An interesting phenomenon is occurring on Facebook right now which celebrates life.  My timeline is full of live Facebook videos of April the giraffe, the mother giraffe at Animal Adventure Park in New York, who is expected to give birth any time now.  As we slowly ease into Spring, I imagine there will be many more opportunities to celebrate the birth of new animal life.  Unfortunately, while we do so, precious, pre-born babies are being torn apart, limb by limb, in a horrific, barbaric process known as dismemberment abortion.  This would not be tolerated if it were being done to animals, and yet it is legal to kill pre-born human babies this way.

Thankfully, in Pennsylvania we have an opportunity to treat human babies with the same respect we treat animals.  Senate Bill 3 passed by a bipartisan majority in the State Senate earlier this year. It would end horrific dismemberment abortions.  Senate Bill 3 is awaiting action in the State House of Representatives. We need YOUR help to make this bill law.  Specifically, there are two things you can do to ensure this common-sense legislation is enacted to save babies from a horrific death.

First, please consider taking a few minutes to call your state Representative and let him or her know you want a vote to end dismemberment abortions in Pennsylvania. If you don’t know who your State Representative is, you can find out at http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/#address

Second, you can sign our petition at https://www.paprolife.org/petition to let Governor Wolf know you want him to protect his pre-born constituents from being torn apart limb-by-limb.  Please take a minute to sign the petition online, and then share it on your social media.  You can also get a paper version of the petition to circulate among friends and family, or at any upcoming events.  To obtain the paper version, simply email your request to lifelines@paprolife.org or call 717-541-0034.

Thank you for helping to spare babies and their mothers from the grave harm of dismemberment abortions.

By Michael Ciccocioppo, Executive Director

ciccocioppo@paprolife.org

The pro-life movement in Pennsylvania and the nation suffered a great loss on Saturday, March 18, 2017 when Gary L. Cangemi died at the age of 62 in Scranton.

By Maria Gallagher, Legislative Director

Another abortion center is shutting its doors in Pennsylvania, as abortion giant Planned Parenthood has announced plans to close down its Easton, Pennsylvania facility at the end of March.

The center performed chemical abortions, which now account for more than a third of all abortions in Pennsylvania. According to figures released by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, non-surgical, also known as “medical” abortions, totaled 11,314 in PA in 2015, the latest year for which statistics are available. The total number of abortions that year was 31,818.

The facility’s closure is welcome news to a number of area residents, who believed the center was targeting teenagers because of its proximity to nearby schools.

Still, Planned Parenthood continues to operate a number of abortion centers in Pennsylvania.

A report in The Morning Call newspaper indicated Planned Parenthood Keystone, which has been running the Easton center, will be referring women to its Allentown abortion center, which also performs surgical abortions.

Interestingly enough, Planned Parenthood has also been closing facilities in Pennsylvania that do not perform abortions. Three Planned Parenthood centers in the state shut down in December alone, and another in southeastern Pennsylvania (Bristol) will reportedly cease operations at the end of March.

Planned Parenthood Keystone CEO Melissa Reed told The Morning Call the closings stemmed from a “market analysis” in August. “If we had health centers that are really close together and competing in the same market, it doesn’t make sense to have two buildings to support.” Reed said.

Fortunately, mirroring national trends, abortions have been on a downward trend in Pennsylvania. The total of 31,818 abortions in 2015 represented the fewest on record!

The miracle of ultrasound technology—which can show babies smiling, crying, even giving a “thumbs up” in the womb—have helped to humanize the unborn child and strengthened the mother-child bond. Pregnancy resource centers—which provide everything from diapers to day care referrals—have also provided the compassionate support which empowers mothers to reject abortion.

The tens of thousands of abortions which continue to occur in Pennsylvania are an epic tragedy. But the closure of one more abortion center offers renewed hope that the lives of more precious babies will be saved—and more women will escape the devastating grief caused by the loss of a child to abortion.

“Life” is getting a second chance in Easton, Pennsylvania—and that gives us all reason to rejoice!

March 20^th is World Down Syndrome day.  It is an opportunity to celebrate children with Down Syndrome and recognize that it is not a disease or a disability, just a difference that should be respected.

I remember my experience with Down Syndrome.  My wife was pregnant with our first child, and we couldn’t be more excited.  We were already planning a Pittsburgh Steelers themed nursery and could not wait.  We had just found out we were having a boy, and had a follow-up with the doctor.

The doctor gravely informed us that our child had a club foot, and that could be a sign of him having Down Syndrome.  He was recommending we go for additional tests so we could decide what we wanted to do.  Talk about a shocker…we weren’t sure what to do.  After a discussion of the benefits and drawbacks of the additional testing, I looked at my wife and told her if she wanted to have the test, we would, but that I wasn’t sure what the point was…whether our child had Down Syndrome or not, he was going to be loved and cherished.  Ultimately we decided not to have the test, and a few months later we were blessed with a healthy baby boy who happened to have club foot.  That baby boy will turn 11 four days after World Down Syndrome Day, and you wouldn’t know he had club foot by looking at him (see above for his 2015 soccer picture).

Now, I do not have any issue with parents who decide to get additional testing.  I can understand the impulse to know as much as possible about the new life you are beginning.  What is concerning is the number of people who determine their child may have Down Syndrome, or any of the other “abnormalities” the testing finds and decide to have an abortion which will kill their baby.  In fact, 93% of babies diagnosed with Down Syndrome are killed before they even have a chance at life (despite a 2.5% margin of error in the testing).

As we approach World Down Syndrome day, I encourage you to take a minute and get to know a child with Down Syndrome.  Consider that he or she is one of the 7% whose parents decided they were going to love their child no matter what, and they were going to give him or her an opportunity to live life to its fullest.

HARRISBURG, Pa. –A ban on the brutal practice of dismemberment abortions has been approved by the Pennsylvania Senate.

The measure, Senate Bill 3, will make it illegal to cause “the death of an unborn child by means of dismembering the unborn child and extracting the unborn child one piece at a time from the uterus through the use of clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors or similar instruments.”

Under the measure, the legal limit for abortions in Pennsylvania would also change from six months’ to five months’ gestation, reflecting the fact that modern technology has been able to save babies at ever-earlier stages of development.

“Taking the life of an unborn child by tearing the baby limb by limb from a mother’s womb is cruel and unconscionable. It is a gruesome practice which most Pennsylvanians want to see banned, according to a statewide poll of Commonwealth residents.  Not one Pennsylvania child should be subjected to this form of brutality—and not one mother should have to grieve a child killed in such a barbaric way,” said Maria Gallagher, legislative director for the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, an affiliate of National Right to Life.

Senate Bill 3, which is sponsored by state Senator Michele Brooks (Crawford, Erie, Mercer, and Warren Counties), provides exceptions for the mother’s life or for the “substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.”

“Poll results show that support for a dismemberment abortion ban in Pennsylvania is actually higher among women than men,” Gallagher added. “Sixty-four percent of PA women want to see this heinous practice banned once and for all.  And they applaud those women lawmakers who are leading the fight to end this ultimate form of child abuse.”

 The bill now moves to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for consideration. A similar bill overwhelmingly passed in the House of Representatives last legislative session.

For immediate release: Tuesday, January 31, 2017
For more information: Tatiana Bergum, (202) 626-8825, mediarelations@nrlc.org

National Right to Life Committee Commends President Trump
For His Selection of Judge Neil Gorsuch as Successor to Justice Scalia

WASHINGTON – Today, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates, commended President Donald Trump for his selection of Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the U.S. Supreme Court seat vacated by the February 2016 death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

“All too often, our efforts to protect unborn children and other vulnerable humans have been overridden by judges who believe they have a right to impose their own policy preferences,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life.  “We are heartened that Judge Gorsuch appears to share Justice Scalia’s view that federal judges are constrained to enforce the text and original intent of constitutional provisions, and on all other matters should defer to democratically elected lawmakers.”

As a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10^th Circuit since 2006, Gorsuch has not reviewed any state or federal abortion laws. However, he showed support for conscience rights in two cases involving Obamacare mandates. He dissented from a ruling hostile to Utah’s attempts to curb funding for Planned Parenthood (Planned Parenthood Association of Utah v. Herbert). Gorsuch’s 2006 book The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia argued against the legalization of assisted suicide, and defended the idea that “human life is fundamentally and inherently valuable, and that the intentional taking of human life by private persons is always wrong.”

“Pro-life legislators and activists nationwide can have high confidence that as a Supreme Court justice, Neil Gorsuch will not join those who have nullified past efforts to protect the lives of unborn children and other vulnerable humans,” said Douglas D. Johnson, Senior Policy Advisor for National Right to Life.

Founded in 1968, National Right to Life, the federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, NRLC works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia