Abortion Employee Quits After Seeing Ultrasound

     

Martin Fox, President
National Pro-Life Alliance

As pro-lifers have long known, ultrasounds hold the power to change hearts and save lives. In fact, researchers have found that 78% of abortion-minded women choose life after viewing an ultrasound of their unborn child.

What’s more, abortionists know it.

That’s why abortionists are doing everything they can to negate the power of ultrasounds. In fact, even though abortionists regularly use ultrasound technology to aid their deadly vocation in practice, they turn the screen away and intentionally hide the baby’s picture from the mother.

After all, they know that one picture can radically change someone’s understanding of abortion and of human life. And that’s exactly what happened to Brenda Pratt-Shafer.

Brenda worked as an abortion mill employee and remained staunchly on the side of ending unborn life ... until she witnessed a dismemberment abortion on an ultrasound machine.

Throughout the abortion, Brenda watched in horror as the baby fought for its life, struggling to get away as the abortionist attacked its body with his deadly instruments. But despite its struggles, that baby ultimately lost its life at the hands of the abortionist.

Disgusted and appalled, Brenda Pratt-Shafer quit her job, became a pro-life activist, and even wrote a book detailing her grisly experience with the abortion industry -- all because of what she had seen on an ultrasound screen.

If an ultrasound had such a life-changing impact on an abortion mill employee, just imagine the effect ultrasounds could have on pregnant mothers!

That’s why in addition to fighting for the Ultrasound Informed Consent Act at the state level, your National Pro-Life Alliance is ramping up pressure for a nationwide bill.

A federal Ultrasound Informed Consent Act could save untold numbers of unborn babies from the horrors of abortion-on-demand by requiring abortionists to show mothers an ultrasound of their unborn baby prior to an abortion.

 

The National Pro-Life Alliance occupies a unique and important role in the pro-life movement. The focus of many other pro-life organizations is research, publications or counseling. These are all important and worthy activities, but the National Pro-Life Alliance is singular in its focus on passing pro-life legislation that will protect the unborn from the moment of conception onward. For more information on the National Pro-Life Alliance or to make a donation, please use this link.

 

Voices for Life is an e-publication dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues. To read our Mission Statement, use this link.  Follow us on Facebook, Google, and Pinterest.  Help us spread the pro-life message by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.

Pregnant, need help or know someone who does?  

National Hotline: Call 1-800-712-HELP or Text 'HELPLINE' to 313131.

In Southeast Penna:  Call the Community Women's Center at  215-826-8090

If you or someone you know is suffering after abortion, confidential non-judgmental help is available.  Call Project Rachel's national toll-free number 888-456-HOPE (4673) or visit hopeafterabortion.org.  

South Koreans Gather 1 Million Signatures to Keep Abortion Illegal as Winter Olympics Captivate the World

By Indya Rennie
Life News

Abortion activists gathered about 230,000 signatures calling for the legalization of abortion in South Korea, but the South Korean Catholic Church submitted a 1,005,000-name petition on Feb. 12 in response.

There has been a move to repeal South Korea’s 59-year ban on abortions in response to the rising number of single mothers in their modernizing society, UCA news reports.

UCA previously reported the South Korean government was compelled by law to issue an official statement when more than 200,000 names were submitted to the presidential homepage on Oct. 29 calling for the law to be abolished.

In response, Seoul’s Catholic Archdiocese’s Committee for Life developed a strategy on Nov. 7 and 13 to launch a counter petition in favor of protecting unborn babies’ lives. The signature-gathering officially began on Dec. 3, and the resulting petition was presented to Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung at the 2018 Mass for Family and Life in Seoul’s Myeongdong Cathedral.

While the abortion advocates’ signature-gathering campaign was driven by women groups and NGOs, the Catholic church mobilized their movement at the local parish level, the report continued.

The Korean Catholic Church’s Lay Apostolic Council also outlined their official stance on abortion and sent it to 80 Catholic Korean lawmakers.

Their goal is broader than simply preserving the law, however. Indeed, the law, which prohibits abortions except in cases of rape, incest, severe genetic disorders, or the mother’s health before 24 weeks, was poorly enforced until it survived a constitutional challenge in 2012, as Life News previously reported.

The Catholic Church also desires to create a culture of life. According to the UCA, the South Korean religious leaders are running part two of their campaign through March 18; their goal is to educate the masses about the dangers of legalizing abortion.

The current president of the Committee for Bioethics of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea (CBCK), Archbishop Hyginus Kim Hee-joong, said this, “I hope the campaign is used as a tool to spread the idea that we must respect life.”

Even with the fervent campaigning against the pro-life law, South Korea has experiencing a surge of pro-life activism. It witnessed its first annual March for Life in 2012, pushing to eradicate the exceptions for abortions that South Korea’s law does contain. 

Participants also urged the government to install nation-wide baby boxes, with a similar intent as the United States’ safe-haven laws, to combat the widespread problem of infant abandonment.

The Rev. Lee Jong-rak led by example when he installed South Korea’s first baby box in his home in 2009, which since has sheltered and saved the lives of 60 newborns.

Life News continues here

Colorado Democrats Block Chance for Women to View Ultrasound Prior to an Abortion

By Dave Andrusko
National Right to Life

For the second time in recent legislative sessions, Colorado Democrats blocked HB18 — “A Women’s Right To Accurate Healthcare Information”—that would have “required physicians to inform women seeking to abort that they can conduct and view an ultrasound prior to aborting, as well as listen to the heartbeat of their unborn child,” according to the Daily Caller.

The bill failed 7-6 vote in the Health, Insurance and Environment Committee with all Democrats voting against and all Republicans in favor.

Lead sponsor Rep. Lori Saine, R-Dacono, told committee members that “the measure would help ensure that women are fully informed when they seek an abortion.”

HB18 would have ensured that “a woman has the opportunity to see or forego seeing her ultrasound, and required women seeking to abort receive full information about the procedural elements and risks of abortion,” according to Grace Carr. “The bill also posited that women seeking to abort and decide to have an ultrasound can choose between an abdominal or vaginal ultrasound.”

Prior to Thursday’s committee hearing, The Rev. Dr. Dawn Riley Duval called the bill an “unconscionable” barrier to reproductive health services, the Colorado Independent reported.

Website: National Right to Life

Planned Parenthood Files Lawsuit to Continue Aborting Black Babies

By Cassy Fiano
Live Action News

In 2016, Indiana became the second state to ban abortions based on disability, sex, or race. Ohio followed suit in December of 2017, and Planned Parenthood is now suing — solely so they can continue to abort preborn babies who are the “wrong” sex or race, or who have been diagnosed prenatally with a disability.

Now, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the case, which was filed by the ACLU of Indiana for Planned Parenthood. The ACLU and Planned Parenthood are likewise suing the state of Ohio. Planned Parenthood and the ACLU argue that these bans are unconstitutional, but the reality is seemingly far more nefarious.

Take abortions based on race, for example. Planned Parenthood and racism go hand-in-hand, starting with its founding. Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood’s founder, was a known eugenicist — and in her Negro Project, spoke of bringing on board members of the clergy in the Black community to help bring about her organization’s agenda: population control — specifically among certain people groups. Live Action News’ Carole Novielli previously wrote:

In a personal letter to Katharine Dexter McCormick in 1950, Sanger called for “a simple, cheap, safe contraceptive to be used in poverty stricken slums, jungles, and among the most ignorant people.”

But, Sanger added, “Even this will not be sufficient, because I believe that now, immediately, there should be national sterilization for certain dysgenic types of our population who are being encouraged to breed and would die out were the government not feeding them.”

That legacy lives on today, as Planned Parenthood pressures black women to be sterilized, places a disproportionate number of their facilities in minority neighborhoods, and then jacks up their prices.

A Live Action investigation also found that Planned Parenthood is all too happy to accept racially-motivated donations.

This problem is at its most extreme in New York City, where most babies aborted are either black or Hispanic, and more black babies are aborted than are born. This is even more disturbing when you realize that Planned Parenthood in New York City performs abortions past the point of viability.

Planned Parenthood was also caught in Live Action investigations willing to perform abortions based solely on the sex of the baby, which has killed over 100 million girls around the world.

Live Action News article continues here

Voices for Life is an e-publication dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues. To read our Mission Statement, use this link.  Follow us on Facebook, Google, and Pinterest.  Help us spread the pro-life message by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.

Pregnant, need help or know someone who does?  

National Hotline: Call 1-800-712-HELP or Text 'HELPLINE' to 313131.

In Southeast Penna:  Call the Community Women's Center at  215-826-8090

If you or someone you know is suffering after abortion, confidential non-judgmental help is available.  

Call Project Rachel's national toll-free number 888-456-HOPE (4673) or visit hopeafterabortion.org.  

Wheaton College Wins 5-Year Religious Freedom Battle Against Birth Control Mandate

By Anugrah Kumar
Christian Post

Wheaton College has won a five-year battle to fulfill its Christian mission without having to provide services like the week-after pill and abortion-inducing drugs in its healthcare plans.

A district court judge has ruled that the government would violate federal civil rights laws if it forced the Illinois-based Christian liberal arts college to provide some services, which are required by the contraceptive mandate under the Obama administration's Affordable Care Act, against its religious beliefs.

The decision permanently protects Wheaton from any current or future version of the mandate, according to the nonprofit Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represented the college.

"The government is not above the law — that's why we have civil rights laws. Wheaton should never have had to go to court to protect its rights in the first place. This order ensures we won't have to come back," said Diana Verm, Wheaton alumna and legal counsel at Becket, said in a statement.

Wheaton President Philip Ryken said, "We are grateful to God that the court recognized Wheaton's religious identity and protected our ability to affirm the sanctity of human life. The government should never have tried to force us to provide drugs and services against our faith, and we are pleased by the resolution of our case."

A recent new HHS rule admitted the federal government violated the law and provided temporary protection to religious objectors. But judges in California and Pennsylvania halted the rule in late December.

Wheaton, which is guided by its religious mission "For Christ and His Kingdom," filed a lawsuit to defend its right in 2012 after receiving no response from HHS to its concerns. The college was founded by abolitionist Jonathan Blanchard in 1860.

The contraceptive mandate, which requires health insurance plans to offer birth control and abortion-inducing drugs, has gone to the Supreme Court five times, and each time the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of protecting religious groups.

In 2015, Wheaton had announced that it would no longer offer health insurance to its students to avoid conflicting with the institution's Christian convictions.

"What has brought us here is about student health insurance, but it's bigger than student health insurance," Paul Chelsen, Wheaton's vice president of student development, said at the time.

 "What really breaks my heart is that there are real people that are affected by our decision. But if we don't win this case, the implications down the road in terms of what the government will tell us what we can and cannot do will be potentially more significant."

In 2013, the Obama administration proposed accommodations concerning the contraceptive mandate, but pro-life and religious liberty groups pointed out that it did not meaningfully expand the "church-only" exemption and amounted to little more than a gesture.

Christian Post article continues here

Penn State Bans Pro-Life Students From Event With Cecile Richards to Challenge Her on Abortion

By Micaiah Bilger
Life News

A peaceful group of students was kicked out of a publicly-advertised event with Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards on Thursday at Penn State University.

Richards was part of a panel discussion called “Beyond Choice: Barriers to Healthcare in Our Communities” on Feb. 22 hosted by the abortion chain and its student club at the central Pennsylvania university.

Sarah Nahrgang, a contributor to the student newspaper The State Patriot and the secretary of Penn State Students for Life, said she signed up to attend the event. But when she showed up, they refused to let her in

I RSVPed for the panel and was placed on the attendance list, but as soon as I showed my ID at the door, I was recognized and turned away for being pro-life. “You’re a leader of Students for Life. You have to leave,” I was told. Clearly, the RSVP list served as a means for Planned Parenthood Generation Action, the PSU club hosting the event, to keep dissenting opinions far away from Queen Richards.

Nahrgang said she did not have any plans to disrupt the event or cause trouble; she prepared a few questions in case there was a question-and-answer period, but otherwise she was just there to listen.

At least three other students who abortion activists identified as pro-life also were kicked out. Julia Messina, vice president of PSU Students for Life, received a text saying that she had been removed from the attendees list on Thursday.

The text said the event was “to engage our supporters” only. However, the abortion activists apparently allowed a student journalist to attend the event and report on it for the largest student newspaper at PSU.

Nahrgang said these actions violate university policy:

The Student Faculty Senate confirmed this morning, after these texts were received, that this is a violation of university policy. However, since Planned Parenthood Generation Action was also working with Planned Parenthood Keystone, which is not a student group, community organizer Christine O’Donovan Zavada disagreed with the policy and refused to allow pro-life students to hear Richards speak.

Life News article continues here

Women’s Care Center Provides Women With Help ‘Beyond a Choice for Life’

Helping women to choose life is about so much more than just the preborn baby. 

It’s about giving a lifeline to women in crisis.

By Cassy Fiano
Live Action News

Abortion advocates often argue that pro-lifers are only interested in helping women choose life for their preborn children, but aren’t interested in what happens to them afterwards. This, of course, is wrong on multiple fronts; being pro-life is about protecting all life, and while pro-lifers do work to prevent abortion, we also want to help women so that they don’t feel that they need to make such a choice. We want to do what the original feminists did: change our society for the better so that women have access to the support and resources they need, making abortion not just illegal, but unthinkable.

Helping to do that are pregnancy resource centers like the Women’s Care Center. Jenny Hunsberger is the vice president, and she grew up believing in the sanctity of life. “I am the ninth of 10 children and the mother of eight,” she explained in an interview with Live Action. “Growing up in a large Irish Catholic family, the conviction that there is always room for more life and more love is foundational.” She began to consider getting involved with the pro-life movement after her brother became a student of Dr. Janet Smith, the Notre Dame professor who would found the Women’s Care Center. 

“She enlisted him to paint the little blue house that became the first Women’s Care Center,” Hunsberger said. “Seven years later, as a freshman at Notre Dame, I attended a service and ministry fair. That evening, I met a wonderful Women’s Care Center counselor who invited me to a training. I immediately knew that this work was my mission and passion. I have been here ever since.”

Today, Women’s Care Center has 28 centers in 10 states. On average, 28,000 women will make over 100,000 visits to one of their centers over the course of a year. 

“Women come to us initially for free pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, counseling, parenting classes and tremendous amounts of material support,” Hunsberger said.

“They return because here they experience genuine welcome, compassionate care and a realization of their own value and dignity.” At the centers, women can receive medical grade pregnancy testing and ultrasounds, giving them information — which abortion facilities will often deny them — to make a decision about their pregnancies.

“Pregnancy is a life-changing event for every woman. For a woman who feels unsupported, financially unprepared, or who sees her dreams and goals slipping away, pregnancy can be a crisis,” Hunsberger said. “At Women’s Care, these women find a safe place where they are free to talk about their challenges and fears. Our compassionate and highly trained counselors meet women right where they are, without judgment.

“Learning of an unplanned pregnancy can be overwhelming for a woman,” she continued. “At Women’s Care Center she finds hope and concrete help. Seeing her baby for the first time through ultrasound, she falls in love. And it doesn’t end there. Women’s Care is here to help her beyond a choice for life. We help women create strong, self-sufficient families.”

Live Action News article continues here
Voices for Life is an e-publication dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues. To read our Mission Statement, use this link.  Follow us on Facebook, Google, and Pinterest.  Help us spread the pro-life message by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.

Pregnant, need help or know someone who does?  

National Hotline: Call 1-800-712-HELP or Text 'HELPLINE' to 313131.
In Southeast Penna:  Call the Community Women's Center at  215-826-8090

If you or someone you know is suffering after abortion, confidential non-judgmental help is available.  Call Project Rachel's national toll-free number 888-456-HOPE (4673) or visit hopeafterabortion.org.  

Abortion Activist Admits in Court She Gave False Testimony Against Pro-Life People She’s Trying to Silence

By Tom Ciesielka
Life News

A star witness in New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s lawsuit against a group of pro-life sidewalk counselors admitted in federal court that her testimony was not true. In reality, Mary Lou Greenberg, who heads up the abortion escort program at Choices Women’s Medical Center in Jamaica, New York, testified on Wednesday, February 21, that her accusations against the life advocates on trial were “borrowed” from another escort, whose words were used to describe actions by different people at an entirely different clinic.

“Greenburg also admitted that when a woman is leaving the clinic in the company of sidewalk counselors, she will insert herself, uninvited, into the conversation, and will follow the entourage continuing her comments,” explained Martin Cannon, Thomas More Society Special Counsel. 

“This is the same behavior the Attorney General is accusing the pro-life witnesses of engaging in, but calling it illegal harassment when done by them to save babies lives. Greenburg claims she is justified because she is providing ‘important information’ she feels the woman ought to have. By contrast, our clients are offering receptive women information that can save the lives of their babies.”

The pro-life sidewalk counselors, ten of whom are members of Church@TheRock (http://www.rockny.org/) in Brooklyn, have been slapped with federal harassment charges by Schneiderman, for offering abortion-bound women information on life-affirming alternatives. The sidewalk counselors are represented by the Thomas More Society, whose legal defense of them is rooted in their Constitutionally guaranteed rights.

Greenberg wrote in a sworn declaration: 

“They say that Choices does not care about them. The protesters say that ambulances come and take women away once or twice a day, that women have to have hysterectomies after an abortion, and that Choices throws away ‘the baby’ in the garbage. All of these are just lies.”

On cross examination by Cannon, Greenberg admitted that she used those exact words in 2010 magazine article, quoting another escort at another clinic. That was two years prior to the weekly pro-life outreach conducted by Church@TheRock members outside of Choices, which commenced in 2012.

Life News article continues here

Arizona Senate Passes Abortion Bill Requiring Women To Tell Docs Why They’re Aborting

By Grace Carr
The Daily Caller
Arizona lawmakers approved a bill Thursday that will mandate abortion providers and physicians request information from women undergoing abortions about their reasons to abort and provide them with comprehensive information about the risks of abortion.

“What this bill does, it upgrades and updates the way we ask these questions in order to make sure that we’re getting accurate information,” the bill’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Nancy Barto, said, according to US News.

 “It’s important in order for us to really understand policymaking going forward and how to better serve women in the policies that go to protecting the unborn when they choose abortion,” she added.

The bill — Senate Bill 1394 — lists 11 potential reasons, including questions about the woman’s emotional and physical health, according to the Arizona Central. Reasons include not being able to afford a child, not wanting a child, being raped, a husband having an extramarital affair, abuse and others.

The bill passed 16-12, with only one Republican and one Democrat breaking ranks.

“Better data means better service,” Center for Arizona Policy president, Cathi Herrod said, according to the Arizona Central. She also noted that doctors would be required to keep patients’ names and other identifiable information confidential, charging that the information would be used only to make health services better and would not pose a privacy concern 

Website: The Daily Caller

Feelings After Abortion: Post-Abortion Syndrome

Life Site News

What can a woman feel after abortion?

Many women say that no one told them what to expect emotionally. In fact, a woman who has just had an abortion is often under enormous pressure - whether from her partner, her family and friends, or the abortion provider - to act as if nothing has happened, or even to express relief or happiness. In some cases, the woman may be trying to keep the abortion a secret, in which case the pressure can become extreme.

In reality, such pressure is unfair to post-abortive women, who have just undergone a significant and sometimes traumatic surgical procedure, often at a time of great upheaval in their lives.

While some women do indeed experience relief after an abortion, others find that they were not prepared emotionally to deal with the aftermath. Some women may find themselves experiencing unexpected grief or depression, with little understanding or support from their partner or loved ones. In those cases where the woman is keeping the abortion a secret, she must deal with these negative emotions completely alone.

Some may even bury the associated negative emotions just in order to carry on with life, only to find that years - sometimes even decades - later, the unresolved negative emotions suddenly re-emerge, requiring healing.

In fact, some psychologists have coined a term to describe common symptoms that they have found in many post-abortive women who have come to them for help. They call it Post-Abortion Syndrome (PAS). Common symptoms of PAS include guilt, anxiety, depression, thoughts of suicide, drug or alcohol abuse, eating disorders, a desire to avoid children or pregnant women, and flashbacks to the abortion itself.

Women considering abortion have a right to know about the possible emotional risks of their choice. On the other hand, women who have already had an abortion have the right to know that non-judgmental support and healing are available.

Some real-life stories

Relief, sadness, or anger can be felt after abortion. Since each experience is unique, so too is the mix of emotions. Sometimes one feeling will dominate, or more than one could be strong.

Following are some real testimonies available online that help show how women can feel after abortion.

• "Pregnancy, babies, doctors, being a mother, vacuum cleaners and dentist drills became abortion connectors and sent me into emotional anguish."

• "My abortion is associated with so many emotions. They come at unexpected times, but they always go quickly."

•  "I was sitting quietly in my bedroom and, suddenly, my entire world went black. It was as if in the space between breaths, my entire existence lost all meaning. ... I began having severe anxiety attacks ... I had no idea at the time that this was due to the rapid drop in hormones experienced as a result of the abortion. No one had told me this could happen."

We have a saying in the world of therapy. “Secrets kill.” Thus is the path of many women after abortion. Don't talk. Don't feel. Keep the secret. 

Trudy M. Johnson, M.A., LMFT

Life Site News report continues here

Voices for Life is an e-publication dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues. To read our Mission Statement, use this link.  Follow us on Facebook, Google, and Pinterest.  Help us spread the pro-life message by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.

Pregnant, need help or know someone who does?  

National Hotline: Call 1-800-712-HELP or Text 'HELPLINE' to 313131.

In Southeast Penna:  Call the Community Women's Center at  215-826-8090

If you or someone you know is suffering after abortion, confidential non-judgmental help is available.  Call Project Rachel's national toll-free number 888-456-HOPE (4673) or visit hopeafterabortion.org.