PRO LIFE REPORTS

     July 31, 2002, Jacob was born. I remember just wanting to see his face...When I saw him I fell in love. I never even noticed the deficiency. He was a perfectly healthy baby minus the limb and right side of his pelvis/hip.

     Jacob still continues to overcome challenges that the medical field thought not "doable". Although our journey has only been for a little over 3 years, we have learned so much.

     Is anybody else wondering this week about the value of a baby's life?

     In the U.S., if you murder a pregnant woman, as Scott Peterson did, you can be convicted of causing her baby's death.

     In Canada, you can do the same thing, as the person who killed pregnant Edmontonian Liana White did, and you won't be charged.

     Also, in Canada, honorary degrees are handed out to the likes of Dr. Henry Morgentaler, whose career has resulted in the deaths of more than 60,000 unborn babies. At least, that was the figure released some years ago.

     When you realize that's equivalent to wiping out the entire city of Medicine Hat, you don't really feel like finding out how much more it's gone up since then.

     Then, there's 26-year-old Susan Torres, of Arlington, Va., who collapsed from a massive stroke two months ago. Four months pregnant at the time, Torres is brain-dead, but being kept on life support until her baby is born.

     White was four months pregnant, too. Two babies were at the identical stage of development. Yet, the life of one, by law, doesn't have enough value to merit a murder charge, and the life of the other is deemed to be so precious that everything is being done to help it be born healthy and as close to term as possible.

    Still other babies, at the same developmental stage as these two, are routinely disposed of in abortions.

     We just cannot continue with this piecemeal assessment of the value of human life. Either all unborn babies have the same value, or they are all valueless. Let's make up our minds.

     Imagine if we applied such a sliding scale of values to others as we do to babies. We could slay the next-doorneighbour on the grounds that his existence is inconvenient since he plays his stereo too loud.

     We could do away with the disabled because their claim on prime parking spots keeps us from parking conveniently closer to the mall entrance.

     Those examples may be extreme, but people go to similar extremes to determine the value of babies 'lives.

     Convenience is too often the deciding factor in whether one unborn baby will die when another baby, no less human and equally valuable, will be allowed to live.

     Torres' husband, Jason, said any hesitation about whether to prolong his wife's life to save their baby was "no more than a hiccup."

     For him, the question was not whether his unborn child's life had value, but whether it was right to sustain the life of someone who is brain-dead, and thus has zero hope of recovery.

     The indisputable fact that if a pregnant mother dies, her unborn baby dies, too, is an acknowledg-ment that two separate lives are involved.

     There are no differences among a four-month fetus whose mother is slain, one whose mother is kept alive so it can survive to be born, and a third disposed of in an abortion clinic.

     The value of those babies is identical and absolute. We have merely deconstructed the notion of "values" so that we needn't bother having any at all.

     The image below is one of two NB Right to Life will use in its fall billboard campaign. A total of 13 billboards and bus shelter ads will appear in Moncton, Saint John and Fredericton during October and November.

     The image depicted invites woman suffering from a past abortion to call a number for assistance. This particular billboard is an outreach of the Silent No More campaign by pro-life women who’ve had an abortion.

     The second billboard design for this campaign invites viewers to access a website concerning the increased risk of breast cancer following an abortion. (October is breast cancer month.)

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     LONDON, Ontario, July 6, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) –– The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) is warning that pending legislation before the House, Bill C-407, seeks to legalize assisted suicide for Canada. Bloc Québécois MP Francine Lalonde introduced the private members bill last month.

     "Make no mistake that this bill introduces the slippery slope we’ve seen in the Netherlands where people who don’t want to be euthanized are," cautioned Jean Echlin, EPC vice-president and palliative care nurse, according to a London Free Press report. "Canadians have to wake up because it’s coming."

     Echlin, speaking to a London City Kiwanis group Monday, is urging Canadians to become vocal in actively opposing passage of the bill. "I worry they’re going to rush this through without consultation with all Canadians," she said.

     The bill seeks to allow euthanasia for individuals who "appear to be lucid," and who request assisted suicide twice with at least a 10-day period between each request. Echlin asked the group, "Must appear to be lucid —— what does that mean?" She cited concerns that the bill was full of loopholes that could lead to abuse, including eliminating protections that prevent the indiscriminate killing of those who may not want to die.

     On March 31, 2005, Terri Schiavo died in a Florida hospice 13 days after a court had her feeding tube removed. Thus ended a long-standing battle between her parents - who fought for her right to life - and her estranged husband - who fought for her "right to die" (see "Why Must Terri Die?", Pro-Life Reports March 2005). In the views of most pro-life leaders, her intended death was a case of state-sponsored euthanasia.

     Terri’s story riveted much of the world over a period of months. Among those who publicly pled for her life were the Vatican and President George W. Bush. But in the end the courts ruled against Robert and Mary Schindler, parents of the 41-year old brain-injured woman whose legal efforts until then had kept Terri alive.

     Someone who has not forgotten Terri is 10 year Joshua Heldreth. He was arrested on Good Friday [March 25] for trespassing while attempting to bring a drink of water to Terri. In court Joshua pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 hours of community service and ordered to write an apology for his actions.

     In his "apology" Joshua wrote, "Not giving Mrs. Shiavo (sic) food or water was wrong. The reason I had to go on your property was because Jesus would do the same thing. It made me sad that she was so thirsty and it made Jesus sad too. I knew she would die without water and I am called by Jesus to be a defender of the defenceless. I am sorry that you didn't like that and wouldn't allow me to help save her life and one day you will have to tell God why." (LifeSiteNews.com Aug. 31/05)

     NEW YORK, Aug. 4, 2005 - For 20 years, Sarah Scantlin was seemingly unaware of the world around her after she was hit by a drunk driver in an accident that sent her into a comatose state in September of 1984.

     Then in February, she shocked her parents and doctors when she began to speak. Jim and Betsy Scantlin, who never imagined they would talk to their daughter again. In a February interview on The Early Show, Sarah’s father recounted the phone call he and his wife got.

     "The phone rings ... and suddenly, I'm aware that there's a profound, distinct difference. Rather than speaking about Sarah, it became very clear she [Sarah’s nurse] was speaking to Sarah."

     The 1984 accident occurred when Scantlin was crossing the street in her hometown of Hutchinson,Kan. She suffered a massive brain injury and could not breathe on her own. New York neurologist Randolph Marshall says that people like Scantlin rarely awake from such an injury. "You only hear about these cases very rarely and they’re always a surprise when they actually come to light," he says.

     Scantlin’s speech is still limited. However, it seems that throughout her 20-year coma, she could see, hear, and understand what was going on around her. Shortly after she awoke, her father asked what she knew about events that had occurred years earlier.

     "Sarah, what's 9/11?" her father asks. She responds, "Bad… fire… airplanes… building… hurt people." Smith says there are other things deep in Scantlin’s brain that also survived the accident, such things as her favorite 1980s song "Summer Lovin’’," which she even sings for The Early Show [broadcast Aug. 4-5].

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     One group of protesters representing the Evangelical group Truth and Love for Life, carried a coffin some 6km to the event to remember the over 2.5 million Canadian children killed thanks to Morgentaler's successful campaign for abortion in Canada.

     "Everybody has something in the closet, and I reckon the best policy is always to be honest, then it can’t come back to haunt you," she says. Osbourne reports that her biggest mistake in life was her abortion. "It was the worst thing I ever did."

     Sharon Osbourne is using her voice and experiences to help guide other young women and parents choose life and other alternatives to abortion. "I would never recommend it to anyone, because it comes back to haunt you. In life, whatever it is, you pay somewhere down the line. You have to be accountable."

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May 29, 2005: A beautiful day in the pro-life history of New Brunswick. Some 225 people braved pouring rain to rally at the Legislature in support of the Province’s stance against funding the Morgentaler abortion clinic in Fredericton.

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     After the nomination of John Roberts to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by Sandra Day O'Connor, politicians, political groups, and the press went hunting for where the nominee stands on hot-button issues, particularly abortion. Roberts left little paper trail in his two years as an appellate court judge, but first the Los Angeles Times, and then other papers reported that Roberts's wife, Jane Sullivan Roberts, is affiliated with the pro-life group Feminists for Life.

     Roberts currently serves as legal counsel to Feminists for Life of America, and from 1995 to 1999 was executive vice president on the board of directors. Because of her affiliation with Feminists for Life, Roberts has been called "an ardent pro-life activist."

     But while pro-life groups say they're on the same team as Feminists for Life, there are important differences between it and traditional anti-abortion organizations.

     Feminists for Life is nonsectarian and nonpartisan, and while overturning Roe v. Wade is a goal of the organization, president Serrin Foster has said that is "not enough."

     Feminists for Life goes beyond mainstream pro-life groups on issues like welfare reform that don't directly involve abortion, says Wendy Wright, senior policy director for Concerned Women for America. "They join with more modern feminists groups on other issues like violence against women and child support and some of these issues that the pro-life movement doesn't get involved in," says Cathy Cleaver Ruse, senior fellow for legal studies at the Family Research Council.

     Feminists for Life is where the policy meets the pavement, Foster told Christianity Today. By addressing the forces that push women toward abortion, Feminists for Life tries to make abortion "unthinkable," not just illegal. Whether lack of support from a father, the need to work full-time, or a lack of resources on a college campus to care for a child, their feminist concern for the vulnerable motivates their concern for both the baby and the woman. Major legal pushes recently have included passage of the Violence Against Women Act, fighting the family cap on welfare, and supporting laws enforcing child support.

     Feminists for Life sees itself as an extension of the first wave of American feminists who sought voting rights for women to, among other things, protect their children and pass anti-abortion legislation. "Without known exception, the early American feminists condemned abortion in the strongest possible terms," Foster says in her anthologized speech, "The Feminist Case Against Abortion."

     "The early feminists understood that, much like today, women resorted to abortion because they were abandoned or pressured by boyfriends, husbands, and parents and lacked financial resources to have a baby on their own.

     "Ironically, the anti-abortion laws that early feminists worked so hard to enact to protect women and children were the very ones destroyed by the Roe v. Wade decision 100 years later-a decision hailed by the National Organization for Women (NOW) as the 'emancipation of women.'"

     Feminists for Life's campaign Women Deserve Better is an indication of their belief "that abortion is a reflection that our society has failed to meet the needs of women."

     "One of the most successful things they've done is the Women Deserve Better campaign," says Wendy Wright. Feminists for Life "breaks the stereotype that pro-lifers are only a certain kind of person. They're highly educated, professional, and may not agree with other pro-lifers on a variety of other issues."

     Their emphasis on eliminating the reasons why women choose abortion has influenced the whole movement. "If you focus only on trying to convince people that the unborn child is a human being, then you may not get as far as you would like," says Ruse. "There is a broader drama going on." Many young people, Ruse says, choose abortion because they don't have the resources or support to care for a child and because society views abortion as an acceptable alternative to an unplanned pregnancy.

     Feminists for Life works hardest to address this problem on college campuses. Foster says colleges will provide women with information about sexually transmitted diseases, contraception, gay rights, and violence against women, but no resources for pregnant women such as child care or maternity leave. Even married undergrad and graduate students who inquire about pregnancy resources are greeting with "I'm sorry" and the phone number to an abortion clinics, Foster told CT. "That's not 'choice'," she says.

     In addition, Foster cites a Gallup poll which found that 73 percent of women leave college pro-choice, while 37 percent of high school graduates are pro-choice. "Women in college are having their first abortions," Foster says. And that's where our future politicians, lawyers, jurists, and businesswomen are being educated.

     Feminists for Life also addresses intellectually pro-life arguments that are often left out of the classroom. "They do a lot of speaking on college campuses, where students will not hear any of [the pro-life views of early feminists] in their women's studies classes," Ruse says.

     [Pro-choice feminists claim that] women "have to make a choice between motherhood and forgoing school and work outside the home, or choosing school and work outside the home and aborting," says Hall. "It's as if we completely lost the original effort of the feminist movement to bring the needs of mothers and children into the public sphere."

     "People think [abortion] is necessary for women's advancement," says Foster. "Women have got to stop settling for less. Women have children. Get over it," she says. "It's a goal that most women share. They want to be able to work. It's exciting, but they want to be able to also have a child. It's about balancing work and family."

     "We say women ought not to have to chose abortion" if they want or need to work, Hall says. "Educational institutions ought to have true maternity leave, and ought to have childcare on campus, and ought to have simple things like high hairs in the school cafeteria in order to make it more possible for women to chose life."

     Feminists for Life builds upon the work of the early American feminists who found their feminist moorings in the Bible, says Haddad. "Secular feminists often place their feminist convictions above the authority of Scripture. The early feminists were suffragists because they believed their Christian voice had an important place in the public square."

     Their stance has earned Feminists for Life respect inside and outside the pro-life movement. "They've been able to get into arenas that pro-lifers are generally barred from, particularly universities," Wright says.

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Pro-life Movement's Signs of Confidence (Part 2*)
Father Frank Pavone on the Role of the Church

NEW YORK, JAN. 20, 2005 (Zenit.org) - The pro-life movement is much more than a response to Roe vs. Wade; it is a response to Jesus Christ. So says Father Frank Pavone, director of Priests for Life.

He shared with ZENIT the role that Christ's Church and its faithful have in the pro-life movement, and what the movement's allies are doing to promote the dignity of human life.

Part 1 of this interview appeared Wednesday.

Q: What role does the Church play within the coalition of the pro-life movement? Catholic laity?

Father Pavone: The Church plays, first of all, a prophetic role, preserving and announcing the message that every human person belongs to God, and therefore cannot be owned or oppressed by any other human being. Moreover, human life has been joined to divine life by the Incarnation, and is called to share that life in glory forever.

These powerful truths form the basis of the pro-life movement, which is much more than a response to Roe vs. Wade. It is, rather, a response to Jesus Christ.

 The pro-life movement is the same movement, ultimately, as that which inspired Christians to rescue abandoned children in the Roman Empire, to establish hospitals to care for the sick and to carry out all the works of social justice.

 At the core of social justice is the sanctity of human life, and at the foundation of all our rights is the right to life itself. The best formulation of the Church's prophetic mission for life is the Holy Father's encyclical "Evangelium Vitae," and this March we observe the 10th anniversary of that document, an event that should be observed by us all.

 By carrying out this prophetic role, the Church becomes the conscience of the state. Earthly government has a basic autonomy from the Church, but not from the moral law which the Church teaches. Both Church and state have fundamental duties to human life. Were the Church not present to remind the state of God's law, then the state would have absolute power and not be answerable to anybody.

The Church, furthermore, is the Body of Christ actually carrying out the service to life which its prophetic message demands. Therefore, the Church, through the mission of the laity, are providing alter-natives to abortion each day, healing after abortion and concrete projects that constitute so much of the pro-life movement: lobbying groups, educational initiatives, etc.

 There is, in this regard, an important challenge of leadership, namely, that the Church and her pastors are called to discern and encourage the gifts God gives to the laity. It is not required that a pastor like what God is calling people in his parish or diocese to do; what is required is that he, as well as the laity, obey the God who calls.

 The pastors of the Church are asked, in the words of Blessed Mother Teresa, to "Give God permission," and to pray each day, "Lord, let me not prevent anyone today from doing some good." Q: What groups or persons comprise the "pro-life movement"? Father Pavone: The pro-life movement has various major facets: educational efforts; lobbying and political activity; providing alternatives to abortion; fostering healing and forgiveness after abortion; researching the medical, sociological, legal, philosophical and theological aspects of the problem; getting the message out in the media; providing direct public witness through peaceful protest and other First Amendment activities, and much more. We who are in charge of national organizations in the United States have regular meetings with each other to strategize, share information and explore ways of coordinating and cooperating. We also have opportunities to interact with groups in the international arena, particularly through events at the United Nations -- where we often have to be present to lobby -- or various international agencies within the Church, such as the Pontifical Council for the Family, for which I worked for a number of years and which fosters international collaboration for pro-life efforts. Q: How are disagreements about strategy and policy worked out among various groups within the movement? Father Pavone: Sometimes, at our regular gatherings, national leaders are able to come to agreements on approaches and strategies where there were not agreements previously.