Category Archives: General

Pennsylvania Governor Links Women to Pro-Abortion Website

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By Maria Gallagher, Legislative Director

The Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act states that the public policy of the Commonwealth is to encourage childbirth over abortion.

SadwomanThen why does the state of Pennsylvania link to a website that promotes abortion?

If you visit the information page on the PA government website, you’ll find a tab labeled “Health and Wellness.” Clicking there will bring up a number of options, including “Women’s Health.”

But if you click Women’s Health, you end up at the Women’s Law Project — an organization that opposes laws restricting abortion. In fact, the top item on the page’s resource list is “abortion and family planning.” Click on that, and you’ll be directed to a page that connects you with abortion facilities.

In this way, PA government has become an electronic portal to abortion.

Why doesn’t the Pennsylvania website link to a neutral site, one which disseminates information about women’s health topics such as heart disease and cervical cancer? Why, instead, does it link to a pro-abortion advocacy group?

The Governor should not use his office to promote a pro-abortion agenda. If he is truly concerned about women’s health, he will direct state workers to retool his website.

Planned Parenthood to Push Agenda on Pittsburgh Students

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America’s largest abortion provider is bringing its anti-life agenda to Pittsburgh schools.

On Wednesday, the Pittsburgh Public Schools board approved a memo of understanding Classroomwith Planned Parenthood to teach sex education to middle school students, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Several board members raised concerns about Planned Parenthood including its abortion practices and its history with eugenics, but the board approved the memo.

Though school administrators said abortion won’t be part of the curriculum taught in Pittsburgh schools, abortion is at the heart of Planned Parenthood’s agenda.

“Planned Parenthood’s bottom line is numbers. And, with abortion as its primary money-maker, that means implementing a quota,” said Abby Johnson, Planned Parenthood clinic director-turned pro-lifer.

Carol Everett, an abortion center manager who became pro-life, explains that abortion centers teach sex-ed in schools because it helps them create a bigger market for abortion:

“We had a whole plan that sold abortions and it was called sex education. Break down their natural modesty. Separate them from their parents and their values and become the sex expert in their lives so they’d turn to us. When we would give them a low dose birth control pill they would get pregnant on it, or a defective condom. Our goal was 3-5 abortions from every girl between the ages of 13 and 18.”

And when Planned Parenthood performs abortions on 94 percent of its pregnant customers, it’s pretty easy to see where its priorities are.

Why Disability Rights Groups Oppose Assisted Suicide

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The disability rights community is one of the most vocal opponents of assisted suicide.

Many news outlets stereotype opponents of assisted suicide as merely religious; but we who fight to protect people against the threat oPillsf assisted suicide come from diverse backgrounds.

It was refreshing to see the news website The Daily Beast acknowledge that in a recent article, “Why Disability Advocates Say No to Doctor-Assisted Death.”

Many disability rights groups say assisted suicide presents a dangerous double standard about the value of people’s lives.

Reporter Elizabeth Picciuto presented the following situation:

Suppose a good friend of yours says that she wants to kill herself. You, and most people close to her, would probably try to help her so she did not feel that suicide was a viable option. Suicide prevention would be the goal of the medical profession, of family and friends. Not, however, in the case of someone seeking physician-assisted death.

“The difference is your health or disability status. Then suddenly suicide is a rational decision,” Diane Coleman, president and CEO of Not Dead Yet, a disability-rights group that advocates against assisted suicide and euthanasia, told The Daily Beast. “We think equal rights should also mean equal rights to suicide prevention.”

Samantha Crane, director of public policy for the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, said the emphasis should be on offering better care, not death, to people who are suffering.

“People believe that opposition to physician-assisted suicide is a belief that it’s noble to suffer, or that people shouldn’t have the ability to control their care when they are seriously ill,” Crane told Picciuto. “That is not the basis of our beliefs. Our goal is to make everyone happier, and to make sure that they have quality lives and help them have access to everything they need so that they do not want to die.”

The full article is worth reading. However, the reporter’s bias does come through on certain points. For example, Picciuto claims that Americans strongly support doctor-prescribed suicide; but she fails to acknowledge that polls vary widely depending on how the question is asked.

This winter in Pennsylvania, two bills have been proposed to legalize doctor-prescribed suicide. Click here to learn more.

Wolf Is ‘1st Governor in History’ to Be a Planned Parenthood Escort

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You can usually tell a lot about a person by the way they spend their time, and our new governor is no exception.

Gov. Tom Wolf

Gov. Tom Wolf

Since being elected, Wolf named a Planned Parenthood executive to his transition team and appointed a man who has been linked to Kermit Gosnell to his cabinet.

Recently, we learned that Wolf also used to volunteer for the abortion giant Planned Parenthood.

Earlier this month, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards proudly told a Pennsylvania group that Wolf is the “first governor in the history of this country who is also a former Planned Parenthood escort.”

For anyone who doesn’t know, Planned Parenthood escorts are volunteers who walk with patients from their car to the building, blocking them from pro-life sidewalk counselors. Escorts can be nasty, even abusive, toward pro-lifers and pushy toward the women they escort.

Their job is to prevent women from hearing about the other options and resources available for them and their baby. They don’t trust women to make their own decisions.

And that’s how our new governor, Tom Wolf, used to spend his free time.

We need to keep a close eye on Wolf to ensure that he doesn’t do in office what he did as a volunteer. Women deserve to know the full truth about abortion, their preborn baby, and the pregnancy and parenting resources available to them. Let’s hope that our new governor will have a change of heart and start trusting women with all the facts.

Santorums Share Daughter’s Miraculous Story in New Book

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Every life matters.

That’s the message former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and his wife, Karen, are sharing in their new book, “Bella’s Gift: How One Little Girl Transformed Our Family and Inspired a Nation.”SantorumBook

The Santorums’ youngest daughter, Bella, has Trisomy 18, a genetic disorder that is usually fatal. Bella has defied the odds, however. She is approaching her 7th birthday.

“(T)his book was really written for parents of kids with disabilities,” Karen Santorum told ABC News in a recent interview. “That’s why it’s so transparent. And — and it just — they inspire us. They’re amazing. You talk to each and every one of these parents, the message is that every person matters.”

Rick and Karen said they wrote chapters of the book separately, because they wanted to share both a father’s and mother’s perspective about the trials and joys of caring for a child with a disability.

The Santorums also discussed the pressure to abort that families often face when they learn about a preborn child’s diagnosis of a disability or fatal condition.

“(Bella’s) message is don’t look at her as a diagnosis,” Karen Santorum told ABC News. “Look at her and many other people like Bella, as a person. And don’t write them off just because of that diagnosis. Because, lethal language can lead to lethal outcomes.”

Bella Santorum’s life is an example of hope for many families facing a poor prenatal diagnosis. She is another beautiful example of why there’s always a reason to choose life!

Planned Parenthood Sells Abortion in 11 Pa. Communities

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Over at the pro-life youth website Live Action News, there is a very informative article about the dangers of having a Planned Parenthood facility in your community.

Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in America, and while not all their PlannedParenthood1facilities perform abortions, they all refer to and promote abortions.

Here in Pennsylvania, 11 of the 19 abortion facilities in our state are run by Planned Parenthood, according to the state Department of Health.

Planned Parenthood does not have a good reputation. According to the article:

“Planned Parenthood has been under government investigation for tax fraud. Corruption is widespread. Planned Parenthood takes over $1.4 million (yes, million) each day in our taxpayer dollars. And, every 90 seconds, they end the life of another baby through abortion.”

Undercover investigations have found Planned Parenthood covering up sexual abuse and lying to women, too. I encourage you to read the rest of the article here.

Behind Planned Parenthood’s catchy slogans and logos, the center of their business is abortion. They do not make their money offering women pregnancy and parenting resources or adoption referrals. Their money comes from abortion, and that’s what they sell to women.

We believe that there’s always a better option than abortion. That’s why there are about 200 pregnancy and parenting resource organizations across the state, dedicated to helping women and their babies. If someone you know is pregnant and needs help, click here.

To Be “for the People,” Gov. Wolf Should Break Ties with Abortion Industry

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By Maria Gallagher
Legislative Director

As he takes the helm of state government, new Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf is promising a “government that works.”

Pennsylvania: A Pro-Life StateIn order to make good on that pledge, he will have to show his independence from the abortion industry.

It’s a tough task, given the fact that the nation’s largest abortion operation, Planned Parenthood, served on his transition team.

In addition, the man he nominated for Secretary of State, Pedro Cortes, has been sharply criticized for his failure to put abortionist Kermit Gosnell out of business when he had a chance. The grand jury report in the Gosnell murder case cited several instances in which the Department of State, which Cortes previously headed, failed to take action following revelations of trouble at Gosnell’s facility. Gosnell is now in prison after being convicted of the deaths of three full-term infants and in connection with the death of a female patient.

At his low-key inauguration, Wolf also pledged a government for the people rather than the special interests. Again, it will be difficult for him to fulfill his pledge as long as he maintains close ties with the abortion industry.

Pennsylvania made tremendous progress during Governor Tom Corbett’s administration in terms of holding abortion businesses accountable. As a result of a law signed by Corbett, abortion facilities in Pennsylvania must abide by the safety standards of outpatient surgery centers. They must also be subject to regular inspections.
Pennsylvanians will need to keep a close eye on the Wolf Administration to ensure that enforcement of abortion regulations does not take a giant step backward. Women’s health and safety depend on it.

Wolf has also promised to be an unconventional governor. That would mean not following in the footsteps of previous Governors Tom Ridge and Ed Rendell, whose policies were governed by pro-abortion politics. Consider this assessment from the Gosnell grand jury, regarding the decision of pro-abortion governors to stop inspecting abortion centers: “Better to leave clinics to do as they pleased, even though, as Gosnell proved, that meant both women and babies would pay.”

Let’s not have a replay of Ridge-Rendell. Let’s challenge the new governor to safeguard women and children through aggressive enforcement of abortion center regulations. Only then will Pennsylvania really achieve a government that works.

My Friend’s Suicide Was Tragic, Why Wasn’t Brittany Maynard’s?

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I remember waking up in the middle of the night to the urgent sound of our phone ringing.

A late-night call at our house usually meant one thing: Someone was dying. My dad is a pastor, and he occasionally received midnight calls to come to the bedside of a dying parishioner.

SadwomanNo one else seemed to be awake, so I made myself get up and answer it. A young woman’s voice asked to speak to the pastor. I woke my dad, then returned to bed.

The next morning when I opened my eyes, my mom was sitting on the side of my bed. It startled me, because she almost never came in to wake me up.

She rubbed my back, paused, and then said, “Sweetie, that phone call last night … I just wanted you to know that Matt committed suicide.”

It seemed so unreal. Matt (not his real name), the happy-go-lucky kid from our small town community, had taken his own life. I didn’t know him well, but I knew that he hadn’t had an easy life. I wondered how much he was suffering behind his mask of smiles.

It’s been more than ten years since that day, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately — especially as I read about the tragic case of Brittany Maynard, the 29 year old who had terminal brain cancer and committed doctor-prescribed suicide last November. Her suicide is being treated so differently from the death of that young man. His suicide was called tragic, preventable. Hers? Courageous.

What’s the difference? How can one person’s suicide be celebrated and another’s be mourned? Assisted suicide advocates are trying to draw lines in the sand that determine when killing a human life is ok and when it isn’t, but the lines aren’t meaningful, really.

Suicide is always tragic. It takes away something we can never get back – a precious human life. Suffering can be treated and relieved, but death is permanent.

Suicide is not a solution. Not to Brittany Maynard’s problems, not to Matt’s problems, not to anyone’s problems. It’s time we erase these meaningless lines, and remind people that every life is valuable, and every life deserves protection under the law.

(As a side note, the Patients Rights Action Fund, a disability rights group, also addresses the suicide double standard in its January newsletter. Read the excellent article here.)

Find Out Number of Babies Lost to Abortion in Your Community

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The Pennsylvania Department of Health’s statistics on abortion are always a helpful reminder to me. Abortion is often a silent tragedy, and sometimes it’s easy to forget that there are women right in our own communities who are having abortions.

When I look at the statistics for my rural Central Pennsylvania county, they remind me that I need to be doing more to help educate and support women and their babies right here where I live.

Please take a minute and find your county on the state report below. It shows the number of women living in your county who had abortions in 2013 (click on image to see larger version):

A-L abortionsL-Y abortionsAnd please consider how you can help restore a culture of life in your community.

Our Littlest Comedians: Babies Understand Humor at 9 Months

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By Maria Gallagher, Legislative Director

Is that a future Ben Stiller sitting in that high chair near you? Is a would-be Tina Fey in that crib at your daughter’s house?

CuteNewbornBabyNew research suggests that those little cutie pies may just be comedic geniuses. A recent NBC News report stated that babies as young as nine months may understand humor. In fact, scientists now believe that humor is an important part of a baby’s cognitive development.

The report made me think about the key role humor plays in life. As the daughter of a man who tried his hand at stand-up comedy when he was young, jokes were second nature in my family. And I remember as a youngster that my greatest joy came from making my little sister laugh.

As it turns out, research now confirms that babies and laughter are inseparable. Since laughter is an expression of joy, it can be said that babies and joy are deeply connected as well.

Babies teach us so many serious-minded things: responsibility, legacy, accountability. But now science has proven that babies also teach adults how to laugh.

With every abortion, a life is ended and laughter is silenced. It kills joy and, therefore, a little piece of ourselves dies with each abortion. Roe v. Wade has made our country a sadder place, a place less hospitable to life and laughter. Our profound national tragedy has given rise to an ocean of tears. It is only in reverencing the child and her laughter that true joy can be restored.