Category Archives: General

Teaching Young People the Truth about Abortion

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“How many abortions do you think have happened in the past 40 years? Just take a guess.”

I watched a pro-lifer pose this question to a young man recently. The well-educated 20-something hesitated and then shrugged.

“Just a rough estimate?” the pro-lifer prompted.

“OK,” he said. “Maybe about 100,000.”

The pro-lifer replied, “Actually, it’s more than 54 million.”

The young man looked shocked.

This simple experience made me wonder how many Americans don’t know the sheer number of abortions that occur every year. How many 20-somethings – the age group having the most abortions – have no concept of how prevalent these tragic deaths are in America.

We believe it is so important that we reach youth with the culture of life, and tell them the devastating effects of abortion.

The video here CE1Dz1ufbOo shows me, a 20-something, speaking to the people at our 2012 Celebrate Life Banquet about this critical effort. Please watch it and think about ways you can help us promote a culture of life in the younger generations.

Maybe by asking a question, as my fellow pro-lifer did above.

Maybe by encouraging a young person in your family to get involved in our essay and oratory contests.

Maybe by promoting alternatives to abortion, pregnancy resource centers, and crisis pregnancy hotlines at your church or community group.

Maybe by giving a donation to the Federation.

Maybe by praying.

You can help make a difference by partnering with us in this outreach to youth.

Remember the Babies and Moms on Giving Tuesday

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The Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation Education Fund is aligning itself with the Giving Tuesday phenomenon that is gaining momentum across Pennsylvania and across the country. It has received wide coverage in the print and broadcast media as well as on the Internet.

Giving Tuesday is a new tradition this year that is intended to kick off the holiday giving season. It began as a simple idea. Thanksgiving is a day of gratitude, and Black Friday and Cyber Monday are days for getting good deals in stores. But Giving Tuesday is the day for giving back.

“Many worthy causes are part of Giving Tuesday, but we want to make sure that pro-life advocates in Pennsylvania know about this campaign and can take part in a way that reinforces their deeply held values about the sanctity of life,” said Michael Ciccocioppo, executive director of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation. “Our purpose is to keep life issues on people’s minds as much as we can, because there’s nothing more important than saving the lives of preborn children and protecting their moms from the horror of abortion.”

The holiday giving season that Giving Tuesday initiates is the period from Thanksgiving through Christmas to the end of the year. This is the time when many nonprofits raise the bulk of their funds in order to carry out their missions.

“It’s vital for donors to realize the importance of this season – not only for celebrating with family and friends but also for taking time to do something good that really makes a difference,” Ciccocioppo said. “Pro-lifers across Pennsylvania feel the urgency of this cause, and they step up to make their voices heard. We’re grateful for their dedication and support.”

To make a gift now to the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation’s life-saving work, click here.

Western Pa. Abortion Center Temporarily Stops Abortions

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Fewer abortions are happening in Pennsylvania today.

An abortion center run by Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania has stopped offering surgical abortions while it renovates its facility to comply with a new law. Sadly, the facility plans to begin doing abortions again when the renovations are finished. Read the news story here.

For this short time of renovations, we hope and pray that the women who were thinking about getting an abortion there this month will consider other options – keeping her baby or giving the baby up for adoption.

Pregnant women in Pennsylvania have access to support thanks to programs like Real Alternatives and other pregnancy resource centers. These community centers offer resources to women while they are pregnant and after they give birth. Learn more about pregnancy centers and resources available in your area here.

November also is National Adoption Month. Learn more about adoption in Pennsylvania here.

Alveda King Delivers Message of Hope for Future

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Dr. Alveda King’s life is full of reminders about the significance of every single human life.

Alveda King speaks to the crowd at the 2012 Celebrate Life Banquet in Camp Hill.

Her strong pro-life family, her birthday, even her own name seemed to point Alveda toward advocacy for the preborn. However, her young adult life started down a very different path.

A strong pro-life advocate and the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Alveda King shared her life story Tuesday during the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation’s 2012 Celebrate Life Banquet in Camp Hill.

Before Alveda even was born, her life came very close to being wiped out by abortion. When her mother became pregnant out of wedlock, some people suggested she could “get help for her mysterious female ailment.” When her mother began to question this “mysterious” abortion procedure, she turned to Alveda’s grandfather, Martin Luther “Daddy” King Sr.

“He said, ‘That’s not just cells,’” King said. “That’s my granddaughter. I saw her in a dream three years ago with bright red hair. She’s going to be a blessing.’”

Alveda was born on January 22 – a date that perhaps seemed insignificant at the time. Today, we remember it as the day when the U.S. Supreme Court made its tragic decision about abortion in Roe v. Wade.

Even the name her parents chose for her seemed to foretell her future as an advocate for life. The root of Alveda’s name is “vita,” which is Latin for “life.”

When she grew up, though, Alveda King strayed from the truth. Instead, she trusted the lies of abortion centers like Planned Parenthood, and had two abortions.

Then, Daddy King intervened. Pregnant for a third time, Alveda was again considering an abortion, but her grandfather presented her with the truth: That is not a lump of flesh; it is a child.

Since then, Alveda has joined her family of freedom fighters in its charge to protect and defend every human life, from conception to natural death.

She challenged the crowd of 500 people from all across Pennsylvania to not lose courage in the fight for life. Just as God turned her life around, so God can change our nation, she said.

Despite setbacks like Roe v. Wade and pro-abortion political agendas, God works all things together for good, King said. She shared Mark 9:23, “… with God, all things are possible” and encouraged everyone to repeat the verse with her.

“We stand, and as we continue to stand, God will continue to bless,” King said. “With God, all things are possible.”

Women Tell Stories of Abortion in New Pro-life Film Produced in Pennsylvania

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A teenager faces a life-threatening pregnancy after being raped.

A woman buries the hurt of her abortion by performing them on others.

A vulnerable young woman feels pressured by her boyfriend to have an abortion.

A young nurse discovers a live baby left to die after a failed abortion.

These women are the voices of a new pro-life documentary coming out of Pennsylvania this November. “The Voice of John” is a feature-length documentary produced by RiverSong Productions in cooperation with the Pennsylvanians for Human Life of Hazleton, a chapter of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation.

“The Voice of John” is based around the story of producer Maryann Lawhon, who as a young nurse discovered the atrocities of abortion.

It was 1977, and she was working in an obstetrics unit in another state. One day, she found a baby left to die in a dirty utility room. The staff told her to leave the baby alone, because it was an abortion. Against their instructions, she held the baby and baptized him.

“I will name you John, and I will tell the world what I saw here today,” she promised. “I will be your voice!”

Now, “The Voice of John” brings her promise to fruition. Lawhon’s voice joins many others as filmmakers expose the truth about abortion and the laws that allow these unnecessary killings to continue.

Notable pro-life and Christian figures also make appearances in “The Voice of John,” including Dr. Alveda King, Ken Ham, Father Frank Pavone, and Mike Huckabee, as well as leaders from Silent No More, the Population Research Institute, and the National Right to Life Committee.

To watch the trailer or learn more about film showings, visit The Voice of John website.

Responding to Arguments for Abortion in Health Care

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I have been reading some great arguments that point out the dangers of President Obama’s new health care law and its abortion and rationing provisions.

The first, by Dr. Brian Clowes from Human Life International, takes on the ridiculous arguments that the new health care law will reduce abortions and that abortions save our society money. Clowes says if those are our government’s true goals, this law certainly isn’t going to fulfill them.

Proponents site a pro-ObamaCare study that suggests every abortion will save $13,000 in health care costs.

Clowes responds: “But they completely neglect that over the 80-year lifespan of even an unwanted baby, they pay tremendous benefits back into society in taxes and goods consumed and so on, which amounts to millions of dollars each.”

Further, he says states that pay for abortions have a 50 percent higher abortion rate.

The second argument comes from esteemed pro-life law professor Helen Alvare. She presents a great argument about how the law actually limits the majority of Americans’ “freedom to choose” an abortion.

Alvare writes: “Polls show that most women don’t want abortion in their health coverage (68 percent, according to a poll taken in fall 2009, as the health care debate began). Most insurance companies still include it, but enrollees can always ask that it be taken out, and may get their way if they band together. The new health care law changes this balance of power by giving insurance companies more power to make such unilateral decisions.”

In other words, the law puts the power to decide abortion coverage into the hands of the insurance companies.

The truth is that most Americans are pro-life. We do not want abortions, but because of this new law, we are going to be forced to pay for them.

New Video Exposes Planned Parenthood Lying about Botched Abortions

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Live Action has revealed a new investigative video of abortion centers that have botched women’s abortions within the past two years. Watch it here watch?v=pSoPys6KybI&feature=player_embedded

The pro-life group’s investigators called Planned Parenthood abortion centers to ask about the health risks of abortion and the women who had been hurt there by botched abortions.

When a caller asks Planned Parenthood’s Birmingham, Alabama, abortion clinic if when women get abortions at the clinic, “They’re not in danger, they don’t get, like, injured?” Planned Parenthood responds, “No ma’am, we don’t have any type of procedure where a woman would receive an injury.”

While the Birmingham Planned Parenthood clinic botched a woman’s abortion in 2010 while it was on probation from the Alabama Department of Health.

Investigators also called the Chicago abortion center where a young mother died earlier this year of complications from an abortion. There, too, the center workers lied about the health risks of abortion and said no women had been hurt there.

The truth is that abortion does hurt women.

Understanding Abortion Numbers

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Sometimes it’s hard to put abortion statistics into perspective.

Since abortion became legal across the board in 1973, our nation has lost 55 million babies. But that number can be hard to really comprehend.

Benjamin Bull, an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom, makes the numbers a little easier to understand with this example:

“If a number like ‘55 million’ is hard to grasp, think of it this way—if you added together the populations of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, and San Francisco, you would only have about 26.1 million people—less than half the number aborted.”

In Pennsylvania, about 37,000 abortions happen every year. That’s about 80 percent of Harrisburg’s population lost – every year! If there were 37,000 deaths in the county where I grew up, no one would be left.

Or think of abortions this way:
• Count to 24. Another baby has been aborted in the United States.
• Watch the clock for 15 minutes. Another baby has been aborted in Pennsylvania.

To see the number of abortions in Pennsylvania every year, click here.

Numbers do matter – especially when they represent the lives of people who we will never know.

Secular Pro-Life Arguments

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This week, a Pew poll reported that one third of adults under age 30 have no religious affiliation. That is the highest ever recorded.

Pro-lifers should take notice of these changing demographics. We’re a group that tends to be strongly religious, and that’s a good thing in my opinion. But not everyone listening to us is, and, for that matter, not everyone in the pro-life movement is.

It’s important for us to remember that the right to life is not just a religious issue. But the right to life is a truth – every human life from conception to natural death is valuable and should be protected. And the great thing about truth is that no matter what angle you approach it from – religious, social, ethical, scientific – you still come back to the truth.

So, here are some secular pro-life arguments for the growing number of “unaffiliated.” These four points are from the group Secular Pro-Life:

First, science proves that a fetus is a human being. Thanks to modern technology, we know that life really does begin at conception.

Since we know that a human life does begin that moment, we then must ask whether that life is a person. When we look at theories about personhood, we see that, second, there is no agreed-upon, objective distinction between a human being and a person.

So, since we cannot definitively prove the difference, we must, third, agree that a human being merits human rights – from the moment of conception.

And fourth, a woman’s bodily integrity – the idea that no person has the right to use another person’s body against their will – is not sufficient to justify most abortions.

To read more about the secular pro-life movement, click here and here.

Celebrating Life with Our Neighbors in Ohio, New York

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This week, we are celebrating with some of our neighboring states because more babies are alive!

Ohio’s newly released abortion statistics showed an all-time low for the state. Comparing 2010 to 2011 statistics, Ohio saw a 12 percent drop in the number of abortions. This means 3,359 fewer babies were lost to abortion.

In 2010, Pennsylvania’s abortion rates also dropped. Compared to 1980, when the most abortions occurred in our Commonwealth, the number of abortions in 2010 was 44 percent smaller. Numbers for 2011 have not been released yet.

And up north, a New York City health clinic said it will stop offering abortions this month. The decision came in response to pro-life advocates – some of whom spent decades advocating for an end to the abortion practices.

More precious lives are being saved – a great reason to celebrate!