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A Book Worthy of a Second Look: Subverted, Chapters 1 & 2

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By Bonnie Finnerty, Education Director

With so many books, so little time, few books tempt me into a second reading. However, our Winter Lit for Life book recommendation is one of them. The first time I read it, I eagerly gulped down page after page, trying to digest all the revelations.  But Sue Ellen Browder’s Subverted: How I Helped the Sexual Revolution Hijack the Women’s Movement merits a slow, deliberate re-read, one that allows us to ponder the true story of the feminist movement and the forces within and around it. One that challenges the prevailing cultural narrative.

For that reason, we are reading two chapters a week and posting a blog that will include intriguing quotations. We invite you to read along with us and to share your reactions on social media.

In the opening chapter to the book entitled The Inside Witness, Browder introduces herself as the small-town girl looking for big city action after graduating with a journalism degree. She “succeeds” when she lands a job at Cosmopolitan in 1970 as a freelance writer, securing a front row seat to New York City’s cultural revolution for 24 years.

That transformation included two movements that Browder says were not originally united. “In the beginning, the women’s movement and the sexual revolution were distinctly separate cultural phenomena.”

Browder confesses that much of what she and others at Cosmopolitan wrote was fabricated, calling herself “one of the propagandists who helped sell single women on the notion that sex outside of marriage would set them free.”

And she reveals that the 1960’s women’s movement was hijacked largely due to the efforts of one man devoted to making abortion legal.  Larry Lader, considered a “hidden persuader,” will figure prominently in future chapters.

The title of the second chapter The Problem that Had No Name comes from the “mother of the women’s movement,” Betty Friedan. In her revolutionary 1963 publication The Feminine Mystique, Friedan speculated on the deep dissatisfaction of the American housewife who had been limited by “the deeply engrained cultural belief that the only path to feminine fulfillment was to be a wife and mother.”

While Friedan is considered a trailblazer for women’s rights, Browder points out what has been lost in the feminist narrative—that Friedan was not anti-marriage or anti-family. She disliked the phrase “women’s liberation,” preferring to characterize the women’s movement as a fight for equality.  

Browder and Betty Friedan had a shared experience–both were fired for being pregnant, a not uncommon practice back then, unfortunately. Even so, Browder points out that the first edition of The Feminine Mystique never mentioned abortion or the Pill.

Rather than change women and their child-bearing ability, Friedan aimed to change society, “to take the actions needed to bring women into the mainstream of American society, now, fully equality for women, in fully equal partnership with men.”  That, says Browder, was the “original rallying cry” of the modern women’s movement.

So how did the women’s movement, an admittedly noble cause for social justice aimed at equal education and employment opportunities, become so enmeshed with abortion?

Stay tuned as we read Chapters 3 and 4 for this Friday.

Quotable quotes:

Chapter 1: “Propaganda-withheld truths-cuts off democratic discourse, blocks genuine dialogue, and keeps the public from participating in reality.”

Chapter 2: “Women are the people who give birth to children, and that is a necessary value in society…Feminism was not opposed to marriage and motherhood…You want a feminism that includes women who have children and want children because that’s the majority of women.” -Betty Friedan

The Abortion Vaccine

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By Bonnie Finnerty, Education Director

At an intersection of both history and numbers, that is where we are.  

Historically, we mark one year since coronavirus surfaced in the United States, while also observing the 48th anniversary of legalized abortion.

Numerically, we mourn the 400,000 lives claimed by the pandemic of 2020, while also grieving more than 800,000 lives that perished last year in a much more enduring plague.

While applauding extraordinary efforts to save lives touched by a hostile virus, we lament everyday efforts to take smaller, completely helpless lives.

While eagerly welcoming a COVID vaccine produced in record time, we yearn for a long-awaited vaccine that will end prenatal dismemberment.

What we need is a cure for the sickness that has caused the premature demise of 62.5 million unique individuals.

For decades, the pro-life movement has been working toward a vaccination of sorts. One that fights not a petri dish viral culture but instead a culture of death that has gone viral.

Our antidote to abortion is comprised of scientific facts, fundamental civil rights, respect for natural law, abundant compassion, and practical resources. We inoculate the public with our witness and testimony, dialogue and debate, passion and prayers.

And the more we inject the culture with truth, the more we build an immunity to the lies that feed the abortion virus. The more we combat the insidious belief that any one life is disposable, the healthier we become as a human family.

Our efforts strengthen women and men who feel weakened by distortions and deceptions, empowering them to choose life.

Our pro-life “vaccine” creates a society welcoming to life no matter the circumstances because even the most difficult circumstances do not erase our humanity.

Once we achieve herd immunity we will realize that there is no crisis that calls for killing and no crisis that can’t be overcome with love and understanding, help and hope.

We will have made abortion unthinkable.

That is the medicine we need to administer in ending the deadliest pandemic our country has ever known.  That is the vaccine for abortion.

U.S. Supreme Court Ruling: A Victory for Women and Their Children

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HARRISBURG, Pa. –The U.S. Supreme Court should be applauded for its landmark ruling banning abortion facilities from mailing abortion drugs to women.

“This is a victory for women and their children, in Pennsylvania and throughout the country,” said Maria V. Gallagher, legislative director for the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, an affiliate of National Right to Life.

“Abortions-by-mail violate the very idea of sound medical practice and high-quality care for patients,” Gallagher said. “By pushing this dangerous practice, the abortion industry had demonstrated once again it is far more concerned about expanding abortion rather than safeguarding the health and safety of women,” Gallagher added.

A recently released report by the Pennsylvania Department of Health shows that, in 2019, 285 abortion complications were reported, an astronomical increase of 59 percent from the 2018 totals. The vast majority of the complications involved baby body parts being left in the mother’s womb, followed by bleeding and infection. 

A Pennsylvania abortion operation announced this week it was expanding abortion in the Keystone State by offering abortion drugs by mail. Planned Parenthood Keystone’s website stated individuals could receive the drugs at home “instead of coming into one of our health centers.”

Since the Supreme Court ruling, the page of the website detailing the abortions by mail program has been removed.

************************************************************************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.

Life is Still Winning

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By Bonnie Finnerty, Education Director

Conversion. Risk. Progress. Betrayal. Resilience. Words familiar to some inside the pro-life movement, and words that Marjorie Dannenfelser knows well.

Words that can be found in Life is Winning: Inside the Fight for Unborn Children and their Mothers, a fascinating, informative, and encouraging book. As president of the Susan B. Anthony List, she provides a masterful summary of pro-life politics during the last few decades.

Once the pro-choice chair of her College Republicans club, Dannenfelser had viewed abortion as a “necessary evil.” But she then encountered “for the first time a principled and coherent argument against abortion on legal and moral grounds,” leading her to become passionately pro-life.

While interning at the Heritage Foundation, a mentor offered sage advice. To succeed in politics, figure out “what is missing, what needs to be done that no one else is doing, then put yourself in a position to fill that need.”

A few years later, working for a pro-life Democrat on Capitol Hill and immersed in battles over abortion legislation, Dannenfelser discovered that need: Identify and elect more pro-life women to political office. Thus, in 1993, the Susan B. Anthony List was born and Marjorie its first president.

Pitted against the older and very influential Emily’s List which raises millions each election cycle to promote pro-abortion candidates, the SBA List faced a multitude of challenges from the very beginning.  

First, raising money. Then, overcoming the view that abortion was a losing issue and should be discussed as little as possible. And then finding candidates to endorse.

But likening this endeavor to the field of dreams, Dannenfelser believed if you build it, they will come.

SBA List launched just as the Clinton presidency began. While in 1986, Clinton went on record as opposing abortion and government funding of abortion, by 1993, he was completely in line with the Democratic Party’s pro-abortion platform. In addition to signing executive orders that overturned more than a decade’s worth of pro-life gains, he would veto a ban on partial-birth abortion twice.

Dannenfelser reminds us that a certain Democratic Senator from Delaware voted to override both vetoes.  Unfortunately, Joe Biden has since fully embraced the party’s radical pro-abortion stance.

Although birthed during an unfavorable administration, the SBA List made incredible progress in a short time. Just one year into their mission, eight of the 15 SBA List-endorsed women won in the 1994 election, outperforming Emily’s List.

Eventually, SBA List discerned that its true mission was not to elect women to office but to end abortion. They decided to endorse pro-life male candidates.

In 2011, SBA List launched the Charlotte Lozier Institute to focus on science and statistics related to life issues. Then in 2013, they created the National Pro-Life Women’s Caucus to build pro-life politics from the bottom up—on the local and state levels.

Offering a clear timeline of elections, events, and legislation, Dannenfelser also provides lesser known information, a behind-the-scenes look at the political landscape surrounding the abortion issue during the last 27 years.

While recounting risks taken and successes gained, Dannenfelser is honest about setbacks, some crushing. She notes that some pro-life candidates wanted to call a “truce” on the abortion issue, feeling it was an unpopular issue that compromised their campaigns. Citing several election results as proof, Dannenfelser says there is no evidence that downplaying the life issue is advantageous to candidates.  

And then there is Donald Trump. Initially very skeptical about him prior to the 2016 election, Dannenfelser relates why she slowly embraced his candidacy, only to grow into an enthusiastic supporter.  She came to believe that Trump was finally a Republican nominee who would not “hide his pro-life light under a bushel” as so many had before.

And right she was. She details both well-known pro-life accomplishments of the Trump administration as well as personal anecdotes that demonstrate his sincerity where vulnerable life is concerned.

Published several months before the November 2020 election, this book builds a strong case for a second Trump administration.  Although that seems unlikely at this point, it is important to note the tremendous pro-life outcomes of the election, fruit of the SBA List and many other pro-life organizations across the country.

A historic number of pro-life women have been elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. In addition to the existing 11 pro-life Congresswomen, seventeen more won their races, including eight who defeated a pro-abortion incumbent. And another pro-life woman was added to the US Senate, with the hope of yet one more after the Georgia election.

Dannenfelser believes these results prove a sleeping giant has been awakened in the pro-life movement. There is much work to do but the pro-life movement is bigger, stronger, and more united than ever before, and momentum continues to build on the side of life.  

Dannenfelser’s vision and determination are an inspiration and her story well worth reading. She and the SBA List are a big reason why Emily’s List is losing and life is still winning.

Opening Every Gift

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By Bonnie Finnerty, Education Director

In this season of gift-giving, pretty packages with glittery ribbons abound, stirring curiosity and creating anticipation.  

The completely unexpected gift is often the best. Someone takes us by surprise, filling us with a sense of delight and wonder as we carefully unwrap the layers to discover whatever treasure lies within.

Imagine, however, we never open the gift. Perhaps the packaging is not what we expected. Or the ribbon is knotted and the gift difficult to open. Rather than embracing this gift with joyful anticipation, we are discouraged and discard it. Left unopened, we never realize what awaited us.

When a young woman faces an unexpected pregnancy, she may feel overwhelmed by the gift of life she has been given.  Perhaps it doesn’t seem the right gift at the right time or under the right circumstances. There are knots and imperfections and fear of the unknown.

The abortion industry plays into these negative feelings and says it’s all right to discard the gift. That it’s no big deal.  That the gift of life is not a gift at all, but a burden to be rid of, a “problem” that can literally be thrown away.

And in a vulnerable moment, she may succumb to this distorted notion, allowing a unique and precious gift to remain forever unopened, its promise and potential never known.

There may be a short-lived sense of relief.  But that will eventually give way to a longer lasting sentiment: wonder at what might have been.  And who might have been.

Too many women know the ache of the unopened gift.

And too many lives, 62 million, have been discarded.

That is why we must always endeavor to help women in crisis open every gift of life. 

With strong support, these mothers can see through the imperfect packaging of an untimely pregnancy. By making resources available to them, they can undo difficult knots, peel back layers, and see the gift of precious human life revealed. A unique gift given to only them at that specific point in time.

A gift of life that can bring them or perhaps an adoptive family untold joy.

A gift of life that will impact the world as we experience its promise and potential.

As we exchange gifts this season, let us vow to cherish and support the gift of every human life, however it is “wrapped,” especially those gifts of life that are unexpected.

Inside the Abortion Mindset: Illogical and Slippery

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Stephanie Gray Connors, pro-life apologist

By Bonnie Finnerty, Education Director



It was a huge admission: a pro-abortion professor conceding that we are living human beings from the moment of fertilization.

How then could he justify abortion, the deliberate killing of that human life?

In a recent debate co-sponsored by Harvard Right to Life and Massachusetts Citizens for Life, Peter Singer laid out his case in defense of abortion, while pro-life apologist Stephanie Gray Connors offered strong argumentation against it.

It was a robust but civil exchange of opposing viewpoints. By the end, the absurdity of the argument for abortion was evident.

The resolution being debated was Abortion is Immoral. In her opening statement, Gray Connors offered two assumptions that she believes everyone can agree to:

  1. All humans are equal, and thus it is wrong to deliberately end the life of some humans.
  2. Parents have a responsibility to care for their children, not kill them.

Singer, however, disagreed that all humans are equal, claiming that in order to have moral standing, we must possess certain “capacities.” Since embryos and fetuses are not self-aware, do not have desires, and cannot plan for the future, he contends they have no moral standing.

He acknowledged that newborns do not possess these qualities, nor do some people with disabilities, and so he believes they also lack moral standing.  Apparently, he is an advocate for infanticide and euthanasia as well.

When pressed, Singer acknowledged that a 2 year old might have moral standing, but he wasn’t sure about a 6 month old and would not draw any definitive line as to when we are “awarded” moral standing. Insisting that age is not the qualifying criteria as much as capacity, he said, for example, it would be morally acceptable to kill a 50 year-old who lacks self-awareness due to a brain injury.

In Singer’s world, it’s a very slippery slope. At any given time, you or I or he could lack moral standing based on an injury or illness. And we could be extinguished.

Gray Connors countered him by saying capacity to think is a function of age. A one-celled zygote does not yet have a developed brain that allows her to demonstrate her inherent capacities but by her very nature those capacities are still part of her human condition.  It is time alone that will enable greater demonstration of her capacity. She is young, but she is not less.

In fact, Gray Connors stated that the notion of older humans killing younger humans because capacity is still developing is the ultimate form of ageism and bullying. 

It is survival of the fittest mentality in which the powerful terminate the weak. 

According to Gray Connors, Singer is exclusive, not inclusive; being human is not enough, we must be “human plus.” Further, she points out that capacity as a criteria for moral standing is arbitrary, as it can differ amongst individuals and even within a person’s lifetime.

Another revealing exchange concerned suffering. Singer admitted the issue is complicated when the fetus becomes pain-capable, which he sets at 27 weeks gestation (more recent research says much earlier). Rather than put a limit on abortion, Singer puts forth the idea of mitigating suffering by anesthetizing the fetus (and I suppose the newborn, disabled, elderly, etc.)

Singer believes if the fetus does not suffer pain, then it’s ok to kill her.

But as Gray Connors pointed out, something can be wrong even if it doesn’t involve suffering. She gave the example of a person who is undergoing surgery, sedated and unaware of a murderer in the operating room. By Singer’s criteria, this person lacks moral standing as well. Is it morally acceptable to kill him?

While Singer is a renowned animal rights activist who seeks to alleviate the killing and suffering of animals (who don’t have the capacity that he demands in humans), he is just fine with killing innocent children. In fact, he scolded Gray Connors who is pregnant with her first child for not being a vegan.

In her closing statement, Gray Connors stated we should strive to eliminate suffering but not the sufferers. She recounted her experience working in a failure-to-thrive clinic in Romania, where she cared for a baby girl suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome and weighing a mere 6 pounds at 6 months of age.

By being gently rocked and sung to, “she came alive with love.”  Gray Connors was teary talking about how this one fragile little life, thought to be disposable by Singer, is now thriving.

How can anyone argue against that?

(The entire debate can be viewed at https://youtu.be/DB5IZXGmk08.)

Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation PAC Endorses President Donald J. Trump

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For Immediate Release

Contact: Maria V. Gallagher, PAC Director

717-541-0034



            (Harrisburg) The Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation Political Action Committee, representing tens of thousands of people throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is pleased to endorse President Donald J. Trump for re-election.

            “President Trump has been a tireless champion for preborn babies and their mothers,” said Maria V. Gallagher, PAC Director of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, an affiliate of National Right to Life. “He has definitely earned the title ‘most pro-life President in U.S. history,'” Gallagher added.

            President Trump restored the important “Mexico City Policy,” which ensures that hard-earned taxpayer dollars are not spent on organizations that perform or promote abortions overseas. His Health and Human Services Department issued regulations that safeguard Title X funding from facilities that perform or refer for abortions. His Administration also stopped funding for the United Nations Population Fund because of its involvement in China’s forced abortion program.

            The President has also appointed U.S. Supreme Court Justices and other federal judges who have vowed to interpret the Constitution as written, rather than writing pro-abortion law from the bench. He has appointed numerous pro-life advocates to executive positions, such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson.

            “President Trump also supports legislation which would ban brutal late-term abortions where babies are torn limb by limb from their mothers’ wombs,” Gallagher said. “President Trump has faithfully and consistently protected the most vulnerable among us, and for that he has our enthusiastic support!”

            Pennsylvania is considered one of the key battleground states in the November 3rd election. In 2016, the Keystone State stunned the world by contributing to Donald Trump’s upset victory against pro-abortion extremist Hillary Clinton.

            This year’s Democratic Biden-Harris duo is considered to be the most radically pro-abortion Presidential ticket in U.S. history. Biden-Harris supports taxpayer funding of abortion and vows to expand the tragic U.S. Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade, which has led to the deaths of more than 61 million preborn Americans.   

Biden’s Running Mate Represents Extreme Pro-Abortion Politics

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HARRISBURG, Pa. – Democrat Joe Biden’s selection of California U.S. Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate demonstrates that, when it comes to abortion politics, the Democratic ticket is extreme.

            “Kamala Harris voted to use our hard-earned tax dollars to pay for abortion,” said Michael Ciccocioppo of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation Political Action Committee. “Harris has also voted for taxpayer funding of abortion providers.

            “Public opinion polls have shown, time and time again, that Americans do not want their taxpayer dollars to pay for abortion. As a result, Harris is clearly out of the mainstream,” Ciccocioppo added.

            Biden’s running mate supports the policy of abortion on demand for any reason during all nine months of pregnancy. Harris co-sponsored a bill that would invalidate nearly all state and federal limits on abortion. She even voted against the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which would ensure medical care for babies who survive botched abortions.

            “The Biden-Harris ticket is just what the abortion industry ordered,” Ciccocioppo said. “They want to subsidize abortion businesses, threatening the health and safety of women and their preborn children. A Biden-Harris Administration would be a disaster for women and babies throughout the U.S.”

Young Pro-Life Voices Inspire Hope for the Future

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composing computer with rose

By Bonnie Finnerty, Education Director

Just when we all needed a glimmer of hope and a boost in optimism, they delivered. They are the students who entered our annual pro-life essay and oratory contests and they are an impressive lot.

As a former English teacher, I think I have some pretty high standards. These kids met them! With eloquence and conviction, they took on tough topics, articulated strong arguments for life, and exposed the lies of the culture of death.

Lydia, for example, doesn’t buy into faux feminism that offers abortion as a tool of empowerment. She beautifully proclaims, “Pregnancy isn’t a hindrance to equality, it is something that makes women special.  The ability to conceive is a wonderful gift that women should use to honor and glorify God.”

Alyssa says nature supports this miraculous gift of life, explaining how the release of the “love hormone” oxytocin bonds mother and father with child. This beautiful, natural bond is horribly violated by the act of infanticide. “Protecting the lives of the innocent from infanticide…should be one of our most prioritized goals today.”

“Even animals realize that a baby, and an unborn one at that, is part of the family. They understand that the baby isn’t some impediment, or something they can get rid of…If animals can understand that, then why can’t we?” penned Helena, a passionate and wise eighth grader.

Gwen urges us to heed the silent crying of the babies. “It is our job to protect them, to speak for their rights.”

Camryn, in just seventh grade, wrote about the high percentage of abortion centers in minority neighborhoods. “No matter what the crisis is, abortion is never the answer…Society needs to stop this tragedy and help mothers, especially minority mothers.”

Clare spoke up for those whose abilities may be different but not less. “Unborn babies with disabilities can also live good lives. But we must give them a chance at life so they can show the world that they are not a hardship; they are a gift.”

LJ warned that, “Giving a person less value because they are in the beginning stages of life is the ultimate exploitation of our youth,” while Elise urged being pro-information to help others “appreciate the greatest art: the creation of a human being.”

Abigail points out the travesty of babies created in laboratories to be destroyed for research. “In short, lives are created with the complete understanding that the majority of those lives will be taken soon thereafter,” treating life not as a gift, but as disposable property.

Emily recognizes this destruction of life to be in conflict with our civil rights, citing the “guarantee of life” under the 14th amendment. She writes, “The legalization of abortion not only violates the unborn child’s right to life but also strips them of their ‘due process of law’.”

Alluding to the current crisis, Nathalia says, “If there is one thing this pandemic has taught us, it is to honor the value of life.”

In a time of great turmoil, Thomas reminds us of who we are and what we must do. “The United States is called the land of the free and the home of the brave. Yet, we allow abortion, an attack on the helpless…Let us turn the minds and hearts of this country back to those great principles of truth, protection of the innocent and freedom for all.”

May the passion and wisdom of these young people inspire in all of us a renewed commitment to defend and protect all human life.

 

Intimacy: “Into-Me-See” Inherent Value

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diverse hands clenchd together

By Bonnie Finnerty, Education Director

George Floyd’s life, without qualification, had inherent value.

His death and subsequent events come after a long period of nationwide isolation. At this time, we should be re-uniting in solidarity to proclaim the sanctity of a man’s life, of every human life, but instead society seems to be fracturing into shards of disunity and destruction.

How can we reconcile and heal? How can we fix the ills that beset our society?

There are no easy answers.  We have much soul-searching to do. But we must be willing to address the core of such unjustices.

Racism, and other –isms, such as sexism, ageism, and able-ism, are rooted in the same thing: a failure to fully and consciously recognize the inherent dignity that belongs to every person by virtue of being human.

In failing to recognize this fundamental dignity, we tend to objectify the other, seeing him as someone whose worth is based on what he can do, or looks like, or possesses, or knows, or some other arbitrary criteria, rather than the premise that a person has worth simply because he IS.

Someone once explained to me that “intimacy” means ‘into-me-see.” See the person. Truly see the person. In all his goodness and glory, with all his faults and imperfections.  Peer through the surface, and see their unrepeatable value.

We must look into the eyes of a person of a different race or creed, the eyes of a person with autism or Down Syndrome, the eyes of an elderly person frail and dependent, and allow ourselves to see the treasure of that individual.

We must truly listen to and hear those with whom we differ, dialogue earnestly with those who disagree with us, and persistently strive to remain civil even to the uncivilized.

We must advocate for the vulnerable, marginalized person threatened and overpowered by those bigger and stronger.

We must regard the sanctity of every life, without qualification, as our first and foremost right, seeking to defend, protect, and honor every life from its natural beginning to its natural end.

Let us honor the life and memory of George Floyd by changing how we look at one another.

Let us gaze selflessly and intimately at the other to see the value within.  Into-Me-See.