Abortion Activists Sue Trump Admin Program to Protect Doctors, Nurses From Being Forced to Do Abortions

By Lauretta Brown
Life News

The Center for Reproductive Rights and the National Women’s Law Center filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Thursday after they received no response to a January Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for information about the new HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Conscience and Religious Freedom division.

The groups are seeking information about how the new division operates, how it allocates resources, whether its decision-making is influenced by outside groups, and why it was needed in the first place.

When the division was first announced, HHS explained that it “has been established to restore federal enforcement of our nation’s laws that protect the fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious freedom.”

OCR Director Roger Severino cited the past under-enforcement of federal conscience protection statutes, such as the Church, Coats-Snowe, and Weldon Amendments.

“These protections have been under-enforced in the past and that has led to certain consequences,” he said at the time.

“If you under enforce a statute you should not be surprised if entities start testing it,” he commented, adding that, for these sorts of complaints, courts have said there’s no private right of action, meaning the only recourse is to OCR.

Members of Congress later cited specific instances of discrimination that pointed to the need for such a division.

However, the liberal groups are demanding a “full accounting” of the new division, claiming that the Trump administration has shown “hostility to reproductive health and rights.”

Maya Rupert, Senior Director, Policy and Managing Director with the Center for Reproductive Rights, said that “the Trump-Pence administration has repeatedly and unconstitutionally misused the concept of religious liberty to deny essential reproductive health services and embolden those who want to discriminate. Given this administration’s open hostility to reproductive health and rights, LGBTQ rights, and access to health care for everyone in this country, the public deserves a full accounting of the new division and how it has been using its enforcement powers.”

“This administration is prioritizing religious beliefs over patients’ access to care. It’s a perversion of HHS’ mission that cannot be ignored, “Gretchen Borchelt, NWLC Vice President for Reproductive Rights and Health said. “We’re filing this lawsuit to force the Trump-Pence administration to justify why it’s using resources to fund discrimination, rather than to protect patients.”

LifeNews Note: Lauretta Brown writes for Town Hall, where this column originally appeared.

Website: Life News

Woman Pregnant With Twins Takes Abortion Pill, Pro-Life Doctor Saves Them Before They Die

“Saving lives is the primary goal of all called into the medical field.”

By Katie Franklin
Life News

In the 11 years since Abortion Pill Reversal was launched by pro-life physicians George Delgado and Matt Harrison, abortion advocates have tried their best to discredit the life-saving protocol.

But just last week, the regimen received another validation of its safety and legitimacy following the presentation of Dr. William Lile—a board-certified ob-gyn who serves as the referral physician for three local pregnancy help centers—before a Florida hospital’s Institutional Review Board (IRB).

The remarkable event that brought Lile before the board was his role in helping a woman reverse her abortion, saving not one baby, but two; his patient was pregnant with twins.

Eight weeks pregnant, the woman sought a chemical abortion at an abortion facility, had profound regrets, and sought out help.

A chemical abortion, often referred to as the “abortion pill,” actually involves the use of two pills. The first pill, mifepristone (or RU-486), blocks progesterone, essentially starving the preborn baby of nutrients. The second pill, misoprostol, forces the baby to be expelled from the mother’s womb.

According to Lile, this fatal combination has a 97 percent success rate of killing a preborn baby.

The Abortion Pill Reversal treatment—backed by a network of 350 medical providers and a 24/7 hotline (1-877-558-0333), now operated by Heartbeat International through OptionLine—works by giving women extra progesterone, a natural hormone that is necessary to sustain a healthy pregnancy.

After counseling his patient, Lile prescribed progesterone in the form of a medication called Prometrium.

To the astonishment and gratitude of Lile, it worked.

“We were facing a 97% success rate of pregnancy termination of her twins, but were blessed to have viable twins with normal heart rates one month later,” Lile wrote in an email to pro-life friends. “There are no known negative effects to the developing baby when Prometrium is used.”

Today, the patient’s preborn twins are 12 weeks and thriving.

According to Lile, Prometrium is routinely used to prevent pregnancy loss when miscarriage is threatened or even to prevent preterm labor. Indeed, progesterone has the longstanding approval of the FDA as a safe medical intervention to fight miscarriages.

But following Lile’s successful use of the protocol, an anonymous complaint came before the board, launching an internal review of the event.

“I went to the meeting with science, supporting articles, and your prayers, and defended my use of Prometrium,” wrote Lile.

In the end, science—and life—won out.

In this instance, the Institutional Review Board deemed the use of Prometrium after attempted chemical abortion with RU-486 to be reasonable.

Life News article continues here

Thanks in Part to ‘The Little Old Man From the Sidewalk,’ Amy Chose Life for Her Baby

By Kelli
Live Action News

Sidewalk counselors are the unsung heroes on the front lines of the pro-life movement. As the 40 Days for Life sidewalk outreach holds its 2018 Summer Symposium this weekend, it’s a fitting time to celebrate sidewalk counselors’ courageous work touching the lives of countless women in this country by offering help and hope in their time of crisis. Because of them, many women chose life — and continue to choose life — for their babies.

One woman, Amy Blackwell, recently shared her story on social media, singing the praises of her personal hero, “the little old man from the sidewalk.” She wrote in a Facebook post about the day she went to an abortion facility to get a consultation for an abortion, and had an encounter she would never forget:

Today I met him! Who is the him? The little old man from the sidewalk. 7 years ago I went to this Hope Medical Group for women abortion clinic. This man was on the side walk (they call it sidewalk ministries. They pray and try to talk to the ladies who are headed into the abortion clinic.)

He turned and looked at me. I saw his mouth moving and in his hands was a rosary. I could see the look and sadness on his face and the eagerness in his eyes to speak with me. I sat there in my car covered in shame for what seemed to be an hour but was around 10 mins. He finally turned around and I bolted out of the car. The Holy Spirit was at work as I was a complete basket case while I was in there….

So after 7 years of thinking of him and loving him for his part in my daughters life, God brought us together today. He, who now I know as Mr. Brocato, has the blessing of seeing the fruits of his labor. He is now 90 years old and not able to stand on the sidewalk anymore – BUT in his place, I now stand.

In a separate video on Facebook, Amy shared her full testimony, in which she said that as she began to get out of her car that day at the abortion facility, “he turned a 180 and stared right at me…. It seemed like I sat there for about 30 minutes… he just kept on looking at me. And I just have to know that man was praying for me. He knew why I was there.”

READ: 12,206 babies have been saved from abortion due to 40 Days for Life campaigns

Amy described the abortion facility as “a dark, musty-smelling place” where she “had to pay $50 for an ultrasound,” and the whole time, she was telling herself, “there’s no way I can look at my baby on an ultrasound and go through with this.”

She describes a deceptive, “beautifully worded” booklet she read at the abortion facility, which talked about “people just not ready to have kids, financially not ready, or emotionally not ready, and they make them into beautiful stories.” But it was all a deception.

Amy was 30 years old, and says she was in “a deep, dark place” mentally at the time. Her friend had printed out information on fetal development and continued trying to talk her out of an abortion. Amy says that for 30 miles on the ride to the abortion facility, she was in a sort of “trance” and wasn’t in a right state of mind until her friend’s words “finally broke” her emotionally and “God used her in that moment” to help Amy realize that she could not go through with the abortion.

She chose life for her daughter, and has no regrets. She says in the video above, “I’m so thankful that I get to look at my little girl every day… She’s a gift from God… that little girl saved my life.

Website: Live Action News

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.  

Why I Am A Pro-Life Democrat

 

by Rebecca Yanez
Human Defense Initiative

More often than not, the pro-life movement is associated with old white Republican men who, according to abortion-choice advocates, are the least qualified to discuss or hold opinions on abortion.

Being a Democrat myself, I felt the need to side with the abortion-choice movement. However, I eventually realized I could not stand by something I did not agree with. This being said, here are reasons why I, a Democrat, am pro-life:

The Pro-Life Movement Does More For Women

Despite the common notion of the movement being inherently anti-feminist, it collectively does more for the woman. For instance, Care Net offers free pregnancy testing, free STI testing, ultrasound services, counseling, support groups, housing assistance, and maternal assistance. Their goal is to show women they indeed have a choice, and it does not have to include abortion.

The abortion-choice movement, on the other hand, is only concerned with “bodily autonomy” and keeping abortion legal. However, little is discussed regarding the possibility of emotional trauma, potential guilt, and regret post-abortion. In fact, according to Planned Parenthood, “Serious, long-term emotional problems after an abortion are rare,” but the Health Research Funding Organization states that two in three women who have a late abortion (after 12 weeks) suffer from the clinical definition of PTSD, and teenaged girls who have had abortions are ten times more likely to attempt suicide than those who have not.

Click here to continue reading 

 

The Human Defense Initiative's mission is to offer an engaging platform that empowers individuals to be a voice for life to those without one.

Use this link to read the history of this organization and meet their staff.  

Archbishop Chaput Signs Lay-led Declaration in Support of Humanae Vitae

by Ted Meehan
Humanae Vitae 50 Coalition 

The 50th Anniversary of Blessed Paul VI’s prophetic encyclical “Humanae Vitae” is on July 25. That encyclical warned of the dangers that could result to our Culture from the use of the Contraceptive “Pill”. Objectification of women. Pornography. Rampant promiscuity. Abortion. Forced contraception by tyrannical governments. Assaults upon religious liberty. Assaults upon marriage.

We have seen them all! Sixty million babies have been surgically aborted in America. Today nearly half of all babies born in America are born out of wedlock. (In 1962, when the Pill came into the market, the rate was 3%.) Religious Liberty has been rejected in favor of Same sex Marriage. The Little Sisters of the Poor have been mandated to fund abortions and contraceptives by national healthcare mandates, and our Pennsylvania Attorney General continues to litigate against these religious women.

This Anniversary provides an opportunity for our Church to light a candle against the darkness. Please send information to your parish priests and ask that they mark this Anniversary by joining Archbishop Chaput in signing the Declaration by clicking on the image below, by speaking to the faithful on this topic, and by encouraging the faithful to add their names to the Declaration. 

        

If possible attend the showing of “The Sexual Revolution” on July 25 at 7pm at Malvern Retreat House’s McShain Hall,  315 S. Warren Avenue, Malvern, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles west of Philadelphia.

Here is an article from LifeSiteNews about this effort.

Please share this message with your own networks.  

Why Hasn’t the NAACP Denounced the Racist Comments Made by Planned Parenthood’s Founder?

Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood and John Schnatter, founder of Papa John’s

By Rev. Clenard H. Childress, Jr.
Black News

Nationwide — The NAACP religiously monitors the world for racist comments made by dignitaries, especially elected officials and organizations opposing the Democrat Party. The bias demonstrated is consistent with the decline of relevancy on issues adversely affecting the very people they were created to protect.

When informed and genuine advocates of the African American community see the devastating effects of eugenic policies perpetrated upon people-of-color, then learn the origins and racist comments as well as practices of the leading abortion provider Planned Parenthood, they are left baffled at the silence of America’s most prestigious defenders of civil rights. Let me enumerate some undeniable and inconvenient truths…

#1 – 1,786 African American children are killed each day by abortion.

#2 – Abortion is systemic and deliberate, and the leading provider of abortion in America is Planned Parenthood.

#3 – 52% of all African American pregnancies end in abortion.

#4 – Abortion is the most performed operation on a woman. It remains the least regulated medical procedure and is often completely ignored by health regulation enforcement.

#5 – Since the beginning of the eugenic plot to fraudulently produce the case of “Roe VS Wade” to the Supreme Court in 1973 – where ironically five white males claimed “…they didn’t know where life began…” – a holocaust where over 20 Million African American children have been systematically annihilated by abortion and thus denied access to the American Dream.

But where did this eugenic holocaust and denial of the American Dream begin? It began with Margaret Sanger, the founder and chief facilitator of the eugenic and systemic plan of abortion. She was an avowed White Supremist and was quoted as saying, “…colored people are human weeds and need to be exterminated… reckless breeders… spawning… human beings who never should have been born…” Margaret Sanger, “Pivot of Civilization.” 

Sanger, was in her time, the leading advocate of the eugenics movement, specifically of negative eugenics, which promoted the reduction of sexual reproduction and sterilization of people with undesired traits or economic conditions. 

She wrote, “The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.” Margaret Sanger, “Women and the New Race” (Eugenics Publ. Co., 1920, 1923).

If you doubt what I’m setting out here, you can read her works for yourself on the internet. You will be shocked. Margaret Sanger has nothing on “Papa John.” The University of Louisville said it will remove the Papa John’s name from its football stadium, and that it will rename the John H. Schnatter Center for Free Enterprise at its business college. Why? He used the “n” word and thus his name removed but Margaret Sanger’s name is still heralded and is still in the Smithsonian. What’s up with that? After all, this is far more important than pizza.

The documentary Maafa 21 empirically proves Margaret Sanger collaborated with the Nazi regime and corresponded regularly. Adolf Hitler commended and thanked her for her guidance in their eugenic implementation in Germany leading to the Final Solution and ultimately the Holocaust where Blacks, Jews and Gypsies were deemed inferior and targeted for sterilization and death in concentration camps. 

As well as collaborating with the Germans, Margaret Sanger also had the distinction of speaking over a dozen times at Ku Klux Klan rallies in the United Sates, and while she was speaking at these Klan Rallies, the Klan were at the same time actively lynching African Americans.

Black News article continues here

Whoopi Snaps After Judge Jeanine Accuses Her of Having “Trump Derangement Syndrome”

“You not what’s horrible? When people who shouldn’t be here end up murdering the children of American citizens?”

By Kristine Marsh
Life News

Thursday at the View, Fox News’ host Judge Jeanine Pirro appeared as the guest to talk about her new book about what she called, the “conspiracy” against Donald Trump. The largely liberal table of course butted heads with Pirro but remained civil and let her speak until they very end of the interview when Whoopi Goldberg lost her cool and shouted her down to end the segment.

The fallout happened after Pirro answered host Sara Haines question as to why she called her book, “Liars, Leakers and Liberals, The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy”. Saying she wasn’t “an idealogue,” she slammed the Mueller investigation as a “fake investigation based on a fake document” (the unsubstantiated Trump-Russia dossier.) That upset host Sunny Hostin who shot back, “It was not only based on that and you know that.” CNN commentator Ana Navarro, filling in for Joy Behar, used Pirro’s initial comment to try to pin her into a corner on President Trump:

You just said you’re not an ideologue. Let me ask you a question. Do you think Donald Trump embraces and embodies conservative ideology? He used to have a different position on pro-choice. He is imposing tariffs. He’s against globalism. Do you think he’s an idealogue that is faithful to conservative policies?

After denying that she was there to talk about what type of conservative Trump was, Whoopi demanded, “You have to answer the question!” Pirro explained how better off the country was with Trump as president.

“You want to talk about Donald Trump? You tell me what metric in the country is worse off? Unemployment is lower than it’s been for 50 years. Minorities. Hispanics. African Americans,” she started to list off as the table erupted. Whoopi shook her head and told her to “Stop, stop.”

“Hate crimes are what’s up!” Navarro quipped as Hostin tried to claim that Obama was the one responsible for the country’s current economy. Pirro rebutted that claim.

“The GDP under Obama was barely 1. We’re going up to 4,” she shot back. Meghan McCain urged the importance for the hosts to understand why Trump was still garnering high support among Republicans.

“I also think it’s important as we said. 89% of the Republicans support him. He still has a huge popularity in the country. If Democrats don’t get their you know what together, he’ll certainly be re-elected,” she warned.

As Whoopi started to badger Pirro again she shot back that the host was clearly suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” Whoopi took offense and went on a heated rant against the Fox News host:

Listen, I don’t have Trump derangement. Let me tell you what I have. I have a lot of — I’m tired of people starting a conversation with Mexicans are liars and rapists. I’m tired of people starting a conversation about this country — [ cheers and applause ] Listen, I’m 62 years old. There have been a lot of people in office that I didn’t agree with. But I have never, ever seen anything like this. I have never seen anybody whip up such hate. I have never seen anybody be so dismissive. [ Cheers and applause ] And I — and clearly you don’t watch the show. So you don’t know that I don’t suffer from that. What I suffer from is the inability to figure out how to fix this. That’s my issue. But one of the things that you talk about a lot, and I’m curious about it is the deep state. How long has the deep state been there and who is running it?

Pirro tried to address the opening of Whoopi’s rant before answering her final question but Whoopi wasn’t having it.

“Your opening statement, which was how horrible it is that Donald Trump is talk about all of these people,” she started to say as Whoopi kept cutting in.

“No, no I’m sorry baby, that’s what you said! You said–” she gushed as the conversation turned into a meltdown.

Life News article continues here

David Daleiden Wants Pro-Planned Parenthood Judge Removed Who Censored Videos Exposing Baby Part Sales

By Steven Ertelt
Life News

Attorneys for undercover investigator David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress filed a motion in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals this week, asking the court to reassign a lawsuit abortion activists filed against him for exposing the abortion industry’s sale of aborted baby parts to a judge not connected to Planned Parenthood.

U.S. District Judge William Orrick blocked Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress from releasing some of their undercover footage in 2015 after the National Abortion Federation filed a lawsuit. When a new undercover video was released online after the order, Orrick ordered that it be removed and said he would consider holding Daleiden in contempt.

Previously, Daleiden and his attorneys asked that Orrick recuse himself from the case because of a pro-abortion bias. They discovered that Orrick has had a long relationship with an group that partners with Planned Parenthood, and his wife publicly supported abortion online. Because that didn’t happen, they took their case to the appeals court.

The Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund and the Thomas More Society, which are defending David and CMP, argue that evidence shows that Judge Orrick’s relationship with Planned Parenthood explains his wholesale adoption of NAF’s and Planned Parenthood’s since-disproved theory that CMP’s investigative journalism led to widespread vigilante vandalism against them. Even though that theory has been proven false—and even repudiated by Planned Parenthood—Judge Orrick has stood by it, showing that assigning a new judge is necessary to “preserve the appearance of justice.”

In comments to LifeNews, Charles LiMandri, FCDF’s chief counsel and lead attorney for David and CMP, said: “Judge Orrick is an ardent supporter of abortion and Planned Parenthood, and he and his spouse have shown open hostility to David. Allowing a biased judge to preside over this case is a grave injustice.”

Evidence of Judge Orrick’s bias includes sitting on the Board of a family planning clinic that partners with Planned Parenthood and allowing his wife to use his image to demonize David and CMP on social media, likening them to “extremists” who incite “domestic terrorism.” Orrick is a former board member of the Good Samaritan Family Resource Center in San Francisco, which has a close partnership to Planned Parenthood.

While Orrick was secretary of the board, the organization “embedded a Planned Parenthood clinic inside its premises, and lists among its ‘key partnerships’ … Planned Parenthood Shasta Pacific …” according to the request.

The Planned Parenthood affiliate also is a member of the National Abortion Federation, the plaintiff in the case, according to the court document.

Daleiden’s attorneys said Orrick did not disclose that he was a board member at the time the partnership began, or that he later served as an emeritus board member. They also brought up Orrick’s wife’s public comments online that support Planned Parenthood and criticize Daleiden.

LiMandri said: “Even the slightest hint that the judge favors one party over another will forever taint the public’s perception of the fairness of his ruling. This is especially so because the outcome of this case will have an enormous impact on the abortion debate.”

NAF has until July 26, 2018, to respond to David and CMP’s motion.

Life News article continues here

Woman Reflects Back on the Baby She “Didn’t Want”

By Dave Andrusko
National Right to Life

I am giving a talk today to members of NRLC’s Academy. In addition to explaining how NRL News Today is composed and distributed, my goal is to make it more of a back-and-forth for one simple reason. I try to take every opportunity to understand how young people think, which is different than an oldster like me.

One of the many objectives of NRL News Today and our monthly NRL News is to peer behind the curtain, to understand not just what pro-abortionists say but why. What premises are floating about untethered to reason?

To be done well, we must read carefully, especially for a woman who has had an abortion. She may defend her “choice” as the best thing that ever happened–to her. But in the same response–in person, online, or in a newspaper–you will read inklings of regret and sorrow and remorse. And yet, so often, those second thoughts are then excused away.

As I put my thoughts together for today’s time with the Academy students, I thought of one of the “best” examples of this amazing back and forth–a 776-word-long op-ed that appeared years in the New York Times written by Susan Heath. In it we see Heath pining for the “good old days.”

Which were in 1978–five years after Roe v. Wade was decided!–a time when she was 38. Heath already had four sons and (she tells us) she’s “about two and a half months pregnant.”

Five words summarize where she was at: “I don’t want this child.”

Give Heath credit. None of the usual diversionary stuff. She wrote that little babies are cute—indeed, “I delight in newborn babies with their delicate weightlessness, the curl of their small fingers around my thumb.”

What’s the best thing about them now? “[T]hey belong to other people. I don’t want to bear them, feed them, bring them up, be responsible for them.”

Put more straightforwardly, “I’ve got other things to do,” adding later by way of further clarification, she was “on a different track now.”

And in the good old days she got back on track by zipping down to the non-judgmental, protestor-free Planned Parenthood clinic. There Heath has the abortion which is “really not so bad; in fact it’s not as invasive as going for monthly checkups when you’re pregnant. They’re kind, they tuck me up under a blanket and say my husband can pick me up soon and take me home. I’m fine.”

National Right to Life News story 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.  

Guiding Star Ministries Maternity Home - Past and Present

History of Guiding Star Ministries
by Betty Maier

With the start of the Abortion Holocaust in America, there arose the need to provide alternatives to women who chose to give the gift of life to their children rather than killing them by abortion. Pro-life groups began to establish residences referred to as "Crisis Pregnancy Homes".

In the Philadelphia area, the earliest of these homes includes the Blessed Margaret of Castello Home in Bensalem and Our Lady's House in Glenside. These homes offered care and shelter to the expectant mothers, and with the birth of the baby, the staff would secure other living arrangements and support for the new family.

The co-founder and the administrator of the Blessed Margaret Home conceived the idea of establishing a home in a facility capable of accommodating not only the mothers and babies, but also their small toddlers, if need be. The plan was to establish a long-term program that would provide living arrangements to the women, their newborn babies along with their other children for up to 18 months. This program would be called Guiding Star Ministries.

The search for a proper facility led to St. Benedict's parish in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. The pastor, Father George Moore, graciously offered the use of the then vacant rectory. On August 31, 1992, Guiding Star Ministries officially opened its doors. On October 8th the first resident arrived, and on January 22, 1993, the fist baby was born. 

Present Day 

Guiding Star Ministries is now an outreach program of the Pro-Life Union of Greater Philadelphia, providing shelter and assistance to pregnant women and their children. The staff and residents of GSM strive to work together to create a beautiful home and a welcoming community. We foster an atmosphere in which each person is genuinely loved and supported in order that they may thrive both in our home and beyond. To accomplish this, we offer practical and material assistance as well as spiritual and emotional support to empower mothers and their children, enabling them to cultivate meaningful relationships, develop life-skills and achieve their goals.

The home is run day-to-day by Yvonne Branch, Program Director and Diamonique Morgan, Assistant Director / Social Worker, who work for Catholic Social Services. Maria Dutsar, Home Facilitator, helps with many of the practical aspects of the home, including volunteer management. Brenda Greene is a part time Pregnancy and Parenting Consultant working for Catholic Social Services to assist with pre and post childbirth issues that the moms may have and also teach pre-natal classes. Catholic Social Services partners with Guiding Star Ministries through the Pro-Life Union of Greater Philadelphia.

Some of the duties of Yvonne and Diamonique include pregnancy and parenting support services which include: prenatal / parenting education classes, preparing life skills programs, finding available housing for the women, case management, community outreach and preparing reports. The life skills classes are facilitated by the staff, outside agency staff or volunteers. The programs offered prepare these women to be able to live in the community on their own once they are released from Guiding Star Ministries. Use this link to their website to see the many programs offered at this home.

According to Yvonne there are presently six moms and seven children living at Guiding Star Ministries. Of the six moms, two are pregnant.

The women in the program are able to live at the home for a year upon admission, and they are expected to find employment or continue their education to stay in the program.

Catholic Social Services and Guiding Star Ministries also have an outreach program to the community where they provide diapers, car seat and pack and play applications, layette sets to families in need from the neighborhood and a community baby shower twice per year.

One of Daimonique and Yvonne's goals is to provide a Father's Program and parenting classes to those from the neighborhood. A long term goal is to put together a choir among the residents.

Yvonne also said they are always looking for volunteers to help out babysitting so the mothers can participate in the programs offered. She also said she would like to see some of the alumni come back to offer their help as well as to show these moms what they have accomplished since leaving Guiding Star.

To volunteer to help out at Guiding Star Ministries or to make a donation of material goods (maternity clothes, baby clothes, wipes, diapers, etc.) contact Yvonne Branch at ybranch@CHS-ADPHILA.ORG To contribute financially online use this GSM donations link or by a check made payable to Guiding Star Ministries and mailed to 88 Pennsylvania Avenue, Oreland, PA 19075.


Have a great idea or some other way to help? Contact Tom Stevens, President & CEO, at tstevens@prolifeunion.org.