A Tale of Two Marches: First hand account

"It was the best of time; it was the worst of times" Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

How can a march that gave a voice for those who couldn't speak turn into a demonstration of privilege, abortion, and toxic feminism?

That is the question I have ponder the last few days when I attended the March for Life and the Women's March. After a heart to heart conversation with my mother (always eager to know about my travels), I felt like I had to write something comparing both of these marches. I encourage everyone who reads this post to pray for the conversion of those involved with abortion and for an end to both toxic feminism and masculinity that is dividing our culture.

March for Life January 18th 2019

I attended with 650,000 attendees who gave a voice to the voiceless (the unborn). As I took in the procession heading towards the Supreme Courthouse, I heard from the marchers singing, praying, and most importantly chants for the defense of life. They all were smiling and full of life.

Women's March January 19th 2019

The next day our nation's capital goes from a march for the voiceless to a march of being privileged and part of the walking dead. When I stood in downtown DC to watch tens of thousands of women take to the streets with abortion, anti-Trump, and even religious bigotry signs, my heart sunk. Why has our culture turned a blind-eye with apathy towards our neighbors? The Women's March was nothing but a parade for the walking dead and hypocrites in our culture who bought the counterfeit.

Even a brave small group of pro-lifers who countered the event received hatred from the participants to the point that they had to censor the anti-abortion signs. Two participants even claimed that I was brainwashed. One disclosed how she aborted two  children because she "was not ready for a child", but she became an adopted mother later in life.

We have much work that needs to done if we want to change the culture. The good news is that we have God and truth on our side.

To be combatant against this culture of death, selfishness, apathy, and even brokenness we must be equipped with love, mercy, and hope. The pro-life movement is one of love. Love conquers all. 

What Does it Mean to be Pro-Life?

By Maria Gallagher, Legislative/PAC Director
Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation 


Many members of the mainstream media have difficulty correctly identifying whether a candidate is or is not pro-life. I should know. I was once one of them.

As a radio reporter and a television news producer, I thought it perfectly legitimate to label someone as pro-life—even though he or she did not support an overturn of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion nationwide in 1973. In fact, I thought I myself fell into that category—that I could dislike abortion, that I could pray that it ended, but that I could support keeping abortion legal and routinely vote for those candidates who believed the same.

However, as I learned about things that characteristically do not appear in news stories—the physical development of the unborn child, the emotional pain of women who regret their abortions—I found my personally pro-life/politically pro-choice position untenable. But that “aha” moment, sadly, has not been experienced by a number of journalists, who routinely mislabel candidates as pro-life.

While watching cable news this week, I heard an anchor declare a Democratic candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania, Conor Lamb, as pro-life. But Lamb himself said that, while he is Catholic, he would not even call himself pro-life. Somehow, the news anchor had conflated Lamb’s positions on gun ownership and the President’s policy on tariffs, branded him a “moderate” Democrat, and therefore assumed he was pro-life as well.
This, despite the fact that Lamb would have voted against a late-term abortion ban in Congress.

Not so coincidentally, a number of Pennsylvania state lawmakers also refused to support a ban on abortion at five months’ gestation—yet claim the pro-life mantle. The bill these legislators voted against would have also outlawed the outrageous practice of dismemberment abortion, where a baby is torn limb by limb from a mother’s womb.

I ask you, how can you stand by and not try to stop such a ghastly practice, while all the while calling yourself a defender of life?

In Pennsylvania, we also have the curious case of Senator Bob Casey, Jr. Casey describes himself as pro-life, but he voted pro-abortion 80 percent of the time this session. He routinely lauds and applauds the nation’s largest abortion operation, Planned Parenthood, and refuses to try to cut off federal funding to the abortion giant. And he opposed strict constructionist Neil Gorsuch for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.

As it is popular to say in Pennsylvania, the Senator is not his father. The late Bob Casey, Sr. was actually barred from speaking at the Democratic National Convention because of the strength of his pro-life convictions.

Because of media mistakes and candidate obfuscations, it is more important than ever that pro-lifers look to sources such as the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation to find out the stands and voting records of candidates on the life issues. Those who are pro-life in name only do not advance the cause of life and attempt to lead us down detours from overturning Roe v. Wade. To paraphrase an old church hymn, they will know we are pro-lifers by our love—and our votes.

 

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.  For more information on the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, please use this link. 

YOU-nique Creations

By Carol Tobias, President, National Right to Life

National Right to Life News Today 

In recent days, much of the country experienced millions of billions of trillions of snowflakes, and more on top of that. In other words, a countless number of snowflakes. Each snowflake is different from the other snowflakes, never to be duplicated again. Once those snowflakes melt, that particular design, that special creation, will never be seen again.

In their uniqueness, human beings are like those snowflakes. Specially designed and uniquely created. There have been billions of human beings on this earth yet no two people are alike. You are one-of-a-kind. You are unique. Or as some dear friends at my church recently reminded us: you are YOU-nique.

Continue reading at www.nationalrighttolifenews.org

Celebrating an Amazing Year for Guiding Star Ministries!

Note: The following was taken from the Pro-Life Union of Greater Philadelphia's December Newsletter for Guiding Star Ministries and the Union's website.

What an incredible response to help the families at Guiding Star this year!  Five women and their children now call Guiding Star "home," and we are sprucing up the building to ready it for more incoming families.  Two more women and their children have participated in the program, but received housing and support in other locations, due to specific family needs.

This is all possible because of your great support.  We have had more than 150 volunteer hours donated, and $20,000 in donations and in-kind gifts in the last three months alone.

We are looking forward to this holiday season and hope your family will remember some of the families we serve in your prayers.  We look forward to an exciting new year of service ahead, and we wish you a very blessed holiday season!

Meet the Moms at Guiding Star

Mothers come to Guiding Star for help in all different ways, under different circumstances.  Some call the Pregnancy Hotline, or are referred from Catholic Social Services, or come through a church representative or friend.  While the situations vary, we strive to provide each woman in need with a safe home, counseling, and help while they prepare for their child. 

Jamie came to us through a church representative.  She was a few months pregnant and describes living in a dirty one room flat in the city, where the electricity only worked sometimes.  "I remember thinking, I have to do something," Jamie says now.  "I couldn't bring the baby there."  Jamie welcomed her sweet baby boy over the summer.  

Aimee called the Pregnancy Hotline a year ago, the week before Christmas.  She was married, but her husband had left, leaving her alone and scared about what to do next.  She needed a place to live, her herself, her mother, and her unborn child.   We were able to place her in an apartment with the help of a parish and generous contributors. She welcome her son this summer too, and felt a warm welcome during her journey from that parish.  Her baby was baptized, and this spring, Aimee and her mother will be as well.  

Our mission is to provide shelter to pregnant women and their children so that they may have a successful, healthy pregnancy, while creating a home that is structured, nurturing, and supportive Mothers work toward educational and vocational goals during their time at Guiding Star, and strive to build lasting relationships with the families who join our program.

Guiding Star Ministries have two upcoming events which are listed below.

Knights for Life Dinner
Saturday, February 27, 2016
Trenton Country Club - Trenton, NJ 

The Knights of Columbus, Fr. McCafferty Council #11013, invites you for the return of this auction and dinner, benefiting the Pro-Life Union and Guiding Star Ministries. Join us for dinner, open bar until 8:00 p.m., and silent and live auctions. Use this link to register for this event and purchase tickets.    

Save the Date! -Saturday, February 27, 2016
Annual Blaney Family Fundraiser 

More information on this event will be posted here as we receive it. 

Your gift to Guiding Star Ministries fills a very specific need: providing safe housing for women vulnerable to abortion, and their children. We invite you to learn more about this maternity home and ministry, and other homes we fund in the region, by coming for a visit, volunteering at a Saturday Works service event, or mentoring a family on the journey.

 To  make a donation to help Guiding Star Ministries, please use this link.  

The Pro-Life Union is committed to providing alternatives for women and families vulnerable to abortion. Guiding Star is a home for pregnant women and their children, and through this ministry women and families receive safe temporary housing, basic supplies, job, life, and parenting skills, and emotional and community support. Lives are saved and changed because this continuum of care is available, and Guiding Star Ministries is the only home in Philadelphia for both mothers and their children. We invite you to join us in this very special ministry.   

To learn more on the Pro-Life Union, please use this link.  

He's the Reason for the Season

by Tom Graffagnino‎

In this day and age of secular and political correctness, doubt and encroaching faithlessness, we often see at Christmastime this reminder: “Jesus is the reason for the season”. Somewhere along the line….somewhere between Woodstock and Iraq…Frosty the Snowman and Miley Cyrus joined forces to begin trying to devour the meaning of Christmas.

It is sad that so many today need to be reminded that Jesus IS the “reason for the season”. That’s bad enough. But it is, I think, more needful to remind ourselves that in reality Jesus is much, much more than that…...

Use this link for another of Tom's beautiful poems.  

A very Merry Christmas from all of us at Voices for the Unborn! 

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Legacy Alive! An Invitation from Legacy of Life Foundation

Legacy of Life Foundation, an organization which raises funds for Women’s Centers where Life-Centered Counseling helps a woman in crisis make the one right choice for the life of her unborn child, is pleased to announce their summer tour of their Bucks County, PA center.

Join Marie Joseph and her talented crisis pregnancy center counseling staff for a very special, uplifting and engaging tour of one their centers.

Journey step-by-step through the extremely charitable process that has empowered over 600 women and counting) in unplanned pregnancies to be freed from fear and isolation and choose LIFE!

Discover through compelling firsthand accounts of lives saved and radically changed through the effective, highly professional, and unique approach of the women's centers.

Learn about their three year "STAR" support program that is transforming women's lives and the communities they serve. Hear about their exciting plans for growth in 2015 and beyond.

The next tour date is scheduled for  August 27th for their Bucks County Center. For address and details, please RSVP to Tobey via e-mail at Tobey@legacyoflifefoundation.org or by phone at 215-788-4051.

The Legacy of Life Foundation supports two crisis women’s centers in Bucks County and Philadelphia, by fundraising to support the financial needs of these two life-sustaining centers.

The unique mission of the centers they fund is the counseling approach used to empower women in an unplanned pregnancy to be free from fear and isolation so that they can freely choose life.
If you would like to help them with a tax-deductible contribution, click on the button below.

Can Organ Transplantation Respect Life Until its Natural End?

From Life Guardian Foundation 

For over forty years there has been a deadly code of silence pertaining to "brain death." Behind closed doors a controversy raged. Many of those in the medical field opposed this reinvention of death. The controversy continues...

"Brain death" was invented for the sole purpose of organ transplantation, living human medical experimentation and a means in which measures to sustain life could be legally withdrawn. It was the first legal form of euthanasia in the US. This deadly code of silence has been broken.

It is time to inform the Public of the Truth.... please watch the video below and share with your family and friends.

   


Life Guardian Foundation is an organization founded and dedicated to educate the public that life of the human person is a gift. Respect is owed to every human person regardless of their state of health throughout their entire lifespan from conception until his or her natural end.
Read More....Click Here

Man’s Blood Saves More Than Two Million Babies

by Robbie Couch
Huffington Post


"The Man with the Golden Arm" may sound like the name of some superhero in a comic book. But the nickname doesn't belong to someone donning a cape and fighting villains on his down time.

It belongs to 78-year-old James Harrison -- an Australian man who has donated blood almost every week for about 60 years, saving more than 2 million babies in the process.

In a recent profile featured on CNN, Harrison opened up about why he chooses to donate, even though it's not the most pleasurable experience: "Never once have I watched the needle go in my arm. I can't stand the sight of blood, and I can't stand pain."

An incredibly unique antibody in Harrison's blood makes it a true lifesaver for babies who could be affected by rhesus disease.

The condition occurs during some pregnancies, when a woman who has rhesus-negative blood produces antibodies that destroy her babies' cells. This can happen when the baby inherits rhesus-positive blood from the father.

As the University of Rochester Medical Center points out, Rhesus disease can cause anemia and organ enlargement in babies, among many other complications. It can even be fatal.

continue reading at http://www.huffingtonpost.com

The New York Times Throws in the Towel on Overpopulation‏

by Steven Mosher and Anne Roback Morse

Population Research Institute

My guess is that you, gentle reader, will be as astonished as we were by the top-of-the-website New York Times article discrediting the population alarmism of the past fifty years. In "The Unrealized Horrors of Population Explosion" the newspaper has finally (several decades too late) thrown population control on the ash heap of discredited ideas.

The article included a video interview with Paul Ehrlich, the author of The Population Bomb. He was the butterfly scientist from Stanford who scared tens of millions with the specter of overpopulation—and the population apocalypse that would supposedly result. He predicted that by the 1970’s the “population bomb” would explode—and hundreds of millions of people would starve to death in India and elsewhere. (India is still there, and doing quite well, thank you.)

But America’s “newspaper of record,” as it styles itself, failed to record the horrors themselves. It was woefully incomplete. There was no mention of the human costs when governments made population control a priority. No mention of the savage forced abortions and forced sterilizations that followed. No mention of the killing of baby girls through female infanticide and sex-selective abortion. No mention of the wasted money, the age and gender imbalances that continue to unfold and will take effect for years to come. No mention of how the overpopulation panic helped to fuel the rise of birth control use and abortion.

Instead, when citing reasons why birth rates have dropped world-wide, the article offered more benign explanations. First, improved health standards mean that couples no longer need to have 5 children in the hope that 3 survive. Second, large families are not necessary in post-agricultural society since they are not needed to work the land, and therefore only make a population dense city increasingly crowded. Third—and direct from New York City—comes the motherhood slam: “Women in many societies are ever more independent, socially and economically; they no longer accept that their fate is to be endlessly pregnant.”

In other words, the New York Times does not even begin to tell the whole story. The horrors of anti-human population control campaigns continue today.

Take India, for example. Over 60% of India’s women state they have been exposed to “family planning messaging” in the past few months; an impressive statistic considering only 64% of India’s women are literate. And the less educated are sterilized in much higher numbers. While 47% of Indian women with less than five years of education have been sterilized, only 20% of women with twelve or more years of education have accepted sterilization. Lack of consent, painful and pervasive injuries, and death from negligence disproportionately affect India’s most vulnerable. Indian women are not having fewer children because they are becoming “more independent,” but because they are being coerced into undergoing sterilization by abusive population control programs, with their saturation propaganda and sterilization camps.

“The core message of [Ehrlich’s book]—population growth outstripping food supply—resonated quite a bit with India's elites-with the middle classes,” economist Gita Sen told the Times. “They much preferred to believe that the poor were poor because of too many children rather than being poor because of an unfair and unequal economic system.”

In China—which now has below-replacement fertility—the Planned Birth Policy allows the state to control childbearing. Anyone pregnant without a valid birth permit falls afoul of the Family Planning police, and abortion and sterilization usually follow.

Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng states: “In ancient Chinese culture we had a saying that your home is your castle, and that even the king will not be allowed to come in without your permission. But now in today’s China under Communist rule, they even put their hand into your body and grab your babies out of your womb, and they kill your babies in your face.”

In Myanmar—another country where fertility levels have fallen below replacement—President Thein Sein just signed a “Population Control” bill into law. The law implicitly authorizes the use of coercion and discrimination, especially against the persecuted Rohingya minority—who are already subject to a two-child policy.

In dying Uzbekistan, the authoritarian government is coercing tens of thousands of women into sterilization.

The former president of Peru is currently on trial for crimes against humanity for a population control campaign in the 1990’s that sterilized over 300,000 indigenous women against their will.

The list goes on and on.

These are the true “unrealized horrors” of Ehrlich’s mad tale. The past half century has seen tens of millions of men and women sterilized without their consent and tens of millions of women forcibly aborted. These men and women are owed more than a one-off article from The New York Times saying, “Oh, oops. I guess we were all wrong.”

The New York Times conveniently fails to mention that it helped to fan the flames of the overpopulation panic. It advocated setting up population control programs, and editorialized on behalf of the billions of dollars in funding that continues to fuel the anti-people movement down to the present day. A mea culpa would be nice, but we aren't holding our breath.

And lest we forget, the grim game of controlling human numbers continues, albeit under a different name. Today, efforts to disable women’s reproductive systems are called "reproductive health" programs. Orwellian, isn’t it?

The pro-life Population Research Institute is dedicated to ending human rights abuses committed in the name of "family planning," and to ending counter-productive social and economic paradigms premised on the myth of "overpopulation." Find us at pop.org.