A call to Planned Parenthood confirmed she need not come in for an examination. A tele-med appointment would now suffice. And it would cost less.
Within an hour, the prescription was ready. Two little pills would be her “lifeline.”
No
one will ever know. This is safe. This
is easy. They told me so. This will give me my future back.
She wanted to believe all that. Hours later, reality proved otherwise.
Tears rained down her face while she tried to muffle cries and endure excruciating cramps.
Blood. Everywhere. Severely weakened, all she could do was lay on the cold floor for hours.
Hemorrhaging and pain would last for weeks. The trauma
forever.
No one told her.
No one told her that women have died from these pills.
That thousands have serious complications.
No one warned that the “tissue” she passed would have
a little nose and perfectly formed upper lip.
No one explained she’d deliver a tiny
baby, her baby into a toilet, an
image she would never be able to unsee.
She was further along than suspected.
But a doctor never examined her. Instead, a stranger prescribed an
abortion via computer.
She never felt more alone. Scared. Wounded.
This is mail-order abortion. This is what the FDA, the agency that is supposed to safeguard our health, is now allowing.
This is what the abortion industry is selling. “Tele-health”
that kills preborn babies and seriously puts women’s physical and emotional
health at risk.
Back alley abortion has come into the home.
We mustn’t let it. We must warn all the young women susceptible to the lies and deceptions of the abortion industry. We must assure them of our help and support.
We must protect them and their precious children, even when our government will not.
On December 1, the United States Supreme Court heard
oral arguments in the case Dobbs vs.
Jackson Women’s Health regarding Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban. One argument put forth by the pro-abortion
side was reliance. In other
words, the so-called right to abortion must be preserved because women have
come to rely on it.
In her opening statement,
Department of Justice Solicitor General Elizabeth Prologar said, “The Court has
never revoked a right that is so fundamental to so many Americans and so
central to their ability to participate fully and equally in society.”
Can Prologar hear
herself? Can she hear how profoundly anti-woman this argument is? She, and by
extension our government, claims that abortion, the deliberate killing of one’s
own child, is necessary for women to participate “fully and equally in society.”
Women
can’t succeed without abortion. Is there a more misogynistic
statement?
It is this line of
thinking that allows Hollywood producers, Wall Street executives, and corporate
management to tell women facing an untimely pregnancy to “get rid of it.”
It is this warped
mentality that encourages men to wash their hands of their responsibility as fathers,
protectors, and providers.
It is this pathetic
worldview that says a woman’s fertility is a barrier to success. In order to compete
with men, she must “apologize” for her own completely natural life-giving superpower
by killing her own child.
Furthermore, this reliance mindset damages efforts to offer true support to women and families. Why offer paid maternity and paternity leave, remote work options, affordable child care, academic alternatives, or material and emotional support to women and families, when motherhood could have been “avoided” via abortion?
What kind of society have
we created that some women feel they cannot acquire an education, advance their
career, or find fulfillment unless they sacrifice their unborn child’s life? This is pitiful progress in terms of the
women’s movement.
Rather than removing the child from the sanctuary of the womb, we should be removing educational, vocational, and economic barriers for the women nurturing the next generation.
Shattering glass ceilings should not require shattering human lives.
While Prologar says the Court has never before revoked a right so fundamental to Americans as abortion, she is wrong. What could be more fundamental than the right to life itself? In Roe the Court revoked that right, tragically denying “full and equal participation in society” to 62 million preborn Americans.
During arguments, Justice Samuel Alito pointed out that the South once relied on segregation in creating a society based on white supremacy. It was an improper reliance, he acknowledged, based on an egregiously wrong understanding of what equal protection means.
The same can be said for abortion. It is an improper reliance based on an egregiously wrong understanding of the law. No one should have to rely on sacrificing a precious human life in order to participate fully and equally in society.
I vividly recall the scene, since the details are forever etched in my memory.
I stood before the abortion center, knowing that each car parked there represented a tiny, irreplaceable human being who was being led to death.
It was a sobering sight–all the more so because it was near Christmas.
There is something particularly surreal about being present at an abortion facility at Christmas time. After all, at this time of year we recall an unmarried teenage Mom who gave birth to the child Christians would call the Savior.
Mary, of course, had her Joseph. Far too often, women today are left abandoned by the fathers of their children. It is that desperation that can lead them to the abortion center door.
Thankfully, however, there are so many people who are willing to stand in the gap to support pregnant women at their time of need. No pregnant woman should be made to feel as if she is all alone. A supportive, compassionate team may be as close as the nearest pregnancy resource center.
May pregnant women this Christmas find all the love they need to bring their babies into this world–a world which is desperately in need of the hope their children can provide.
I had just picked up some coffee, hoping the jolt of java would help me power through the rest of my day.
As I approached the intersection, I saw her, holding a sign which read, “Pregnant. No job.”
I beeped my horn and signaled for her to come up to my car window. I knew handing her cash was not enough–she needed much more than a few dollars could bring. She needed hope, compassion, companionship–not to mention a car seat and baby clothes.
What she needed was downtown–at a pregnancy resource center.
I quickly gave her the name of the center. The stoplight turned and I had to join the parade of traffic passing through the intersection.
But my conscience would not allow me to abandon this woman, or the distressing situation in which she found herself. So I ultimately circled back, parked the car, and approached her again–this time with cell phone in hand, ready to give her the address of the pregnancy center.
I explained to her the resources and services which the center could provide. She seemed a bit incredulous, not realizing that there was an entire facility dedicated to serving the needs of pregnant women, free of charge.
Pregnancy resource centers provide a critical safety net for women who find themselves in difficult situations. The comprehensive counseling and mentorship which the centers provide can be crucial to a pregnant woman’s journey.
Internet ads, billboards, and flyers can all help to spread the word. But sometimes the best messenger is another person, who can carry the message of love through a personal interaction.
I am so grateful for my local pregnancy center, and the many centers which dot my state. They provide a safe haven for women and their babies during difficult times, and contribute greatly to the quality of life in our communities.
They are a beacon in the darkness, and their light of hope shines brightly during these stressful times.
I will forever remember the intensity of those eyes.
I would gaze into them as I was nursing, and they would pierce my soul. I never felt so connected with my baby girl as I did when I looked into her pale blue eyes.
Science tells us that a baby’s eyes start to develop a mere 19 days after conception. These windows to the soul carry with them so much possibility and promise.
Yet, nearly 900,000 times a year in the U.S. alone, that possibility and promise come to a terrifying end. The culprit is abortion, which forever steals from those eyes of the majesty of sunsets, the glory of flowers, the pristine wonder of new fallen snow.
So much of our humanity is expressed through our eyes. Who among us has not been deeply touched by the kindness expressed through the eyes of someone who truly cares for us?
As I was in church the other day, I saw a man lift up a baby and stare joyfully into her eyes. It was a moment of profound connection—sacred time.
Part of the tragedy of abortion is that the mother is robbed of the experience of gazing lovingly into her baby’s eyes. The bond between mother and child is severed in a most violent and heartless way. In fact, it is only in denying the humanity of the preborn child that abortion is able to flourish. It is through intellectual blindness that abortion proliferates.
As advocates for life, it is incumbent upon us to teach the world about the development of the unborn child. People need to know that by the 10th week post-conception, a preborn baby can move her eyes into a squint. Our fellow travelers on this earth need to know just what is at stake with every abortion—the loss of an unrepeatable human life.
May we always see the miracle inherent in a preborn child and share that miracle with the world!
The presentation of oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in the pivotal case known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization stirred my soul. Finally, I felt, the Supreme Court was listening to reason.
Sloganeering and catchy memes had no place at the High Court. Rather, Justices were compelled to listen to the many ways the 1973 decision known as Roe v. Wade had failed to settle the abortion debate.
At stake was more than a 15-week ban on abortion in Mississippi. For this is the case that could finally overturn Roe and restore the issue of abortion to the people in the individual states, where it belongs.
The Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation was among the many groups that filed friend-of-the-court briefs. In our well-reasoned brief, we argued strongly that both pregnant mother and preborn child deserve protection and care, and that modern obstetrical practice demanded Roe’s demise.
The Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court have proven to be an unpredictable lot. But for the first time in a long time I am hopeful that I will see the day of Roe’s end.
My body is not their property. So said Madi, a 21-year-old college senior who was 13 weeks pregnant. Featured in a recent ABC News story, Madi flew to Mississippi’s lone abortion facility, with her mother’s blessing nonetheless, to get the abortion she could no longer get in Texas, stating, “I had to keep in mind that I was doing this for me.”
At 13 weeks, Madi was in her second
trimester, and her child was about 3 inches long, the size of a peach. His
heart was beating, his gender distinguishable, and his vocal cords newly formed.
He could respond to light touch, turning his mouth toward it, an indication of
the rooting reflex used when nursing. Madi’s baby could even hiccup. His little
body was physically joined to but genetically
separate from his mother. His body was
not her property.
But no one seems to tell
Madi this fact. Rather the entire ABC News segment focuses on aborting her
child as THE only choice, leaving out information on any other option.
Missing is any evidence
of an ultrasound, perhaps because seeing her baby would have changed Madi’s mind
as it does to the majority of women considering abortion.
Missing is the hundreds
of easily accessible pregnancy resource centers equipped to help Madi materially
and emotionally through her pregnancy and long after.
Missing is the father of
the baby, with whom she said she had been in a committed relationship. Co-creator of this new life, he is denied any
role as to whether his child lives or dies.
Missing is any mention whatsoever
of the other A-word: adoption, and the fact that for every baby placed for
adoption there are 36 couples waiting to grow their family.
Missing are specifics of
how the “procedure” is done, whether the baby feels pain, and where his little
body ends up.
And missing is just one
person to say “Yes, you can do this and I will help you.” Even Madi’s mother is
willing to exterminate her own grandchild so that her daughter can get back to her
“typical college life.”
With abortion dominating headlines due to Supreme Court cases, we can expect more liberal media stories sympathetic to the abortion industry. Indeed, poor Madi is upheld as a new Norma McCorvey of sorts, the original Jane Roe, who was used by the abortion lobby and then tossed aside. McCorvey actually never got an abortion though, and her daughter lives today. Madi’s child does not.
Among the many things Madi is never told in this thinly veiled propaganda piece is that she doesn’t have to choose between her child and her future. That she should be empowered and supported to return to school and chase her dreams. That she can take responsibility for her child to whom she is already a mother. That she engaged, by her own admission, in baby-making behavior that indeed made a baby.
Also unspoken are the long term consequences of abortion. While Madi gushes over the kindness of abortion staff, one must wonder where any of them will be when a more mature Madi, perhaps trying to conceive one day or watching her next child’s ultrasound, awakens to the reality of the precious life she sacrificed. Where will the abortion advocates be when the anxiety, addiction, depression, relationship issues, and suicidal thoughts that plague many post-abortive women come to haunt Madi?
No one reminds her that pregnancy is temporary, but abortion forever. And forever is a long time to feel the ache of grief and guilt over a child needlessly killed.
Equipped with truth about the baby within her and supported by family and community, Madi might have taken another road. All she needed was someone to tell her the plain truth that yes, her body is not their property, and it never was…even when she was 13 weeks old in her own mother’s womb.
The Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation sent the following letter along with thousands of petition signatures on October 15, 2021.
Dear Trustees,
Enclosed please find the names of
thousands of people who have signed our petition calling on the University of
Pittsburgh to cease its research using the body parts of aborted babies.
These gruesome experiments, which
include grafting human scalps onto laboratory mice, are unethical and a
violation of time-tested principles of responsible research.
We are especially troubled by
published reports alleging that human organs were harvested from babies whose
hearts were still beating. These reports, based on documentation collected by
the Center for Medical Progress and Judicial Watch, raise significant questions
about whether the research at issue is in violation of state and federal
statutes.
We have learned that you have hired
an outside legal firm to investigate this research. But we are mystified by
reports that the results of that investigation may not be released to the
public. In the interest of complete transparency, we further call on you to
make public the findings of this investigation.
As taxpayers whose hard-earned tax dollars help to support the University of Pittsburgh, we call upon you to stop conducting dehumanizing research using aborted baby body parts.
Brad
was his name. He was the first student I
ever taught who had Down syndrome.
I was just entering my second year of full-time teaching. I held a Reading Specialist certificate and had taken several special education courses. So one might think I’d feel well prepared.
Yet, I found myself a bit nervous about having Brad in my sixth-grade Language Arts classroom. While I admired my school district for blazing a trail with inclusive classrooms, I had no practical experience teaching students with an extra chromosome. In fact, at 25 years old I had very little life experience interacting with people with Down syndrome.
But
I need not have worried. Brad was an
amazing addition to our class. He read on a sixth-grade level, better than some
of his “typical” classmates. I loved when he volunteered to read out loud,
showcasing his excellent decoding skills and impressing his peers.
Brad
was pleasant and cooperative, not every day but most days– but the same could
be said about the other 150 students I taught. Middle schoolers in general are
a very fickle group!
On
one of his tougher days, Brad hid under a desk for most of class. While his
support teacher worked with him, his classmates dutifully carried on, modeling
for Brad how he should behave.
On
better days, Brad exuded love and happiness to the extreme! He accepted everyone as his friend and found
joy in the ordinary, modeling for us how we should behave.
What Brad contributed to our classroom was far greater than anything I expected. He brought out the best in all of us. He challenged me to hone my teaching methodology so that concepts could be presented in novel ways, and in doing so, I was able to reach more students of varying aptitudes. I became a more creative, more thoughtful teacher with Brad in the room.
He challenged his peers to rethink stereotypes and perceived limitations, and to reach out to someone who was different but not less. It was heartwarming to see a student choose Brad to be his partner for a class activity or to see how several students welcomed him into a group project and helped him find a role. These students discovered that Brad was a just another human being, a person who laughed and cried, a person who achieved goals but also made mistakes, a person who had good days and bad.
And they also discovered that Brad was a person who offered unconditional acceptance and unbounded love.
We
need more Brads in the world, not less.
I
believe if more of us interacted with people with Down syndrome we would discover
what a gift they are. We would stop trying to “eradicate” them, as they have
done in Iceland through abortion. And we would stop aborting them in alarming
numbers in our own country.
When
receiving a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, parents are often presented
with problems they could potentially face, rather than possibilities. Perhaps they or their doctor never had a Brad
in their classroom and witnessed the beauty, the value, and the dignity of his
life.
Why
are we so afraid of Down syndrome? Why do we routinely test for it during
pregnancy?
While
it should be acknowledged that parenting a child with an extra chromosome can pose
challenges, it is true that parenting any child can pose challenges, including
those with autism, ADHD, depression, a cognitive impairment, a chronic medical condition, a hearing or
visual impairment, or a host of other things that makes a person, makes us,
anything less than “perfect.”
Shall we “eradicate” anyone who fails to meet society’s definition of perfection? If we continue to move in that direction of eugenics, who will be missing from our world?
We would be missing all the Brads who teach us so much more than we teach them…the Brads who inspire us to think differently and to love more than we thought we could.
It was a child’s curiosity that started it all. She was exploring her parents’ bookshelves when one particular worn-out book caught her eye. Paging through, she was horrified at what she saw. She quickly shut the book, but compelled by an instinct to better understand what she had seen, she opened it again. She stared in disbelief and profound sadness, thinking of her own baby sister’s ultrasound picture. How could this be?
That moment was the
genesis of Lila Rose’s pro-life advocacy. That book was A Handbook on Abortion by Dr. and Mrs. J.C. Wilke, founders of the
National Right to Life. That child, even though just nine years old, felt called
to do something. That something would eventually evolve into Live Action, an
influential pro-life media and news organization that Lila founded when she was
just 15 years old.
In her book Fighting for Life: Becoming a Force for Change
in a Wounded World, Lila Rose details her journey from a little girl who
wanted to save babies to being the president of a pro-life nonprofit that has
worldwide reach. Reflecting on learning
about abortion at a young age and the impact it had on her, Lila writes, “Deep
grief is often the starting point for righting an injustice.”
Motivated to make a
difference, Lila raised money for pregnancy resource centers, prayed outside
abortion facilities, and started a pro-life club at her school. Her intention
was always to take the next small step to help women and to teach others about
abortion.
One small step led to
another, however, and Lila’s advocacy grew. In college, she expanded the
pro-life presence on the liberal campus of UCLA and even went undercover into
Planned Parenthood facilities to investigate whether they were complying with
the law.
What would enable a young
woman to take such risks and face certain adversity? Lila was open to learning
from mentors who helped her develop skills in apologetics, fundraising, public
speaking, and more. She found her heroes in Mother Teresa, St. Maximilian
Kolbe, and Corrie Ten Boom, people who exemplified courage and self-sacrifice. As
she matured and delved deeper into the abortion battleground, Lila recognized the
need to remain close to God. She deepened her prayer life and sought spiritual
direction. All of these were integral to staying centered while maintaining her
mission.
While her journey to becoming
a “pro-life rock star” is itself a compelling story, it is perhaps her transparency
that readers might find most surprising in this book. She openly acknowledges
her fears, insecurities, and personal battles, including struggles with depression,
an eating disorder, cutting, and complex family issues.
Many may know only a
picture-perfect version of Lila from social media or public appearances, but her
book candidly discloses her own vulnerabilities. Like all of us, she has experienced suffering.
She credits her pro-life advocacy for helping her heal and thrive because she
found a cause bigger than herself, one in which she can serve others.
She uses her earned wisdom to offer simple but sage advice to anyone fighting for a cause close to their heart. The chapter titles reflect lessons learned and wise counsel: Know Your Gifts, Prepare to Stand Alone, Leave Your Comfort Zone, Be Teachable, etc. Without being preachy, Lila gives advice that is realistic and encouraging.
Now a wife and mother, Lila’s passion for life is stronger than ever. She urges everyone, whatever their background, to get involved in the pro-life movement. “The fight needs all of us, no matter our wounds or mistakes or imperfections…Together we can rebuild the broken foundations, restore what has been devastated, and renew our wounded world. Together we can celebrate the new beginning.”
