“Should we not be entitled to all the information, regardless of whether we want kids or not, regardless of whether or not that information is at odds with cultural norm?”

That is the question that is central to the documentary “Hush.”  This documentary looks at the truth about the physical and psychological damage abortion causes.  It highlights the misinformation told by abortion center workers and addresses how the medical community is complicit in hiding the truth.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the film is the journey writer-director and narrator Punam Kumar Gill takes as she explores these questions.  Punam starts the film identifying herself as a feminist, and admits she started this film with a pro-abortion viewpoint that informed consent laws are meant to scare women into not having an abortion.  As she dug deeper into the issue, she found more and more evidence of the medical community suppressing studies that showed a linkage between breast cancer and abortion, hiding research that shows a correlation between surgical abortions and pre-term births, and attempting to minimize the stories of women who have had serious psychological problems after an abortion.

Punam’s journey became more personal when, while doing her research, she tragically lost her first child to a miscarriage at 32 weeks. As she states, “When it’s your life at stake, it’s amazing how the information suddenly means something.”  By the end of the movie, Punam’s position has changed, and while she still identifies as “pro-choice,” she concedes that women deserve to have all the answers, and not a bunch of lies, when making important decisions that will impact their long-term health.

The film can be purchased through the website http://hushfilm.com/.  It is a great resource for pro-lifers to make sure they have all the information they need…which is the point of the informed consent laws to begin with!

“No matter how dark it is, all you need is a little ray of hope to overcome it.”

This quote by Indian film maker Anurag Prakash Ray has been at the forefront of my mind the past few weeks.  We’ve certainly experienced our fair share of darkness recently.  Between the senseless violence and death both overseas and even in our own cities, and the vitriolic rhetoric that comes with an election season, it is easy to lose hope and despair.  It would be easy to give up and ask “what difference can I make”?  It would be easy to focus on the darkness and miss the little rays of hope.

Instead, I encourage everyone to focus on those little rays of hope.

Focus on the women heading into an abortion center but choosing life after talking to a pro-life sidewalk counselor.

Focus on the women visiting a pro-life pregnancy resource center and finding out about the resources they need to choose life.

Focus on the abortion centers being forced to close because of lack of business.

Focus on legislative victories such as HB1948, which would ban the brutal practice of dismemberment abortion and change the legal cut-off for abortions from six months to five months in Pennsylvania, moving through the legislative process.

Focus on the parents who have chosen life for their child, despite doctor’s prognoses of challenges like Down syndrome, and recommendations to kill their child.

I recognize sometimes that’s sometimes easier said than done.  When every time we turn on the news we are faced with news of another shooting, or more death and destruction, it is easy to think we’ve lost and it is hopeless and not worth trying.

However, I leave you with this anonymous quote: “Sometimes life seems a dark tunnel with no light at the end, but if you just keep moving forward, you will end up in a better place.”

Our challenge is to keep moving forward through the dark tunnel of a culture of death. We need to continue praying as if it is up to God and working as if it is up to us. If we do that, and focus on those rays of light, we will end up in a better place where life is valued.

A recent article in the Worcester county Maryland paper The Dispatch titled “Battle Waged to Save Trapped Cat from Euthanasia; National Group Sparks Letter Writing Campaign to Elected Officials” caught my eye.   The article is about a cat named Oliver, who was part of the colony cared for by the local Community Cats Coalition.  Oliver was trapped in the area, during an effort to rid the area of rabid animals, and now apparently awaits its fate with the county’s Animal Control Department.

Oliver may or may not be rabid, so last week a group called Alley Cat Allies interceded with a letter to the Worcester County Commissioners urging them to allow the Animal Control Department to turn Oliver over to the local Community Cats Coalition organization to quarantine the animal for as long as it takes to ensure it is not rabid at its own expense and effort. After getting little in the way of response from the commissioners, shelter staff or Animal Control Chief Susan Rantz, Alley Cat Allies on Tuesday reached out to its vast membership to intercede on Oliver’s behalf and, as a result, over 56,000 emails were reportedly sent to the Worcester County Commissioners.

Now, you may be asking why we’re talking about some random cat in Maryland, but my point is simple.  If a stray, potentially rabid cat can get 56,000 emails, how many more emails, calls, etc. should the pro-life movement be able to generate for pre-born babies, and other vulnerable humans?

The question is not meant to disparage the vast number of pro-life volunteers and staff who spend countless hours praying outside abortion centers, writing letters to the editor, helping pro-life pregnancy centers, or otherwise working to protect the most vulnerable among us.  Truly, these volunteers are on the front-line of the movement, and are its heart and soul.

Rather it is meant as a challenge to all of us.  If a cat can get that kind of response, we should be able to get an equal, if not greater, response for pre-born babies.  Surely the lives of pre-born babies are worth more than that of a cat (as much as I love cats).  We need to see this response for Oliver as a challenge to all of us…is there one more thing we can do to protect those who can’t speak for themselves?  Is it spending an extra hour per week praying at an abortion center?  Maybe it’s forwarding that “call to action” email we received to ten more people (after answering the call to action ourselves of course).  Perhaps it is that “thank you” call to your pro-life legislator after he or she votes the right way on an important bill.  Whatever it is, each of us needs to consider what that “one more thing” may be, and then put that plan into action.  A cat’s life doesn’t depend on it, but the life of a pre-born baby just might!!!

It is always interesting when the rhetoric of abortion advocates meets reality.

Consider the abortion rhetoric “her body, her choice”.  Abortion advocates use this rhetoric much as today’s teenagers use the word “like”—indiscriminately, and reflexively. Occasionally though, the fact that there is a second person impacted, when an abortion occurs hits home in a way that cannot be ignored.

Such was the case in Wellsboro PA recently when 25 year old Danielle Reddig was arrested and charged with multiple drug charges including drug delivery resulting in death and involuntary manslaughter.

The victim in this case was her pre-born son Collin, described as “a beautiful, handsome little guy” by deputy coroner James Daugherty.  Due to his mother’s repeated drug use while Collin was in the womb, Collin died a little more than an hour after he was born by emergency cesarean.  The autopsy lists Collin’s cause of death as maternal drug use.  Prosecutors note repeated positive tests for opiates, codeine, and morphine in Reddig’s pre-natal urine test, as evidence she used drugs throughout her pregnancy.

Now, if an unborn child is “just a bunch of cells” and not really a person, as abortion advocates try to pretend, shouldn’t Reddig have the “choice” to do whatever she wanted to her body without regard to her son?  However, as prosecutors in this case, pro-lifers, indeed anyone who has ever seen an ultrasound image knows, the choices Reddig made affected a second life—Collin’s life—thereby nullifying her right to do whatever she wanted.

As pro-lifers, all we can do is pray that the loss of her son is the wake-up call Reddig needs to turn her life around.  With a lot of prayer and support maybe someday she can use her loss as an example of the illogic of the “her body, her choice” argument.