Monthly Archives: February 2014

Pregnancy Resources Free Women from Pressure to Abort

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An 18-year-old woman found herself all alone when she discovered that she was pregnant.

She was estranged from her mother, and the boyfriend who she was living with told her that she had to either move out or have an abortion.Choose Life!

Who could she turn to?

Fortunately, someone directed the young woman to a pregnancy resource center where, for the first time, someone actually listened to what she wanted. She felt encouraged, and the volunteers helped her to reconcile with her mother. Through the pregnancy center, the young woman received the resources and support that no one else was giving her.

She is just one of the hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania women who found help at a pregnancy resource center.

Here in Pennsylvania, we recognize the critical need to provide support for pregnant and new moms so they don’t feel like abortion is their only choice. Real Alternatives, the state alternatives to abortion program, believes the answer to a crisis pregnancy is not to get rid of the baby but to get rid of the crisis.

“If the best we can do in this society is offer a woman in a crisis pregnancy an abortion, we have ceased to become the greatest nation on earth,” said Kevin Bagatta, the president and CEO of Real Alternatives.

Every year, Real Alternatives centers help more and more women and their families. Last year, 19,325 women were provided comprehensive free, caring and compassionate pregnancy and parenting services, according to a press release from the organization.

Their services are very much needed. Studies have found that more than half of all abortion-minded women are being pressured into making the decision. Pregnancy centers offer support to women so they don’t feel trapped into having an abortion.

Women and their babies deserve better. If you or someone you know is pregnant and needs help, click here to find pregnancy resources near you.

Each of the 34,536 Abortions in PA Is a Missing Life

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Today, I want to share our new graph of Pennsylvania’s abortion numbers in the past 13 years. I like looking at graphs and numbers and the trends that they show.

This new graph shows a downward trend in the number of abortions performed in our state. In just one year, abortion numbers dropped by 5 percent. That’s encouraging.

2014AbortionGraph

Sometimes, though, I get so caught up in looking at the numbers that I forget about what they represent. We lost 34,536 human lives in our state to abortion – in just one year.

I want to encourage you that when you look at this graph, don’t just look at the bars and the numbers. Think about the faces and smiles of these missing children. Think about a baby’s laugh or piercing cry. Think about them crawling, then talking, then imagining and dreaming. And remember how all of this was cut short when that baby lost his or her life to abortion.

Yes, we need to look at these numbers. They help us to understand what is happening in our state and what can be done to keep the abortion rate declining.

But we can’t stop there. We need to look, make a plan, and then take action, because these aren’t just numbers on a page. Every number represents a precious human life lost to abortion.

Young Woman’s Abortion Death Reminds Us There Is Still Inequality, Injustice

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At least some justice has been done for a black woman who died from a botched abortion.

In 2012, Tonya Reaves bled to death at a Chicago Planned Parenthood. The abortionist killed her baby, injured her, and the reportedly waited five hours before sending her to the hospital.

tonyareaves

Tonya Reaves

The case involving Reaves’ death settled this month: Planned Parenthood is required to pay $2 million to Reaves’ young son, according to LifeNews.com. Sadly, the abortionist continues to work; and the Planned Parenthood is still open. How can this be?

I grieve when I think of this young woman. They probably didn’t tell her that pregnancy resources are available for her and her baby. They didn’t tell her that abortion can hurt or kill her as well as her preborn baby. They didn’t tell her that an abortion could leave her older child motherless.

Abortion centers target women of Reaves’ age and race. According to a Life Issues Institute study, 79 percent of Planned Parenthood abortion centers are located in minority neighborhoods.

Abortion statistics also point to racial targeting. In Pennsylvania, blacks make up about 11 percent of the population but have 41 percent of the abortions, according to the 2012 report from the Department of Health.

This month is Black History Month, a time when we recognize great men and women who helped to shape our nation. From inventors like George Washington Carver to civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, they have done so much to create a culture that respects and values all human beings.

But the work is not done. Quietly, abortion centers are eroding those values.

This February, let’s not just remember these great leaders. Let’s follow their example and continue to fight against discrimination – not just in the black community but in every community where abortion occurs. Let’s fight to protect every human life – born and unborn!

Abortion from a 7-Year-Old’s Perspective

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A few weeks ago, my parents and my 7-year-old sister came to hear me speak during a pro-life rally in our area. Though my little sister may not understand the details about abortion, she knows that abortion kills a baby in its mommy’s belly.

girlBut during the rally, my sister heard something that she had never thought about before – abortion centers.

As her innocent mind processed the thought, she looked up and asked my mom, “Is that where they kill the babies?”

“Yes,” my mom answered.

“Do they kill children there, too?” my sister asked.

“No,” my mom replied. “Just babies in their mom’s bellies.”

“But they don’t kill children?” my sister asked again.

“No, it’s against the law to kill children,” my mom said.

My sister’s question came from a logical conclusion. If babies aren’t protected then children must not be either, because there is no significant difference between a baby and a child that would justify killing one and not the other.

It didn’t make sense to her why some people are protected and valued in our society and others aren’t. Human life can’t both be valuable and not valuable. It either is or it isn’t. That abortion’s legal told her that human life isn’t protected – and those who can’t defend themselves are the most vulnerable. So, a child like herself could be killed, too.

Should there be a line that determines when humans have value? Some say it’s at viability, others say when there’s a heartbeat, and others say at birth. Some even argue that the ability to reason should be the dividing line, which would making killing infants ok, too.

These lines we draw are so arbitrary, meaningless. My 7-year-old sister gets that. Human beings are valuable because we are human beings. And it’s as plain and simple as that.

Abortion Numbers in U.S. Decline to Near-Historic Low

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Abortion rates are falling steadily in the United States as more pregnant women gain access to the education and support that they and their families need.

2011AbortionNumbersA new report shows U.S. abortion numbers at a near-record low in 2011. There were 1.06 million abortions in 2011, down 13 percent from 2008, according to a new report by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute. The report reflects a similar trend here in Pennsylvania, where abortions declined by almost 5 percent in one year from 2011 to 2012.

Now more than ever, women are choosing life as they discover the truth about a baby’s development in the womb. And pregnant and new moms can access material and emotional support through pregnancy resource centers in their own communities.

Yet, 1 million abortions per year is still a massive tragedy in our country. Pro-lifers are making progress in helping to protect preborn babies and their mothers from abortion, but there’s still a lot of work to do.

Consider volunteering with one of our 40 chapters as we help Pennsylvanians all across the Commonwealth to see that there’s always a reason to choose life!