic at best, manipulative at worst. Yet, as the above stories suggest, it's not just pro-lifers who seem to confuse the two.

Pro-life? Like to write? Get published!

2011-10-30T10:39:00.002-04:00

The Life Matters Journal seeks submissions for its next issue:

We need news pieces on any of our given issues. We're especially looking for 1-2 page news commentary on the recent trend of bullying & suicide (especially as regards LGBT youth), Troy Davis's execution on death row, developments in US politics, and also for many different types of fiction (1-10 pages), poetry, and opinion pieces (3-15 pages). If you have suggestions for any pieces you'd like to write or like to see in our next issue, please email us!

We have a special series to be released over the next two or three issues, tentatively titled "We Hold this Truth: Allies in the Culture War" -- and dedicated to a discussion from different faith, lifestyle, and political perspectives about the consistent life position and why we are dedicated to the truth that human life must be valued and protected at all stages. While I have had a few offers, we are looking for writers across all boundaries: Atheist &/or Agnostic, Catholic, Buddhist, Protestant, Hindu, gay, straight, Republican, Democrat, Independent, Libertarian... really, any demographic feature might be a possible way to come at the discussion. Email us with your idea, and write something up about why you, as a __________, believe in the consistent life ethic.

Articles should be emailed to lifemattersjournal@gmail.com by December 7.

New Undercover Footage Coming from Live Action

2011-10-28T14:33:00.000-04:00

Today Live Action announced they will be releasing new undercover investigation footage on Monday October 31st. In their press release Live Action shared a little about what the video will be concerning:

"Live Action, the pro-life group responsible for recent undercover stings showing Planned Parenthood’s institutional tolerance for child sexual abuse, will release a new investigation on Monday showing how opponents of recognizing the right to life of unborn children in Mississippi, backed by Planned Parenthood, are using lies and scare tactics to manipulate the public. Mississippi will be the first state since Roe v. Wade to protect the right to life of unborn children at all ages of development if it passes a Personhood Amendment to its state constitution on November 8."

Be sure to checkout their website Monday for this new undercover video. If you haven't already seen the undercover investigations Live Action released earlier this year concerning Planned Parenthood's illegal activity surrounding sexual abuse I encourage you to check it out at http://LiveAction.org/traffick

For the Dignity of theborn and unborn,

Timmerie Millington

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Video: the facts on the abortion pill

2011-10-27T10:18:00.004-04:00

Josh Brahm, host of Life Report, wants our help to make this video go viral. Secular Pro-Life is more than happy to oblige! This excellent piece is completely secular, medically accurate, and thought-provoking. If you have a friend who is considering the abortion pill, take four minutes to show her this video. She'll get the information that would likely be omitted from a real abortionist's "counseling" session.

What about civil disobedience?

2011-10-24T19:46:00.008-04:00

A few days ago, Jewels Green, who is a former abortion center employee turned pro-lifer, contributed a blog post entitled "Pro-life and committed to ending abortion: but NOT by any means necessary." In it, she expressed her opinion that the pro-life movement should refrain from any violence or unlawful activity, which she says "provides our pro-abortion opposition a speedy on-ramp to the high road and fosters a 'comrades-in-arms' mentality that unifies their ranks and galvanizes public opinion in their favor."

Although no one disagreed with her point about violence, some objected to her statement that "Even humorously suggesting a return to the era of blockading entrances to clinics or 'occupying' the waiting rooms of abortion clinics leads down the slippery slope to further lawlessness" and violence. But this did not adequately address activity that is both peaceful and illegal-- i.e. non-violent civil disobedience, in the tradition of Martin Luther King, Jr. and other social justice leaders.

Civil disobedience may or may not be appropriate, depending on the time and circumstance. This is a matter on which reasonable people can disagree.

In the interest of fostering open discussion, here is a pro-civil-disobedience response, by Stand True president Bryan Kemper:

In a recent article written by Jewels Green, she asks the following question to open her article:

“Should breaking the law be advocated to advance the cause for life? Should violence be encouraged, condoned, or celebrated to further the cause for life? No, and no.”

What we see here are two totally separate questions that should not be asked together; this is done to try to tie the two things together, which is unfair. Of course we should not condone violence or celebrate it. The problem is that later in the article you see the author try to tie the civil disobedience in Question 1 with the violence in Question 2.

So lets talk about Question 1: “Should breaking the law be advocated to advance the cause for life?” I want to rephrase this question to go past abortion, as it does say “cause for life”. The question would then read, “Should breaking the law ever have been advocated to advance causes like the Underground Railroad, hiding Jews during the Nazi Holocaust, the sit-ins during the Civil Rights Movement, rescuing young girls trapped in sex slavery, and rescuing children from abortion?”

When we rephrase the question and don’t try and tie the action of civil disobedience to violence, it shines a whole new light on the situation. The fact is that there are way too many times in the history of the world when corrupt governments passed evil, unjust laws that lead to the death, imprisonment and torture of our fellow human persons. There were also courageous men and women who peacefully broke those laws in order to save lives and change the world.

Continue reading...

Defining Victory

2011-10-24T10:58:00.003-04:00

"We are the generation that will end abortion."
"I am an abortion abolitionist."
"No more babies die, no more women cry."
All popular slogans, which elicit a familiar response from our loyal opposition: "You'll never end abortion! Abortion has been practiced for millenia!"

To some extent, they're right. After all, burglary is illegal and socially condemned, but we still have burglary and probably always will. We cannot create a crime-free utopia. And consider murder outside the womb: incredibly, nearly four in ten murders in the United States go unsolved!

So what does pro-life victory mean?

Consider the original abolitionist movement, from which we as pro-lifers frequently draw inspiration. It's easy to forget, but slavery is still happening. In today's version, slaves typically labor in the sex trade rather than in cotton fields. Sadly, the abolitionist movement failed to completely end slavery.

And yet, it would surely be wrong to dismiss the abolitionist movement as a failure. Abolitionists ushered in a revolution. They made slavery illegal, transformed the lives of millions of African Americans, and paved the way for the civil rights movement, where the full personhood of Black people was finally recognized.

That is the kind of radical social transformation that we seek as pro-lifers. Society will always suffer from individuals who refuse to respect the rights of others, but we don't have to take it sitting down! Pro-life victory means creating a society that recognizes the humanity of unborn children. We will make abortion unthinkable, just as it is unthinkable for any American to own a slave today.

The theme of the Students for Life of America conference this year is "Envision a World Without Abortion." It is focused on what pro-life victory means, and how we can get there. I hope you'll join Secular Pro-Life and thousands of other activists to discuss these vital issues. Together, we can restore the right to life for all.

Coerced abortion makes mockery of "choice"

2011-10-23T11:06:00.006-04:00

[Editor's note: Today's feature is a guest post by Sarah Terzo, who runs ClinicQuotes.com.]

It is not unusual for men to try to coerce their partners into having an unwanted abortion. In fact, according to the Elliot Institute, which deals with post-abortive women, 64% of women who have abortions claim that they were pressured by other people (usually their partners) into having them. So much for women's choice!

So it's no real surprise to find out that a British man has taken coercion one step further – he drugged his pregnant fiancée with an abortion pill, causing her to miscarry.

The woman, who has not been named for legal reasons, was rushed to the hospital with severe bleeding, were she found out that her baby had died. She was forced to undergo an emergency operation and required a blood transfusion of two pints of blood.

She did not know the cause of her miscarriage until months later, when she overheard her fiancé bragging to someone over the phone about slipping the abortion pill to her without her knowledge. She reported the crime to the police, who arrested him. It is not clear at this point where he acquired the abortion drug.

When the abortion pill was first made available in the United States, I remember some pro-lifers expressing concern that men would be able to force a woman to abort by acquiring the drug and making her take it by deceit or threat of violence. Pro-abortion activists laughed off these concerns. But now it seems that our fears were well-founded.

Hopefully authorities will be able to determine where the perpetrator got the abortion drug and tighten up whatever regulation allowed him to acquire it. [Editor's note: Here's one possibility: a website, run by "pro-choice" activists, that lets people order the abortion pill online and have it shipped to their house.] The case makes one wonder how many other times an abortion drug has been slipped to unsuspecting women, threatening their lives and their pregnancies, without them ever knowing.

Could such a thing happen in the United States? Abortion proponents would say no –after all, only licensed clinics can dispense the RU-486, the abortion pill. However, there has already been at least one similar case in the United States. New York resident Dr. Stephen Pack ambushed his pregnant partner outside a hospital, screaming “I'm going to give you an abortion!” He injected her with a dose of methotrexate, a drug that induces abortion but that also has legitimate medical uses. In that case, thankfully, the baby survived and the mother was not seriously injured. And in October of 2010, an Ohio man drove his pregnant girlfriend to an abortion clinic at gunpoint.

These incidents highlight the fact that many women face incredible pressures to abort from their partners, and that when they refuse, partners may take matters into their own hands. The murder of pregnant women is disturbingly common - in fact, murder is the number one cause of death for pregnant women. It is often the partners that are the perpetrators.

For example, the body of 15-year-old Daphne Sulk was found that a rest stop in Wyoming. Her 38-year-old boyfriend was arrested and convicted of stabbing her to death because she refused to abort his child. Teshibra Bell, also 15, was killed by Shannon Meschack, the father of her unborn baby. He had threatened to kill her if she did not have an abortion. Another man, Michael Baldwin, confessed to the brutal slaying of his girlfriend, who was 15 weeks pregnant with his child. These are just a handful of cases that have been documented by the Elliot Institute.

No one should be allowed to force a woman into having an abortion she does not want. Whether the coercion is subtle, overt, or violent, it is always wrong. Pro-lifers should try to force the abortion industry to be held accountable for performing abortions on women who express that they are being pressured into having them. Pro-life activists have the opportunity and the responsibility to protect women from coercion by publicizing these incidents and raising public awareness.

Pro-life and committed to ending abortion: but NOT "by any means necessary"

2011-10-22T09:39:00.003-04:00

[Editor's note: Today's feature is a guest post by former abortion worker Jewels Green, who is now a pro-life advocate.]

Should breaking the law be advocated to advance the cause for life? Should violence be encouraged, condoned, or celebrated to further the cause for life? No, and no.

The pro-life movement has made great strides on the long road toward ending abortion in the United States—especially in the past few years. The zeitgeist is shifting, as evidenced by a CNN poll just last month that found 62% of Americans want abortion to be illegal in most or all circumstances. This finding dovetails nicely with the passage of the partial-birth abortion ban, ultrasound laws, and the proliferation of the 40 Days for Life peaceful prayer vigils that report hundreds of pregnant mothers turning away from the clinics and choosing life for their babies. These successes have been the culmination of countless hard-working people dedicated to tirelessly pursuing lawful avenues to bring about the end abortion in the United States.

We are winning, and should stay the course.

Even humorously suggesting a return to the era of blockading entrances to clinics or “occupying” the waiting rooms of abortion clinics leads down the slippery slope to further lawlessness: harassment, intimidation, vandalism, and eventually (and inevitably) violence. These tactics are morally wrong and produce dubious results. What is certain is that breaking the law in an effort to stop abortion tarnishes the movement, alienates those on the fence (or newcomers to the fold), and worst of all—it provides our pro-abortion opposition a speedy on-ramp to the high road and fosters a “comrades-in-arms” mentality that unifies their ranks and galvanizes public opinion in their favor.

I worked in an abortion clinic that was invaded by law-breakers. Not one pregnant mother chose life for her baby that day twenty years ago when six people attached themselves to a huge metal contraption for seven hours in the waiting room. Abortions were committed in an un-occupied part of the clinic while local law enforcement and FBI agents negotiated with the trespassers. The mood in the clinic that day, which was shared by staff and patients alike, was one of grim—but unwavering—determination. We celebrated continuing abortions during the occupation and were defiant in the face of intimidation.

There is no way I could have publicly adopted the pro-life moniker in an atmosphere of violence and disregard for law. In the nine months (it’s only been nine months!) since my personal conversion and self-identifying as pro-life I have volunteered, donated, testified, and continue to use my voice to speak up for those who cannot do so for themselves: the most vulnerable among us, the unborn.

I sincerely hope I am preaching to the choir on this issue and that the overwhelming majority of advocates of the right-to-life from conception to natural death are peaceful, law-abiding, and conscientious citizens who do not assume the title of life warrior literally.

What's Happened This Week

2011-10-21T17:04:00.000-04:00

This week has been a very busy and sad week for the pro-life movement. Here is just a bit of what's been going on:

Did you know Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards makes 400K a year? One of the many shocking and interesting things pointed out in this article is that Planned Parenthood started making $1 billion and more annually in 2006-2007 when their abortion numbers significantly raised from 264,943 in 2005 to 289,650 in 2006. Read more about this from Life News.

Students accross the Unites States gave up their voices for a day to stand in solidarity with the unborn. Read about October 18th's Silent Day of Solidarity at Stand True's Blog.

Pro-life advocate Jon Scharfenberger died after a week long battle for his life after a tragic car accident that also killed pro-life leader Kortney Blythe and her unborn child Sophy. Learn more from Kristan Hawkins with Students for Life.

Ron Paul Shares about his pro-life position with a profound story of birth and death in a short video testimony.

International ProLife Youth Conference is only a few weeks away November 11-13th in Los Angeles, California. Register today!

Former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline lost his law license as things move forward in the case Phil filed against Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is really doing all they can to silence him. Learn more at Life News.

For the Dignity of the born and unborn,

Timmerie Millington

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Is the pro-life movement anti-sex?

2011-10-20T13:27:00.006-04:00

The pro-abortion claim that pro-lifers are anti-sex is nothing new. From Canadian abortion advocates' recent attempt to make some kind of point by dressing up as penises and vaginas, to Amanda Marcotte's bizarre assertion that pro-lifers' motive in protesting outside abortion facilities is "to gawk and yell at women whose soon-to-be-terminated pregnancies constitute solid proof they've recently touched a penis" (I guess we'll be protesting outside maternity wards next), nothing really surprises me anymore.

As ridiculous as this claim is, we have to address it, because it's powerful propaganda. Nobody wants to be part of an uncool, prudish, anti-sex movement, especially not young people.

Allow me to propose a simple logical argument.
Major premise: Pro-lifers constitute a little less than half the adult population of the United States.
Minor premise: The vast majority of American adults have sex from time to time.
Conclusion: Most American pro-lifers have sex. And I'll bet they enjoy it, too.

Do pro-lifers want people to have sex irresponsibly? Of course not. People shouldn't have sex until they are ready, and people certainly shouldn't have unprotected sex if they aren't prepared to handle the baby who may be conceived as a result. But that doesn't make the pro-life movement anti-sex. It makes us anti-irresponsible-sex. Most pro-choicers are opposed to irresponsible sex too; given the alarming spread of STDs, you'd have to be stupid to advocate a lifestyle of unprotected, promiscuous sex.

Many pro-lifers believe that the only responsible course of action is to abstain from sex altogether until marriage, and I respect that. But others do have sex before marriage (or engage in premarital sexual activity other than vaginal intercourse), and there's no sense in pretending that the pro-life movement is made up of virgins.

There is a large space between the two extremes, between the slut-shaming, chastity-belt-wearing caricature and the needless-risk-taking sex maniac. The pro-life movement is made up almost entirely of people in the middle. (And so is the pro-choice movement, for that matter.) We aren't going to faint at the sight of a nutjob in a penis costume, or scream in horror at women who've had sex. But we are going to stand up and oppose any attitude toward sex that treats abortion as just a form of birth control, and that is willing to sacrifice the lives of unborn children in the pursuit of sexual pleasure.

Abortions Dropped 30% in One Month in AZ

2011-10-19T20:23:00.000-04:00

One month following the implementation of abortion laws in Arizona that limit who can perform abortions and requiring informed consent, abortions have dropped 32% month over month from August to September. Here's an excerpt from the piece by the Associated Press:

The number of abortions performed in Arizona dropped by about a third in September after new state laws tightened restrictions and requirements.

The new restrictions and requirements took effect in August and September, and preliminary state figures indicate 729 abortions were performed in September. That's down nearly 31 percent from September 2010, down nearly 32 percent from August 2011 and down 39 percent from the previous 12-month average of just over 1,200.

Planned Parenthood Arizona CEO Bryan Howard said availability of abortion services is reduced mainly because of a new law requiring all abortion facilities to have physicians involved in medication abortions previously performed only by physicians assistants. A separate law also prohibited nurse practitioners from performing surgical abortions.

Planned Parenthood Arizona since August has dropped abortion services at seven of its 10 locations statewide, including all three clinics in cities outside the Phoenix and Tucson areas.

Abortion opponent Cathi Herrod of the Center for Arizona Policy hailed the reduction as "simply incredible."

Herrod's group lobbied for passage of the laws, which include a 2009 clinic regulation law and a 2001 law that expanded on the 2009 measure. Its implementation was delayed until a state appeals court upheld its constitutionality in August.

Herrod acknowledged that Planned Parenthood's scaling back of its operations "would certainly have an impact" but she also said new so-called "informed consent" provisions requiring physicians to tell women about risks and alternatives also are having an impact.

What do the numbers tell us?

2011-10-18T12:26:00.006-04:00

Live Action shares this interesting chart, showing the percentage of unplanned pregnancies ending in abortion by the mother's religious affiliation:What do these figures tell us?

Unplanned children of evangelicals have the best odds of survival, and evangelicals certainly have a reputation for being pro-life. But 32% is still much too high. I was surprised to see no difference between Catholics, who have a pro-life reputation, and mainstream Protestants, who are all over the map on the aboriton debate. It may be that most pro-choice Protestants are of the "but I would never have an abortion" variety.

Sadly, atheists top the list-- but not by much. There's only a 7% difference between atheists and Catholics. About half of atheists choose life when faced with an unplanned pregnancy.

The bottom line? People of "no religion" or "other religion" are those who are most in need of the pro-life message. Secular Pro-Life is there for them. Let's continue to close that gap, and bring the numbers down to zero for all religious groups.

Awesome internship opportunity and new project

2011-10-15T10:00:00.009-04:00

You've probably heard of Stand True: Christ-Centered Pro-Life. If you haven't, they're a group of young pro-life Christians, spreading the pro-life message to fellow Christians who are apathetic about abortion. You'll find them at Christian music festivals over the summer. You might also know them as the group behind the annual Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity (which is happening tomorrow). Their mission usually doesn't overlap much with the mission of Secular Pro-Life, but they are big supporters of our AbortionSafety.com project.

Stand True is looking for one or two interns. The position is unpaid, but you'll get free rent in Troy, Ohio (near Dayton). It's a great opportunity for a recent college grad who's looking to do something productive while waiting for the economy to improve.

The ideal candidate is well-organized, considerate, and (of course) passionate about the right to life. Owning a laptop is a plus, but not required. You do not have to be a Christian to get this internship, but a basic knowledge of Christianity is helpful. You can start right away and stay through January or later. Your travel expenses to and from the March for Life will be covered. Your hours will be flexible enough that you can get a part-time job in the area if you so desire.

And here's the best part: interns will split their time between Stand True projects and doing research for AbortionSafety.com!

This is a wonderful display of pro-life unity from Stand True, and we cannot thank them enough. To apply for the internship, email your resume and a statement of interest to bryankemper@standtrue.com, using the subject line "Secular Pro-Life sent me," and cc info@secularprolife.org. We look forward to hearing from you!

And speaking of wonderful things that Stand True is doing: they just released a website, BeMyVote.com, for pro-lifers between the ages of 14 and 17. Just because you can't vote doesn't mean you have to sit by the sidelines. There are far too many pro-life adults who are not registered to vote. Register them to be your vote, and you can win cool prizes. Check it out.

Protect Life Act Passed in the House

2011-10-14T12:40:00.001-04:00

As many of you know, the Protect Life Act was reviewed yesterday by congress. The good news is that it was passed by a vote of 251-172 and is now on it's way to the Senate. Now begins the difficult part of passing this bill. Will the Senate pass the Protect Life Act as well? After all we should be able to agree that elective abortions shouldn't be funded in Health Care. Why? Because the majority of Americans do not want to pay for it.

Here comes a even bigger struggle: President Obama has already released a statement that he would veto the Protect Life Act in the event it makes it to his desk. Clearly President Obama has no regard for the majority of the American people's wishes on this subject and he continues to push a rather pro-abortion agenda.

Some of the basics of what the Protect Life Act will do.

Uphold the Hyde Amendment which prevents any PPACA funds (tax dollars) from paying for abortion (except in the cases of rape/incest or threat to the mother's life).
Subsidized federal funds will not be able to cover abortions that step outside of the Hyde Amendment restrictions.
Conscience protections upheld so that health care providers who will not take part in abortion receive federal funding without discrimination.
Individuals, states, and local governments will have to purchase a separate rider to cover elective abortions. This will only be allowed through private funds, not your tax dollars.

How do you think this will turn out?

For the Dignity of the born and unborn,

Timmerie Millington

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Hiatus

2011-10-12T17:44:00.000-04:00

There will be no blog posts for the rest of the week. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Jon Scharfenberger's condition reportedly improving

2011-10-11T14:32:00.004-04:00

I mentioned Sunday that the crash that killed Kortney Blythe Gordon and her baby Sophy also injured several others.

The most seriously injured was Jon Scharfenberger, who is also a Students for Life of America employee. He is a recent Ave Maria graduate who joined SFLA to lead their new Pregnant on Campus Initiative.

Jon was in critical condition, and it was uncertain whether or not he would live through last night. He made it, and is reportedly showing signs of improvement, including moving his head and responding to the people around him. I do not have many details, but please keep Jon and his family in your thoughts. They have a long road ahead of them.

New pro-life video: Volition

2011-10-10T10:47:00.001-04:00

Take just fifteen minutes to watch this incredible video about human rights and resisting the status quo. You won't regret it.

Remembering Kortney

2011-10-09T15:01:00.006-04:00

Last night, Students for Life of America field coordinator Kortney Blythe Gordon was killed in a two-car accident in Georgia. Also killed were her unborn daughter, Sophy, and a person from the other car who has not been identified. Several other individuals were injured. There are not many details at this time.

I first met Kortney when I was a student at the University of Miami, just beginning to get involved in the pro-life movement. Kortney was always incredibly supportive. I could bounce ideas off of her any time. She loved the work of Secular Pro-Life, and she was especially excited about AbortionSafety.com, even helping us recruit volunteers for the project.

Kortney's devotion to the pro-life cause was inspiring. She regularly traveled across the country, equipping pro-life students to stand up for the youngest and most vulnerable members of our society. She and Sophy were planning to be part of the Voices from the Womb event on Capitol Hill next week.

Kortney has been taken from us much too soon. I still don't fully believe that this has happened. Her death is a major loss, not only for Students for Life of America, but for every advocate for the rights of the unborn.

In Kortney's honor, Students for Life of America posted a quote on facebook from one of Kortney's heroes, the anti-Nazi student activist Sophie Scholl: "The sun still shines."

Kortney's impact still shines in the lives of countless people, born and unborn. We will never forget her.

UPDATE: If you would like to make a contribution toward the burial costs for Kortney and Sophy, you may do so here.

Hero Against 1 Child Policy May be Dead

2011-10-07T18:05:00.001-04:00

We are all aware of the One ChildPolicy that is enforced in China; however, many people don't know of a man andwife who have for years now stood up in defense of the men, women, and childrenwho have been affected by China's One Child policy – which has resulted inmillions of forced abortions. There are countless stories I could share withyou of women who have been brutally forced to abort child after child when theybecame pregnant after their first child. Yet, what I have to tell you todayisn't about these women who are forced to abort, but about one courageousperson who stood for human rights even when Chinese officials attacked him.

Rumor has it that notoriousforced abortion and sterilization opponent Chen Guangcheng is dead. This wouldbe at the hands of the Chinese officials who have kept he and his wife underhouse arrest for almost a year now. The same man who he and his wife werebrutally assaulted and kept isolated with no contact to the outside world forsome time.

It has not yet been confirmedthat Chen is dead, but information has come out that this man may already bedead since friends tried to visit him earlier this week. Radio Free Asiareports that Chinese authorities have detained nine human rights activists who triedto visit with Chen Guangcheng. Some of these nine activists were also cut offfrom communicating similarly to Chen and his wife earlier this year. Reportshave been made that authorities were shooting at these nine activists whilethey attempted to visit Chen. Voice of America has reported that villagers weresaying, "Chen is dead already." Further investigation is being madeto verify whether or not Chen is dead; and if he is not, organizations arestanding up to demand he and his families' release.

Reggie Littlejohn, President ofWomen's Rights Without Frontiers has said the following:

"We are alarmed at thereport that villagers are saying that Chen is already dead,"

"If Chen is dead, then theChinese Communist Party is fully responsible for killing him through torture,denial of medical treatment and slow starvation. If Chen is alive, we urgentlydemand that he and his family be released immediately and unconditionally, formedical evaluation and treatment."

My thoughts go out to Chen, hisfamily, and all other heroes who have stood up against forced abortion andsterilization in China. I hope that the defense of women and children continuesbecause we must stand up against the injustice of China's One Child Policy.Chen is a true hero who has loved by his actions to help others, despite severeand at times harmful opposition.

Read the press release here.

Standing In Defence of the Voiceless,

Timmerie Millington

www.Timmerie.com

Read Timmerie's Bio

Alaskan Abortion Law Going to Court

2011-10-05T14:34:00.003-04:00

Alaska's voter approved abortion law, requiring parental notification of minors before an abortion, will be going to the courts, a judge has ruled. Forbes has more on this story:

Opponents of a new state law requiring that parents be notified when their daughters seek to get abortions will have a chance to present full arguments at a hearing challenging some provisions of the law.

Anchorage Superior Court Judge John Suddock on Friday rejected the state's attempt to have certain issues tossed from the case to be heard Feb. 13. He said while the state's arguments were correct "in a sense," there also was Alaska's judicial system to consider.

That system, he said, "is strongly imbued with the principle that each party is entitled to its day in court and to the opportunity to present facts it deems significant."

Alaska voters approved the law in August 2010. It requires that girls under the age of 18 notify their parents or guardians before they have an abortion. Doctors could be punished for not making notification.

Planned Parenthood sued, but Suddock in December let the law stand with revisions: he removed provisions calling for a fine of up to $1,000 and imprisonment of up to five years for people who violate the law. He also struck a section allowing physicians to be liable for damages.

Tomorrow and Thursday: Babies go to Congress

2011-10-04T11:23:00.002-04:00

Heartbeat International is a chain of faith-based pregnancy centers with locations across the country. Starting tomorrow, they are sponsoring Babies go to Congress: an event where moms who have been served by pregnancy centers take their babies to Washington, D.C. and share the truth with politicians on Capitol Hill.

Abortion advocacy groups would like for politicians to believe that pregnancy centers are uncompassionate, unhelpful, and even dangerous. The experiences of women who've actually used pregnancy centers paint a much different picture. I applaud all the women who have come forward to put a face on this issue. As various pro-abortion cities attempt to compromise the First Amendment rights of pregnancy center volunteers, this advocacy is needed now more than ever!

Heartbeat International has a website where they will post photos and videos of the Babies go to Congress as it happens. Check it out here.

2012 Students for Life conference

2011-10-03T14:40:00.001-04:00

Secular Pro-Life is making preparations for the 2012 Students for Life of America conference on January 22. To learn how you can help, check out our e-newsletter here.

Stages of Life

2011-10-02T19:08:00.008-04:00

I saw this picture on facebook and had to share. The simple truth is that human development is gradual. At no point in the human lifetime does a Personhood Fairy magically endow us with rights. Every human being has the right to life, from the beginning of existence (conception) to the end of existence (death). It's up to the pro-life movement to protect that right!

News briefs

2011-10-01T10:13:00.003-04:00

It's been a busy week for the pro-life movement! Here are some highlights.

The latest 40 Days for Life campaign kicked off on Wednesday, and already there are reports of lives being saved! For information on secular participation in 40 Days, go here.

Our sister blog, Abortion Safety Project, shares that an abortion facility in Rockford, Illinois has been shut down for health and safety violations.

Operation Rescue points out that when 13 people died from tainted canteloupe, authorities were quick to act. But when the abortion pill killed as many women, it remained on the shelves.

The Pro-Life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians (PLAGAL) is asking LGBT pro-lifers and allies to take this survey from the Human Rights Campaign. There is a general comment box at the end.

I ask all those who support LGBT issues to take the opportunity to take this survey from HRC. As you know they won't support a candidate who is pro-life no matter how supportive they are on LGBT issues. I ask that you take the survey and in the comments box ask them to reconsider their stance on abortion and consider those in the LGBT community who are pro-life.

A two-child policy is up for consideration in India. We have seen, from China's experience, that such policies lead to skyrocketing abortion rates, coerced abortion, sex selection (against girls), forced sterilization, and other human rights violations. Christians and Muslims are joining together in opposition to the proposal; Human Life International president Father Shenan Boquet applauds the efforts of "Christians, Muslims and all who respect the dignity of human life."

Mexican Supreme Court Upholds Baja California Law

2011-09-29T15:27:00.003-04:00

The Mexican state of Baja California amended their Constitution in 2008 to define life as beginning at conception. The amendment made it all the way to the Supreme Court which upheld the law. Mexico requires 8 of the 11 members of their Supreme Court to vote in favor of overturning a law for it to be overturned; 7 voted against the Baja California measure. In 2008, the Mexican Supreme Court upheld a law in Mexico City, which is treated as its own state, that legalized abortion within its border. Here's an excerpt from the LA Times piece on the ruling:

Abortion foes in Mexico scored a victory Wednesday when the Supreme Court narrowly upheld a provision of Baja California's state constitution saying life begins at conception.

Although seven of the court's 11 justices deemed the measure unconstitutional, they were short of the eight votes needed to overturn it.

The court debate carried heightened suspense because two of the tribunal's 11 members have joined since the court's 2008 ruling upholding a Mexico City law allowing access to abortion. As it turned out, one new judge voted to uphold the Baja California measure and the other voted to invalidate it.

Abortion opponents who had been camped outside the Supreme Court building whooped with glee at word of the ruling. In Baja California, Catholic Archbishop Rafael Romo of Tijuana hailed it as "a positive decision."

Advocates for reproductive rights called the close ruling a temporary setback in the country's abortion debate...The court, ruling after three days of debate, next takes up a challenge to a similar anti-abortion law in the central state of San Luis Potosi.

The two cases have been watched as a measure of abortion rights in Mexico, where more than a dozen states have enacted similar laws as a response to a move by Mexico City to legalize abortion in 2007. Outside the capital, abortion is already illegal, except in some circumstances, but it is infrequently prosecuted.

Pro-life atheist's review of 180 Movie

2011-09-26T13:40:00.006-04:00

[Editor's note: Today's post is by Patrick Ptomey. It originally appeared on his blog and is reprinted with permission. The film is embedded at the end of the post.]

I've been an outspoken supporter of the protection of all human life for just as long as I have been a non-theist.

It's not news that a large majority of people in the pro-life movement are Christian. And they aren't afraid of letting you know that abortion is wrong according to the Bible. They use abortion as a stepping stone to encourage people to turn to god. This is the problem with the pro-life movement. Society and the media have become so disillusioned by the overlapping and intermingling of religion and abortion that abortion has become a religious issue instead of a human rights issue. The result: to be a Christian you must be pro-life, and to be an Atheist you must be pro-choice. Never mind this neglects all the other religions of the world; which is proof that converting others to Christianity is the biggest goal of the Christian pro-life movement.

As you can grasp, I'm not in favor of religiously charged pro-life arguments. This has been written about numerous times by fellow pro-life secularists, so I'll save my rant for a later date.

I am writing this blog in response to a video posted by Ray Comfort last Wednesday, the 21st of September. The short film is titled "180" Movie and compares the horrors of the German Holocaust to the horrors of abortion in the U.S. using simple logic. Ray interviews dozens of young adults about their feelings towards the Holocaust, some of whom were unfazed by the loss of life. He proceeds to put the guests into hypothetical situations, forcing them to choose between their own self-comfort and the lives of helpless others. This comparison of Nazi Germany to abortion is not unprecedented, but for some of you it may be the first time you see the two side by side. Watch as he puts people into awkward situations by catching their contradicting positions.

Although I am not a fan of Ray Comfort for obvious reasons, I have to hand it to him.

He did a wonderful job arguing for the protection of unborn human lives by capitalizing on the illogical and contradicting mindset of countless people. The best part is that he did this without bringing religion into the discussion. This is proof that people can understand abortion is wrong regardless of their belief system. I hope all of Ray's fan base can see that abortion can be argued on a moral ground, using the issue of human rights to make their case. I have my doubts though.

Like I mentioned above, Christians often times use the abortion issue to make a case for their god. Just as I was applauding Ray's method of debate, I should have expected some plug for god. Ray spends the last ten minutes of the film explaining that people should repent because we are a "self-admitted lying, thief, blasphemer, adulterer at heart." Weren't we just talking about abortion a minute ago, Ray? I guess I should have known that he was going to throw in the 'Hell Card', but I encourage everyone to watch at least the first twenty minutes of the video. Also, be careful to note that this video is highly edited and may feature reconstructed questions and answers.

A story we missed

2011-09-26T11:22:00.003-04:00

My apologies for bringing this story to you so late. It's easy to forget things that fall on the same day as the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

September 11 is the anniversary of another attack as well. It was on September 11, 2009 that Jim Pouillon was murdered while displaying a pro-life sign. The killer, Harlan Drake, also murdered a local businessman with whom he had a personal feud. For the two murders, Drake received two life sentences.

Mr. Pouillon has been gone for two years, but his memory remains.

Caring for Women.

2011-09-25T10:44:00.001-04:00

So I was reading this RealChoice blog post about a woman who went into a CPC by mistake, was shown her sonogram, and now, years after her abortion, still gets upset thinking of the images from the sonogram. The RealChoice author had some insightful commentary and I recommend you read the article all the way through. (You can also read SPL’s insightful commentary about the same woman here.)

However, I am struck by the way the two sides of the abortion debate view their own approaches and their opponents’ approaches toward women.

Pro-life view of CPC workers (from the RealChoice blog post):

They treated the pregnant woman “like a human being, like somebody important, with relationships and a capacity to be a good mother.” They were “kind, honest, forthright, and trying to treat her like a complete human being with real needs and capabilities.”

Pro-choice view of CPC workers (from this Abortioneers blog post):

CPCs “basically lie to women and say whatever to convince visitors not to have an abortion. They’ll tell you that you’ll get breast cancer, that you’ll become infertile, that God will not forgive you, that you’ll spend an eternity burning in Hell – if you get this abortion.”

Pro-life view of abortion clinic workers (from the RealChoice blog post):

The abortion facilities “feed you comfortable lies until they have your money, and then lose all interest in you.” At Planned Parenthood the pregnant woman could expect to be “patronized, processed, and lied to.”

Abortion clinic worker’s perspective on assisting women in obtaining abortions (from another Abortioneers blog post):

“Don’t **** with her about her relationship or question if she’s sure she doesn’t want to try a new birth control method (because, this one failed. Right?). If she sighs deep, looks like she hasn’t slept, seems distant: just ****ing hold her hand. Show her kindness. Let her breathe.” (Emphasis in original.)

It’s clear to me that there are people on both sides of the debate who care a great deal about women even while they have very different ideas of how best to show that care. And while in the abortion debate—and nearly every other political debate—it’s simpler to vilify your ideological opponents and keep things black and white, I’m not sure how much that reflects reality. I think it's important to understand what our opposition thinks if we are to effectively communicate.

Action Alert: Stop the Birth Control Mandate

2011-09-23T13:19:00.000-04:00

On August 1, 2011 the Department of Health and Human Services decided to mandate coverage of birth control, surgical sterilization, and abortifacients in all private heathcare plans.

Are you a tax payer? Do you support Birth Control, Abortifacients (a drug or agent that causes abortion), and surgical sterilization? Well you’ll be providing these services for millions of Americana's to take advantage of at any time. Despite religious or moral beliefs you’re paying for it, and patients do not even have a co-pay for these services.

While I was sitting in urgent care the other day I couldn't get over the fact that the woman in front of me was 19 weeks pregnant and had to pay a $15 co-pay in order to see a doctor after she fell, couldn't walk, and was having severe back and stomach pain. While in contrast, August 1st Health and Human Services (HHS) mandated that private health plans will cover "preventative services": contraceptives, sterilization, and abortifacients with NO co-pay or out of pocket expenses for these services.

Now, I see nothing wrong with co-pays. But I find it ridiculous that a woman would not have to pay a dime to be sterilized, chemically abort her child, or prevent her body from naturally beginning human life while a woman who is pregnant, and severely hurt, has to pay to even get in the door at urgent care.

Please defend the consciences of millions of Americans who do not support abortifaceints, contraception, and sterilization. This will only take a few minutes:

Health and Human Services is accepting comments on the issue at hand until September 30th. Please send an email through NCHLA’s action center in opposition to this mandate.
Post the link to this article (**) on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites so that others can take action as well.

Standing In Defence of the Voiceless,

Timmerie Millington

www.Timmerie.com

Read Timmerie's Bio

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