A recent report found that the National Association of Community Health Centers authorized AmeriCorps volunteers to transport women to abortion centers and that senior staffers were covering up several instances of “waste, fraud, and abuse.”

While the misconduct supposedly only occurred on a limited scope, this is not the first time AmeriCorps has fallen afoul of the law.  In 2011, AmeriCorps had “volunteers” working at Planned Parenthood centers, and in the past the group has received heat for “mimicking the work of lobbyists and political organizers for agenda-driven community organizations.”.  You would think these violations would make Congress pause before giving AmeriCorps more of our tax dollars, but instead, AmeriCorps received an increase in funding of over 50 million dollars just last year.

This violation is just another example of how the current administration has denied that the government finances the death of those most vulnerable, while at the same time stopping at nothing to force Americans to fund abortions and continue down the dark path of a culture of death.  As prolife advocates, we need to be ever vigilant to seek out these violations, while at the same time helping those who need it most to understand that there’s always a reason to choose life.

About a month ago I wrote a blog discussing the two sides of the free speech coin. Now, those two sides are currently playing out right in front of us at Georgetown University.

For those unaware, Georgetown University is a college in Washington DC.  Due to its Catholic origin and ties, there was some consternation when the college announced Cecile Richards, CEO of Planned Parenthood and therefore figurehead of big abortion, would be speaking on campus.

To put this in perspective, consider the reaction when pro-life speakers have been invited to speak at liberal universities.  For example, just in February of this year, California State University at Los Angeles cancelled a speech scheduled for pro-life advocate Ben Shapiro, instead offering Shapiro a chance to return when the university could line up other speakers to counter his point of view.  It is obvious our institutes of higher learning are less concerned with being a marketplace of ideas and more interested in indoctrinating the next generation.

Contrast this with the reaction to Cecile Richard’s visit to Georgetown.  Instead of demanding the university silence Richards, the pro-life group on campus is countering her propaganda with the truth.  They will have a “we don’t need planned parenthood” display set up in or near the building Richards is giving her talk, and are having Abby Johnson, the head of “And Then There Were None—A Pro-Life Outreach”, give a talk of her own that evening.  Michael Khan, president of Georgetown Right to Life, an affiliate of Students for Life America is quoted in this article by townhall.com as saying:

“Abby Johnson has personal experience at Planned Parenthood, and will reveal what the organization is really all about. It is important students learn about Planned Parenthood’s careless disregard for human life, and why Planned Parenthood is bad for women and children. Amidst media bias and abortion defenders, Abby provides clarity to this debate and will offer a positive, life-affirming message of hope and love that defends the most defenseless.”

Congratulations to Mr. Khan and the Georgetown Right to Life for showing Georgetown University, and colleges across the United States, what freedom of speech looks like in practice.  We hope others will take note and show those around them that there’s always a reason to choose life.

This post is definitely the most personal…and probably the most painful…I will write.  One of the reasons I am so ardently pro-life is because of my experience with our second child.  Early in the pregnancy, there were complications…bleeding etc. but nothing prepared us for the news when we went for our 13 week check-up that we would never get to meet the child we were expecting.  There was no heartbeat. Our baby was in heaven waiting for us.

I don’t tell our story for sympathy, or for condolences.   I tell it because our experience sheds a unique perspective on a topic many are not aware of—perinatal hospice and palliative care.  These services are available across the state, some through hospitals, and others through private organizations, for the families who receive the devastating news of a diagnosis of a major medical condition for their pre-born child.  It is important to be educated about what these services are, so you can best help those who need them at a time they most need your support.

Perinatal hospice and palliative care offer compassionate support for all involved when a baby is diagnosed with a life-limiting condition. Specifically, perinatal hospice focuses on the whole family, while palliative care is focused more on the baby itself.  This support is provided from diagnosis through the baby’s birth and death and includes planning for the birth, making medical decisions about the baby’s care (both in utero and after delivery) and helping the family grieve with memory making like photographs or hand prints/foot prints.

While there are programs designed specifically to support a family during this tragic time (a list can be found here), perinatal hospice is not a place or program, it is a state of mind designed to honor the baby as well as its family.  It is an alternative to aborting the pregnancy that significant research has found to help the mother and family heal emotionally from a devastating loss.

I’m not comparing our loss to the experience of a family with a child much further along who could benefit from perinatal hospice and palliative care.  Any loss of life is difficult to handle, and I can tell you that every year on the anniversary of that ultrasound, that day is a challenge to get through.  I can also tell you that the only way we have gotten through that day, and those anniversaries since, is by the love and support of friends and family.  I would ask you to be aware of those around you who may be in need of such services and support them in whatever way you can.

“We are known by the company we keep”
“Birds of a feather flock together”
Mantras like these are told to us at a young age, and repeated as warnings throughout life as we become teenagers and young adults. The same can be said of our country. Consider our “company” and the proverbial “birds” we flock with when it comes to allowing pre-born children to be torn apart in their mother’s womb in dismemberment abortions.
The United States is only one of seven countries worldwide that allow the horror of dismemberment abortions…a horror Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy referred to in Gonzales v. Carhart as “…laden with the power to devalue human life”. These countries include China, Vietnam, North Korea, and Singapore, all of whom perform horrible human rights violations such as political imprisonment, restrictions on freedom of speech, religious persecution, repression of minority groups, and detention without trial. Is this the kind of company the United States wants to keep?
Dismemberment abortions, which are performed on unborn babies as old as 24 weeks in Pennsylvania occur after the baby has brain waves, legs, arms, every organ in place, and have even developed teeth and fingernails. Of the approximately 1 million abortions performed annually in this country, almost 9% are performed on these pre-born babies. Approximately 1,550 Pennsylvanians died from this abortion method in 2014.
Thankfully, there IS something we can do to end our affiliation with the countries that currently allow this atrocity. House Bill 1948 will ban dismemberment abortions in Pennsylvania and lower the age of a legal abortion in Pennsylvania from 24 weeks to 20 weeks.
Call and email your representative in the PA House of Representatives with this urgent message: “Please support House Bill 1948, which bans dismemberment abortions in Pennsylvania. These abortions are brutal for babies and harmful for mothers, and they need to be outlawed.”
If you don’t know who your state Representative is, or you need contact information, click here. (http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/#address ) Enter your address and a window will pop up with the names and contact information for your state Representative.
We need to act quickly to pass HB1948 to protect those who are most vulnerable among us from a horrible death. Passing HB1948 has the added advantage of removing Pennsylvania from the shadow of these countries with such terrible human rights records.

The National Right to Life Board of Directors has voted to support Texas Senator Ted Cruz in the upcoming Republican Presidential primaries, including the Pennsylvania primary which occurs April 26^th.

The National Right to Life Political Action Committee believes Senator Cruz is the only candidate for President who has always been pro-life, who has a 100 percent pro-life voting record, who can win the GOP nomination, and who can defeat pro-abortion candidate Hillary Clinton in November.

Senator Cruz is on record supporting administrative and legislative reforms that would make organizations that perform abortions, including Planned Parenthood, ineligible for federal funding (except hospitals). He has also worked tirelessly in the U.S. Senate to defund the abortion giant Planned Parenthood, which commits more than 300,000 abortions each year.

For more information about the Presidential candidates’ stands on the life issues, visit  http://www.nrlpac.org/pdf/2016-POTUS-comparison.pdf .

The Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation is a grassroots right-to-life organization with members statewide.  As the state affiliate of National Right to Life, PPLF is committed to promoting the dignity and value of human life from conception to natural death and to restoring legal protection for preborn children.