18 Years Ago She Gave Birth to Septuplets. You’ll be Surprised to See What They Look Like Now

 By Micaiah Bilger

In Nov. 19, 1997, the McCaughey Family made world history when their septuplets were born alive and healthy in Des Moines, Iowa.

Kenny and Bobbi McCaughey’s four boys and three girls became the first known set of surviving septuplets in the world.

The seven siblings defied the odds in more ways than one. Families like the McCaugheys are sometimes pressured to “selectively reduce,” or abort, babies who are multiples because doctors claim it can increase the chances that the other babies will be born healthy. The McCaugheys gave all of their babies a chance to live.

Today, all seven of the septuplets are seniors in high school and preparing for college. The siblings turned 18 on Nov. 19.

Many people saw the septuplets as babies on TV and the cover of Time magazine, but the family has been keeping a lower profile since then – no reality shows or on-going camera appearances for them. The family returned briefly to the spotlight this fall to celebrate the septuplets’ lives after they defied all odds.

“We wanted to be a normal family,” their father, Kenny, told The Today Show in a new interview.

“The memories, the joys, the heartaches that have happened, it’s very special,” their mom, Bobbi, added.

The family received a lot of help from family and friends after the septuplets were born – help with food, diapers, potty training and much more; but most of all, the family’s faith has helped them throughout the years, Bobbi said.

“We have a super-strong faith that is the rock we’ve had to stand on,” Bobbi said.

When asked about the worst part of being a septuplet, the teens couldn’t come up with an answer.

“I’ve enjoyed all of it,” said Kelsey, one of the sisters. “There hasn’t been a worst part.”

“[The best thing is] just having a big family, a lot of brothers and sisters to hang out with you,” said one of the brothers, Kenny. “You’re never alone. There’s always someone to talk to and hang out with. That’s what I think is the best.”

Story continues with interview: http://www.lifenews.com/2015/12/10/

I Am Alive Today Because My Chinese Mother Broke the Law and Gave Birth to Me

Lisa's Parents with Their Four Daughters in China 

By Lisa Smiley

Only weeks ago, the Chinese Communist Party announced that China will be changing its long-standing one-child policy to a two-child policy.

While this is welcome news, the nation’s violent, coercive family planning regime will only be altered moderately by this change. Even ending the policy entirely cannot bring back lives already lost.

For almost four decades, the oppressive regime has strictly implemented forced sterilization and forced abortions on millions of women who were caught having more than one child.

China’s official health ministry estimates that over 330 million children have been aborted since the policy was instituted in 1980. Often, women found pregnant with more than one child are dragged out of their homes, beaten and forced to undergo abortion by the government’s family planning enforcement.

This news is personal to me. I come from a Chinese family of five girls and one boy. All the girls were born in communist China; the youngest three, including myself, were born illegally after the one-child policy went into effect.

There were certain times in the year when government officials were especially strict on families who broke the law. During those times, my two older sisters were left at home in the care of my aunts and uncles, while my parents would have to take the younger daughters to another part of the province and stay with my grandparents.

We were never allowed to all be at home when the officials came looking for us. The whole village was very hush hush; daring families like ours who had more than one or two children ran off with their babies for fear of what the government would do to us.

My oldest sister, who was attending elementary school, remembers this time. Government workers would come up to her and ask where her parents were. She would answer that she didn’t know. My parents never told her much of what was going on, so she didn’t have any secrets to share.

She also remembers how other kids and families would look down upon us and talk behind our backs about our large family of girls. We were not just illegal; we were also socially unaccepted. She heard people condemning our family, saying, What bad luck to have so many girls! That family will surely have no future.

Lisa's story continues: http://www.lifenews.com/2015/12/10/

Arizona is the Only State Banning Abortions Targeting Black Babies, But Will the Pro-Life Law Stand?

By Micaiah Bilger 

Arizona became the first state to pass legal protections for unborn babies targeted for discriminatory race-based abortions in 2011.

Since then, the law has bounced back and forth through numerous challenges in court, filed by pro-abortion civil-rights groups. Today, the law goes before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, according to The Republic in Arizona.

The court will consider whether the pro-abortion groups that filed the lawsuit have legal standing to challenge the law, the report states. The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona filed the challenge to the law on behalf of the NAACP and the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum.

The pro-life legal group Alliance Defending Freedom is defending the law on behalf of its key sponsor, Arizona state Rep. Steve Montenegro.

“No one should be subjected to abortion because they’re the wrong sex or race,” Montenegro previously said about the law. He pointed to a 2010 Economist magazine article on “gender-cide” that documented a bias against black babies and said many abortions on black babies are done because of the race of the child.

Speaking about the lawsuit in 2014, ADF Senior Counsel Casey Mattox told LifeNews: “Every innocent life deserves to be protected, and that’s especially true of any babies targeted for death simply because of their sex or race. Nothing about an abortion committed on the basis of sex or race is medically necessary or constitutionally protected. The fact that groups who supposedly exist to protect the interests of minorities and women are attacking this law is scandalous.”

Story continues: http://www.lifenews.com/2015/12/10/

Baby Jaxon, Born With Anencephaly, Defies the Odds to Send Everyone a Touching Christmas Card

By Michael Bilger

Doctors never thought that little Jaxon Buell would ever sit on Santa Claus’s lap or see a Christmas tree. But this Christmas, the little boy is doing just that and more.

While Jaxon was in the womb, doctors diagnosed him with an incurable brain malformation and advised his parents to abort him. They told his parents, Brandon and Brittany Buell, that he likely would die in the womb or shortly after birth; but the couple refused to end their unborn son’s life.

The Florida family told Fox 29 News that they have received criticism for not aborting Jaxon, who is missing part of his brain; but the Buells said life was “our only choice.”

He and his family are sharing their story of hope with the world.

A few days ago, the family posted photos of Jaxon around their Christmas tree on social media. One photo shows Jaxon with a special message written on a giant Christmas card. It reads, “I wanted to send a Christmas card to the entire world from me, my mama & my dada. Thank you for supporting me! From my family to yours … Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays & Happy New Year!! #JaxonStrong”

On Sunday, Jaxon “had one of the best days of his life” when he met Santa Claus for the first time, his father told Fox 29 News. The family also watched the movie “Rudolph.”

“More big milestones for our little guy!” his father said.

As Life News previously reported, doctors told the Buells the following about their son’s grim future: “They told us he wouldn’t hear, see, or have any senses. He wouldn’t tell us he was hungry. He may not do any of life’s normal luxuries. Early on it was very tough for us. It was tough not knowing what we were gonna get and we could lose him at any time.”

Jaxon, who celebrated his first birthday this summer, is beginning to walk and speak, the Buells told the news station. He can say “Momma”, “Daddy” and “I love you.”

“Jaxon has already shown how strong, smart and special he is, accomplishing feats that doctors doubted he’d ever be able to do, shows improvements each and every day, and just reached a miraculous milestone in celebrating his first birthday,” his family shared on Facebook. “Ultimately, Jaxon will need a miracle long-term.”

The family said Jaxon still needs prayers for his continued medical treatments.
http://www.lifenews.com/2015/12/09/

Mobile Pregnancy Clinic Latest to File Suit in Fight over Reproductive FACT Act

By Jay Hobbs

Scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1, California’s attempt to force life-affirming pregnancy centers to post signage advertising for state-sponsored abortion has drawn another opponent, with ICU Mobile Riverside County filing suit to stop the law from taking effect, according to a press release Monday evening.

Publicly known as Go Mobile For Life, the mobile ultrasound unit is a state-licensed clinic operated through The Sharpen Foundation, which is overseen by a volunteer pastor from Murietta in southern Riverside County.

The pastor, Scott Scharpen, joined with fellow pregnancy help voices in the Golden State in opposition to the bill that would require his pro-life mobile clinic to post in 22-point font information on where a woman can obtain an abortion covered by Medi-Cal, including a phone number that would connect her with a state subsidized abortion business.

“I will not post that notice in our clinic. I would rather close the clinic than post that notice,” Scharpen said. “Now, by law, we are required to provide referral information to a woman for services that we find morally and ethically objectionable, namely abortion.”

Scharpen’s organization has filed for an injunction, as have others in the state, which would, if granted, prevent the law from taking effect at the beginning of 2016. The legal team representing Scharpen’s group, Advocates for Faith & Freedom, have been granted a hearing for its motion on a preliminary injunction for Dec. 23 at the Riverside County Superior Court.

In what appears to be a unique strategy among the concurrent motions for injunctions, Advocates for Faith & Freedom are arguing that the so-called “Reproductive FACT Act” violates not only the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech and exercise of religion, but more urgently, the State of California’s Constitution.

http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2015/12/

Abortion Activist Admits: “If We Could, We Would” Shut Down Pregnancy Centers’ Free Speech

By Jay Hobbs

In case there was any ambiguity to the intent of California’s so-called “Reproductive FACT Act,” NARAL Pro-Choice America’s state director cleared that up Sunday in The Sacramento Bee.

Amy Everitt’s abortion advocacy state chapter has backed the legislation, which would compel life-affirming pregnancy help centers and medical clinics to post state-specified signage advertising abortion. After sponsoring the bill through the state legislature, Everitt teamed with national president Ilyse Hogue to write an op-ed urging Gov. Jerry Brown to sign the bill into law, which he did the next day.

But she may have been too forthcoming for her own good in Sunday’s paper, where the reporter, Alexei Koseff, pointed out Everitt “dismisses the notion that [the legislation] might infringe on the clinics’ constitutional rights.”

“They are still able to say everything they want to,” Everitt said of community-supported pregnancy centers and medical clinics. “We can’t regulate free speech. If we could we would, but we can’t.”

Everitt went on to say that, while the state cannot directly override a pregnancy center’s right to free speech as protected in the First Amendment, her hope is to send a state-sponsored message directly to clients in a pregnancy center waiting room.

“Run. This is not where you want to be. Run,” Everitt said.

The latest in a litany of attempts at government-compelled speech that were struck down in Baltimore (MD), Montgomery County (MD), Austin (TX), Washington state and New York City, the California “Bully Bill,” as named by its pro-life opponents, would go into effect Jan. 1 unless a judge grants an injunction following a hearing scheduled for Dec. 18.

The law will force 150 local pregnancy help non-profits, including the 74 state-licensed free ultrasound facilities, to give each of its clients the following disclaimer, which includes the phone number of a county social services office where a client could obtain an abortion covered by Medi-Cal.

Article continues: http://www.lifenews.com/2015/12/09/

LifeNews Note: Jay Hobbs writes for PregnancyHelpNews, where this originally appeared.e News: Jay Hobbs

Meet a pro-life Super Bowl Champion!

from Jeanne F. Mancini
President, March for Life

We are excited to announce that our keynote speaker at the March for Life's 34th Annual Rose Dinner is Super Bowl champion and pro-life advocate Matt Birk!

The Rose Dinner is the conclusion of the 2016 March for Life activities, on the evening of January 22. The event is held at the March for Life's host hotel, the Downtown DC Renaissance, and begins with a cocktail hour at 6:00 p.m., followed by dinner at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $100.00 per person and require registration in advance.

         

Matt Birk is a 15 year veteran of the National Football League. He was recognized as the 2011 NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year, which acknowledges off the field contributions to the community, as well as on the field accomplishments. Named to the Pro Bowl 6 times, Matt’s career culminated in February of 2013 in a Super Bowl win for the Baltimore Ravens.

Following the Ravens' victory, Matt chose not to participate in the White House Super Bowl celebratory meeting with President Obama because of the president’s support for Planned Parenthood, a decision that received significant media coverage. Matt and his wife, Adrianna, are both actively involved in the pro-life movement, including with their local pregnancy center and past participation in pro-life marches. The couple have 6 children and currently reside in Greenwich, CT.

Don't miss this opportunity to hear from Super Bowl champion and pro-life advocate Matt Birk. The Rose Dinner is an inspirational conclusion to the 2016 March for Life, as well as a kick-off to returning to our communities and vocations to impact our culture for life.

Get your tickets before they sell out!

  

BreakPoint Daily: Divine Mercy for Needy Expecting Mothers

A STORY OF HOPE FOR ADVENT

What could be more divine than showing mercy to needy women

who are expecting a child? Here's one doctor’s story.

By: Eric Metaxas
BreakPoint

During the Advent season, our thoughts turn to images of a young, poor couple making a grueling, 90-mile journey, probably in a caravan which offered some protection from bandits and robbers. The young woman, nine months pregnant, is riding a donkey—not especially comfortable for a woman in her condition. She and her betrothed are likely living off bread they brought from home. When they arrive at their destination, exhausted and cold, they are dismayed to find that the local inns are full up. As they search for shelter, the woman suddenly goes into labor.

As most of us know, this little drama has a happy ending: A baby—the Son of God!--is born in a primitive stable. His cries mingle with the baa-ing of sheep, the braying of donkeys, and the singing of angels.

The familiar narrative gives us a warm glow this time of year. But as we sit in our cozy, comfortable homes, perhaps the story should also remind us that there are thousands of American women in the same position as Mary—young, poor and unexpectedly pregnant. Women for whom the outcome may not be quite so happy.

continue reading at http://www.breakpoint.org

This time of the year is the perfect time to be reminded of the needs of expectant moms who need our help and support, and Dr. Bruchalski's story is a great encouragement. Learn more about the doctor and his non-profit organization Divine Mercy Care by clicking on this link.

#InvestigateClinicViolence.....

...Bleeding Patient Rushed to Emergency Room From Planned Parenthood

Mark Harrington, National Director
Created Equal

Columbus, OH – Dec 8, 2015 – Last week, abortion advocates tried to paint pro-lifers as violent with a charge to the nation to#InvestigateClinicViolence. While we found this opportunistic effort to score political points in the wake of the Colorado tragedy deplorable, Created Equal has indeed long documented the violence inside abortion clinics—dismembering preborn humans. Now adding to this evidence of abortion violence is disturbing footage of one woman's tragic experience inside Planned Parenthood of Columbus, OH.

See the shocking video below!



As the video shows, one woman recently walked into Planned Parenthood in Columbus for an abortion and was wheeled out with a sheet over her head. Members of Created Equal's Sidewalk Ministry were on the ground when the medic team rushed the patient away from the abortion giant's office.

The clip includes a recording of the 911 call made inside Planned Parenthood while the patient was bleeding. "This is Tracy. I'm one of the nurses calling from Planned Parenthood. We have a patient who is . . . having a [sic] elective D& E . . ." the woman on the line tells the 911 operator.

The 911 operator later summarizes the situation to a medic dispatch: "[Planned Parenthood] said that they had a girl there, bleeding and had low blood pressure." The medics soon arrived to rush her away by EMS.

"Yes, Planned Parenthood, we will #InvestigateClinicViolence! We will investigate your daily decapitation, dismembering, and disemboweling of little boys and girls. We will investigate your botched abortions leading to sterility and even death of adult women. Abortion is never safe for the babies you kill. And it is dangerous for mothers, too." – Mark Harrington, National Director, Created Equal.

WILL YOU HELP US INVESTIGATE THE VIOLENCE OF ABORTION? YOUR GIFT OF $5, $15, $30, OR MORE HELPS US EXPOSE THE TRAGIC DEATHS OF PREBORN BABIES AND THE DANGER POSED TO MOTHERS.

You can give online HERE or send your check to: Created Equal, PO Box 360502, Columbus, OH 43236. Your gift is tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

Created Equal is investigating this tragedy. Stay tuned for more information.

Marco Rubio: Abortion is Not in the Constitution

Life News: Micaiah Bilger, Washington, DC  

Pro-life groups always have emphasized the importance of presidential elections because of the commander in chief’s power to appoint judges to the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court justices’ decisions have a huge impact on the most vulnerable lives in our nation. \

Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio emphasized this very same priority in a new interview with The Brody File this weekend.

The pro-life Senator from Florida told David Brody of CBN News that appointing new justices to the U.S. Supreme Court will be “one of the biggest things the next president is going to do.” Rubio said the country needs justices who will put aside their personal feelings about an issue and rule fairly on the Constitution.

“And there is no way that you can read the Constitution and deduce from it that there is constitutional right to an abortion …” Rubio said. “So you need judges that understand how constitutionally flawed that those … rulings and others have been …”

He also said he was concerned about the government compelling people to violate their consciences and their faith.

“[I want to] ensure that we’re not doing anything that at any part in our government that is putting organizations that are motivated by their faith or organized around their faith from having to violate the tenants of their faith and that includes government contractors,” Rubio said. “There are many government contractors and small companies who provide services to the government who are faith-based people, and they are being compelled to sin by government in their business conduct. That is not something we should be supporting.”

Article contnues: http://www.lifenews.com/2015/12/08/