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!

Sailing Around Pro-Life Laws: The Abortion Boat and the Feds

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Abortion proponents are skirting past laws meant to protect women and preborn children.

The latest group to literally sail around abortion laws is the Women on Waves abortion boat. The Dutch-based pro-abortion group sails a boat to countries that do not allow abortions, and performs chemical abortions off of the coast of pro-life nations. The group’s latest target is Morocco.

The Women on Waves boat gives abortions using RU-486, a dangerous and often ineffective drug that suffocates the preborn baby and causes dangerous side effects.

Earlier this year, our own federal government also skipped over state laws limiting funds to abortion providers. In a special October series, Americans United for Life exposes the Obama Administration’s staunch support for Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. After six states decided to end taxpayer funding for the abortion provider, the Obama Administration overrode their laws and provided federal grants to make up for the abortion giant’s lost funding.

We entrust our elected officials with the responsibility of enacting laws that protect our rights – the first being our right to life. When groups skirt past these laws, they show their disregard for our government’s laws, our voters, the women who these laws are designed to protect, and most of all our very right to life – from conception to natural death.

Seven Ideas for Protecting the Right to Life in October

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October is a great month to get involved in the pro-life movement. The month holds multiple chances to participate in pro-life prayer, outreach, and public witnessing against the tragedy of abortion.

This fall, why not make it a goal to do one pro-life activity? Take just a few hours out of one day to participate in an event. You could save a life!

Here are seven ideas for you:

1. Participate in a 40 Days for Life Campaign. Beginning  Wednesday and continuing 40 days through October, the groups will hold constant  vigils outside abortion centers as they pray and fast. Because of these peaceful gatherings, about 6,000 babies have been saved from abortion, 24 abortion centers have closed, and 69 abortion workers have quit their jobs. Find a campaign in your area here.

2. Join a Life Chain on Sunday, October 7. The Life Chain is a public display of prayerful opposition to abortion. Pro-lifers usually gather at a prominent point in town to listen to pro-life speakers and pray. To see if there will be a Life Chain in your area, email us at lifelines@paprolife.org .

3. Spend one evening in October reading more about the devastating effects of abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia. Our website has a wealth of information about abortion, unplanned pregnancies and alternatives to abortion, stem cell research, legislation, euthanasia, and more.

4. Write a letter to the editor about a pro-life issue. Find tips for writing here.

5. Join a chapter of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation. Our 40 chapters serve as important links in their community to right to life information and advocacy. They organize events such as 40 Days for Life and Life Chains, host special speakers and classes, spread information through billboards and advertisements, and set up informational booths at community events.  Some churches, high schools, and colleges also have pro-life groups. Find a chapter here.

6. Pray for the women who are facing unintended pregnancies, and pray for an end to abortion.

7. Host a bake sale or a baby shower to raise money for your local pregnancy help center. Or volunteer to help at the center for a day. Find a list of pregnancy help centers here.

October is the perfect time to make your voice heard for the preborn!

 

Pennsylvania Lawsuits Oppose Abortion in HHS Mandate

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This month, a Pennsylvania judge is weighing a lawsuit against the controversial federal Health and Human Services Mandate.

Filed by the Catholic Diocese of Erie, the suit says the mandate violates religious liberty by forcing the diocese to pay for contraception and abortion-causing drugs.

Read more about the case here.

The diocese is one of dozens of employers who filed lawsuits opposing the abortion and contraception provisions in the law. These include a business in western Pennsylvania and Geneva College in Beaver Falls.

This dangerous mandate not only is a violation of religious liberty, but its abortion provisions also extend our country’s violation of the right to life.

To learn more about the abortion, medical rationing, and euthanasia provisions in the new health care law, visit our website and click on the videos at the top of the screen.

If you haven’t already done so, you can sign our petition opposing the life-threatening provisions in the federal health care law here.

Chemical Abortions Are Dangerous, Ineffective

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RU-486, a chemically-induced abortion drug, was hailed as a wonder when it first was introduced to the United States.

A woman could have a “safe,” “easy” abortion without any cold metal instruments or “invasive” procedures, proponents said. A woman just takes the drug and – ta da – no more pregnancy.

But research flies in the face of this propaganda. RU-486 actually is a very dangerous, often ineffective drug.

Not the morning after pill, RU-486 is a steroid that blocks the hormone progesterone, which is needed for a pregnancy to continue. The drug starves and suffocates the baby to death over a period of three to four agonizing days. A second drug usually is taken to induce contractions to expel the baby.

RU-486 has serious health risks for the women who take it. Side effects include heavy bleeding, fever, cramping, diarrhea, high blood pressure, increased heart rate, infections, and more.

Sometimes, the drug fails to finish its deadly deed – and the woman must undergo a surgical abortion. When the chemical abortion doesn’t work correctly, the risks also are more serious, including uncontrolled bleeding, infection, and future birth defects.

A recent study in Vietnam found that one in four women had to undergo a surgical abortion after an incomplete RU-486 abortion, according to a recent Contraception article.

The drug also makes it difficult for women and doctors to distinguish between ordinary side effects (heavy bleeding, pain) and signs of a more serious problem such as hemorrhage, ruptured ectopic pregnancy, or infection, according to an article from the Association for Interdisciplinary Research in Values and Social Change.

Yet, the number of abortion centers offering chemical abortions has been steadily increasing.

Planned Parenthood recently issued a national directive that all of its centers offer abortion services by 2013. As a result, some Planned Parenthood centers in Pennsylvania that didn’t do abortions previously now offer these dangerous chemical abortions.

This expansion and promotion of abortion must stop. RU-486 is a dangerous, painful drug that can be seriously injurious or deadly to the woman, as it effectively or ineffectively kills her preborn child.