Abortion

Black History that was Never Made

February 3, 2022By

February, designated as Black History Month, is a time to note and celebrate the many achievements of African Americans.  While a multitude of inspiring stories are recounted this month, there are countless others whose stories remain unspoken. That’s because so many Black voices have been silenced.  Their potential left unrealized. Their contributions rejected. They are Black children who were aborted.

And there are many. Abortion disproportionately affects the Black community.  While African Americans account for 12% of the population in Pennsylvania, in 2020 Black women accounted for 44% of the abortions in the state.

That trend extends nationwide. Across the country, on average Black women are 4 to 5 times more likely to abort than white women. Tragically, it is estimated that the majorityof pregnancies (52%) in the Black community end in abortion. More Black children are being killed in the womb than brought into the world. (see Blackgenocide.org)

This racial disparity stems from the very founding of the abortion industry, dating back to a movement that originated in eugenics. Planned Parenthood was recently forced to distance itself from its founder, Margaret Sanger, who referred to the Black community and other minorities as “human weeds,” warning that “We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population….”

But that was exactly the underlying agenda of the American Birth Control League, the precursor to Planned Parenthood. Today, the vast majority (79%) of Planned Parenthood surgical abortion facilities are deliberately planted within walking distance of minority neighborhoods.

In a faint effort to be politically correct, Planned Parenthood took Margaret Sanger’s name off abuilding in New York. Yet, every single day they continue to target for extermination the very people she saw as less desirable.

Illogically, abortion supporters allege that any law restricting abortion is racist, harming people of color. But what could hurt the Black community more than killing the next generation?  Depopulating them?  Wounding the women who bear life and alienating the men who are supposed to protect and provide for children? Weakening their families?

America’s Black community would be 36% larger today if not for abortion. There would be 20 million more beautiful Black faces dotting our cultural landscape, enriching our schools, our communities, our workplaces, our families. There would be so much more Black History to celebrate.

Legalized abortion has not eradicated poverty, racial disparity, or domestic abuse. It has simply eradicated children who committed no offense. While the abortion of any child of any race is tragic, the decimation of Black children at the current rate is alarming in its demographic impact.

Abortion is the number one cause of death for Blacks. Some estimate that if this trend continues for the next 30 years, Black voting power, Black families, and Black people will be nearly extinct, realizing the vision of Sanger and other eugenicists. (See maafa21.org)

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Rather than promote abortion, we could address the root causes of why abortion is sought.  We could empower young women with the resources needed to bring life into the world, and support them in ways that will lift them out of their difficult circumstances.

That is what hundreds of maternity homes and pregnancy resource centers across our country do every day.  Just imagine if we amplify that effort, giving it much more attention and funding, rerouting taxpayer money that is handed to the abortion industry and using it instead to actually give life and hope.

True racial justice means ending the Black Genocide. Only then can future generations celebrate a more robust and beautiful Black History, one that welcomed the promise and potential that every single life holds.

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Abortion

Time to Correct the Error of Roe

January 10, 2022By

Even decades after slavery was abolished, there was a time in our country when it was legally acceptable to separate people by race. In fact, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation in the 1896 case Plessy vs. Ferguson, protecting the doctrine of Separate but Equal. It would be upheld by the Court seven times.

It took 58 years for the Court to see the error of its ways. It’s impossible to quantify the tremendous damage that Plessy did in stalling equal rights for all Americans. Finally, the Court’s landmark decision in the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education case determined racial segregation of school children to be unconstitutional, and it became a cornerstone of the civil rights movement that led to de-segregation of other institutions.

Today, it’s hard for us toimagine how the Court in 1896 could have possibly thought that such a practicewas constitutionally protected.  Thedoctrine of Separate but Equal with regard to race was long overdue for the ashheap of history.

In similar fashion, another Supreme Court precedent, should join it.  Where Plessey marginalized people based on race, Roe marginalizes people based on age and location. In a day of 4-D ultrasounds, fetal surgery, and ever-changing viability, it’s hard to imagine how the Court in 1973 could have possibly thought abortion to be a constitutionally protected right.

In every pregnancy, two separate and equal humans exist. From the moment of conception, a genetically unique human is formed, one who is inside the mother, yet NOT the mother.  Perhaps a different gender, eye color, or hand dominance. A person who has never before existed and never will again. A person whose future is impossible to predict and whose impact on the world can only be imagined.

Clearly human, created of human parents. Clearly living, as demonstrated by rapid growth. It is intellectually dishonest to say this is not a living human being.

In challenging this, the abortion supporter will frequently invoke personhood, saying that we are not really people with inherent dignity and rights until we possess sentience, abilities to feel, dream, plan, etc. Yet, one must ask, does a newborn infant possess these qualities? Or those with limited cognitive capacity? Or those tortured by addiction?  Are they, or others in likewise vulnerable situations, not persons?

Personhood cannot bequalified by arbitrary social constructs. Defining personhood should be based on objective truth, and scientificallyspeaking, the indisputable truth is that human life begins at conception, justas it was indisputably true that our human dignity is not a function of race.

Justice Blackmun, in his Roe majority opinion, acknowledged thatif the personhood of the fetus is someday established, Roe is doomed to collapse, as the 14th Amendment clearlyprotects the fetus’ right to life.

That day has come. Forty-nine years later, at the tragic cost of 63 million American innocent lives, wounded mothers, forsaken fathers, and a fractured society, it’s time to correct the error of Roe.

While Separate but Equal based on race has no place in our society, equal rights based on biology certainly should be guaranteed. Situational circumstances do not change an objective truth of who we are and how we came to be. We all have inherent worth from the moment of our conception. Every person, once in existence, should have the right to live.

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Abortion

Pennsylvania Abortion Totals Increase

January 3, 2022By

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE             CONTACT:  MARIA GALLAGHER, PPLF
January 4, 2022  717-541-0034

Pennsylvania Abortion Totals Increase;
Pandemic Partly Responsible for the Rise

HARRISBURG, Pa. – The number of abortions in Pennsylvania increased in 2020 by 3.5% according to the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, the Keystone State affiliate of National Right to Life.

Statistics released by the Pennsylvania Department of Health show 1,105 more abortions occurred in 2020 compared to 2019. In all, 32,123abortions took place in 2020—a year when the COVID-19 pandemic swept through the Commonwealth.

In a year when the Wolf Administration refused to allow Pennsylvanians to undergo elective surgeries, abortion operations were permitted to perform abortions unabated.

“The increase in abortions in Pennsylvania is truly alarming,” said Maria Gallagher, legislative director of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation. “When many other businesses were forced to shut their doors, the abortion industry, led by abortion giant Planned Parenthood, continued to operate.

“Every abortion represents the tragic loss of an innocent human life. In addition, mothers are left to grieve children who are lost to abortion. It is a family tragedy of epic proportions,” Gallagher added.

In Pennsylvania, abortion totals would be much higher were it not for the many pregnancy resource centers which provide free counseling and material assistance for pregnant women facing challenging circumstances. Pennsylvania’s state-assisted Pregnancy and Parenting Support Program offers true alternatives and options to women in their time of need.

“No pregnant woman inPennsylvania should feel as if she is alone. Pregnancy help centers stand readyto offer no-cost assistance and the emotional support every pregnant womandeserves,” Gallagher added.

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The Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation is a grassroots right-to-life organization with members statewide.  As the state affiliate of National Right to Life, PPLF is committed to promoting the dignity and value of human life from conception to natural death and to restoring legal protection for preborn children.

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Abortion

Should women have to rely on abortion to succeed?

December 10, 2021By

On December 1, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health regarding Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban.  One argument put forth by the pro-abortion side was reliance.   In other words, the so-called right to abortion must be preserved because women have come to rely on it.

In her opening statement, Department of Justice Solicitor General Elizabeth Prologar said, “The Court has never revoked a right that is so fundamental to so many Americans and so central to their ability to participate fully and equally in society.”

Can Prologar hear herself? Can she hear how profoundly anti-woman this argument is? She, and by extension our government, claims that abortion, the deliberate killing of one’s own child, is necessary for women to participate “fully and equally in society.”

Women can’t succeed without abortion. Is there a more misogynistic statement?

It is this line of thinking that allows Hollywood producers, Wall Street executives, and corporate management to tell women facing an untimely pregnancy to “get rid of it.”

It is this warped mentality that encourages men to wash their hands of their responsibility as fathers, protectors, and providers.

It is this pathetic worldview that says a woman’s fertility is a barrier to success. In order to compete with men, she must “apologize” for her own completely natural life-giving super power by killing her own child.

Furthermore, this reliance mindset damages efforts to offer true support to women and families. Why offer paid maternity and paternity leave, remote work options, affordable child care, academic alternatives, or material and emotional support to women and families, when motherhood could have been “avoided” via abortion?

What kind of society have we created that some women feel they cannot acquire an education, advance their career, or find fulfillment unless they sacrifice their unborn child’s life?  This is pitiful progress in terms of the women’s movement.

Rather than removing the child from the sanctuary of the womb, we should be removing educational, vocational, and economic barriers for the women nurturing the next generation.

Shattering glass ceilings should not require shattering human lives.

While Prologar says the Court has never before revoked a right so fundamental to Americans as abortion, she is wrong. What could be more fundamental than the right to life itself?  In Roe the Court revoked that right, tragically denying “full and equal participation in society” to 62 million preborn Americans.

During arguments, Justice Samuel Alito pointed out that the South once relied on segregation in creating a society based on white supremacy.  It was an improper reliance, he acknowledged, based on an egregiously wrong understanding of what equal protection means.

The same can be said for abortion.  It is an improper reliance based on an egregiously wrong understanding of the law.  No one should have to rely on sacrificing a precious human life in order to participate fully and equally in society.

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Abortion

A Day of Hope at the Supreme Court

December 2, 2021By

It was a day that had been decades in the making.

The presentation of oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in the pivotal case known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization stirred my soul. Finally, I felt, the Supreme Court was listening to reason.

Sloganeering and catchy memes had no place at the High Court. Rather, Justices were compelled to listen to the many ways the 1973 decision known as Roe v. Wade had failed to settle the abortion debate.

At stake was more than a 15-week ban on abortion in Mississippi. For this is the case that could finally overturn Roe and restore the issue of abortion to the people in the individual states, where it belongs.

The Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation was among the many groups that filed friend-of-the-court briefs. In our well-reasoned brief, we argued strongly that both pregnant mother and preborn child deserve protection and care, and that modern obstetrical practice demanded Roe’s demise.

The Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court have proven to be an unpredictable lot. But for the first time in a long time I am hopeful that I will see the day of Roe’s end.

And that day cannot come soon enough.

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Abortion

Letter to Pitt’s Board of Trustees

October 14, 2021By

The Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation sent the following letter along with thousands of petition signatures on October 15, 2021.

Dear Trustees,

Enclosed please find the names ofthousands of people who have signed our petition calling on the University ofPittsburgh to cease its research using the body parts of aborted babies.

These gruesome experiments, whichinclude grafting human scalps onto laboratory mice, are unethical and aviolation of time-tested principles of responsible research.

We are especially troubled bypublished reports alleging that human organs were harvested from babies whosehearts were still beating. These reports, based on documentation collected bythe Center for Medical Progress and Judicial Watch, raise significant questionsabout whether the research at issue is in violation of state and federalstatutes.

We have learned that you have hiredan outside legal firm to investigate this research. But we are mystified byreports that the results of that investigation may not be released to thepublic. In the interest of complete transparency, we further call on you tomake public the findings of this investigation.

As taxpayers whose hard-earned tax dollars help to support the University of Pittsburgh, we call upon you to stop conducting dehumanizing research using aborted baby body parts.

Sincerely,

Susan Rogacs                                                                    Michael Ciccocioppo

President, Board of Directors                                             Executive Director

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Abortion

Why are we so afraid of Down syndrome?

October 12, 2021By

Brad was his name. He was the first student I ever taught who had Down syndrome.

I was just entering my second year of full-time teaching. I held a Reading Specialist certificate and had taken several special education courses. So one might think I’d feel well prepared.

Yet, I found myself a bit nervous about having Brad in my sixth-grade Language Arts classroom. While I admired my school district for blazing a trail with inclusive classrooms, I had no practical experience teaching students with an extra chromosome. In fact, at 25 years old I had very little life experience interacting with people with Down syndrome.

But I need not have worried.  Brad was an amazing addition to our class. He read on a sixth-grade level, better than some of his “typical” classmates. I loved when he volunteered to read out loud, showcasing his excellent decoding skills and impressing his peers.

Brad was pleasant and cooperative, not every day but most days– but the same could be said about the other 150 students I taught. Middle schoolers in general area very fickle group!

On one of his tougher days, Brad hid under a desk for most of class. While his support teacher worked with him, his classmates dutifully carried on, modeling for Brad how he should behave.

On better days, Brad exuded love and happiness to the extreme!  He accepted everyone as his friend and found joy in the ordinary, modeling for us how we should behave.

What Brad contributed to our classroom was far greater than anything I expected. He brought out the best in all of us.  He challenged me to hone my teaching methodology so that concepts could be presented in novel ways, and in doing so, I was able to reach more students of varying aptitudes. I became a more creative, more thoughtful teacher with Brad in the room.

He challenged his peers to rethink stereotypes and perceived limitations, and to reach out to someone who was different but not less. It was heartwarming to see a student choose Brad to be his partner for a class activity or to see how several students welcomed him into a group project and helped him find a role. These students discovered that Brad was a just another human being, a person who laughed and cried, a person who achieved goals but also made mistakes, a person who had good days and bad.

And they also discovered that Brad was a person who offered unconditional acceptance and unbounded love.

We need more Brads in the world, not less.

I believe if more of us interacted with people with Down syndrome we would discover what a gift they are. We would stop trying to “eradicate” them, as they have done in Iceland through abortion. And we would stop aborting them in alarming numbers in our own country.

When receiving a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, parents are often presented with problems they could potentially face, rather than possibilities.  Perhaps they or their doctor never had a Brad in their classroom and witnessed the beauty, the value, and the dignity of his life.

Why are we so afraid of Down syndrome? Why do we routinely test for it during pregnancy?

While it should be acknowledged that parenting a child with an extra chromosome can pose challenges, it is true that parenting any child can pose challenges, including those with autism, ADHD, depression, a cognitive impairment,  a chronic medical condition, a hearing or visual impairment, or a host of other things that makes a person, makes us, anything less than “perfect.”

Shall we “eradicate” anyone who fails to meet society’s definition of perfection?  If we continue to move in that direction of eugenics, who will be missing from our world?

We would be missing all the Brads who teach us so much more than we teach them…the Brads who inspire us to think differently and to love more than we thought we could.

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Abortion

Lila Rose’s Fight for Life

October 4, 2021By

It was a child’s curiosity that started it all.  She was exploring her parents’ bookshelves when one particular worn-out book caught her eye.  Paging through, she was horrified at what she saw.  She quickly shut the book, but compelled by an instinct to better understand what she had seen, she opened it again. She stared in disbelief and profound sadness, thinking of her own baby sister’s ultrasound picture. How could this be?

That moment was thegenesis of Lila Rose’s pro-life advocacy. That book was A Handbook on Abortion by Dr. and Mrs. J.C. Wilke, founders of theNational Right to Life. That child, even though just nine years old, felt calledto do something. That something would eventually evolve into Live Action, aninfluential pro-life media and news organization that Lila founded when she wasjust 15 years old.

In her book Fighting for Life: Becoming a Force for Change in a Wounded World, Lila Rose details her journey from a little girl who wanted to save babies to being the president of a pro-life nonprofit that has worldwide reach.  Reflecting on learning about abortion at a young age and the impact it had on her, Lila writes, “Deep grief is often the starting point for righting an injustice.”

Motivated to make a difference, Lila raised money for pregnancy resource centers, prayed outside abortion facilities, and started a pro-life club at her school. Her intention was always to take the next small step to help women and to teach others about abortion.

One small step led to another, however, and Lila’s advocacy grew. In college, she expanded the pro-life presence on the liberal campus of UCLA and even went undercover into Planned Parenthood facilities to investigate whether they were complying with the law.

What would enable a young woman to take such risks and face certain adversity? Lila was open to learning from mentors who helped her develop skills in apologetics, fundraising, public speaking, and more. She found her heroes in Mother Teresa, St. Maximilian Kolbe, and Corrie Ten Boom, people who exemplified courage and self-sacrifice. As she matured and delved deeper into the abortion battleground, Lila recognized the need to remain close to God. She deepened her prayer life and sought spiritual direction. All of these were integral to staying centered while maintaining her mission.

While her journey to becoming a “pro-life rock star” is itself a compelling story, it is perhaps her transparency that readers might find most surprising in this book. She openly acknowledges her fears, insecurities, and personal battles, including struggles with depression, an eating disorder, cutting, and complex family issues.

Many may know only a picture-perfect version of Lila from social media or public appearances, but her book candidly discloses her own vulnerabilities.  Like all of us, she has experienced suffering. She credits her pro-life advocacy for helping her heal and thrive because she found a cause bigger than herself, one in which she can serve others.

She uses her earned wisdom to offer simple but sage advice to anyone fighting for a cause close to their heart. The chapter titles reflect lessons learned and wise counsel: Know Your Gifts, Prepare to Stand Alone, Leave Your Comfort Zone, Be Teachable, etc. Without being preachy, Lila gives advice that is  realistic and encouraging.

Now a wife and mother, Lila’s passion for life is stronger than ever. She urges everyone, whatever their background, to get involved in the pro-life movement.  “The fight needs all of us, no matter our wounds or mistakes or imperfections…Together we can rebuild the broken foundations, restore what has been devastated, and renew our wounded world. Together we can celebrate the new beginning.”

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Abortion

It’s Time for a Thorough Investigation of the University of Pittsburgh

August 9, 2021By

HARRISBURG, Pa. – The University of Pittsburgh should be thoroughly investigated amid allegations of researchers there harvesting body parts from babies whose hearts are still beating.

        “The Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act makes it clear—you cannot take the life of a precious baby to harvest organs. For the sake of babies, mothers, and taxpayers throughout the Commonwealth, it’s time to investigate the University of Pittsburgh,” said Maria Gallagher, legislative director of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, an affiliate of National Right to Life.

        Under Pennsylvania law, it is a felony to experiment on a living unborn baby or to refuse to offer medical care to an infant who has been born alive.

        The Center for Medical Progress notes that Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania abortion providers supply the aborted babies, while the University of Pittsburgh provides sponsorship to Planned Parenthood’s operations in what appears to be an illegal quid pro quo for unborn baby body parts. That would be a violation of 42 U.S. Code 289g-2 and 18 Pennsylvania Statutes 3216.

        After securing hundreds of pages of public records, the non-profit group Judicial Watch has found that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has channeled at least $2.7 million into a project at the University of Pittsburgh that uses a tissue bank with body parts from aborted babies.

        Pitt’s application for one project stated that the university planned “to develop a pipeline to the acquisition, quality control and distribution of (urinary and genital organs and functions) samples obtained throughout development (6-42 weeks gestation).” A baby born at 40 weeks is considered full-term by the National Institutes of Health, while a baby born at 42 weeks is considered overdue.

        According to the Center for Medical Progress, “If the (preborn baby’s) heartbeat and blood circulation continue in a labor induction abortion for harvesting organs, it means the (baby) is being delivered while still alive and the cause of death is the removal of the organs.”

        “The allegations read like something out of a horror movie—gruesome and disgusting,” said Gallagher. “It is deeply disturbing to think that full-term babies could be treated in such an inhumane manner. We call on both federal and local authorities to conduct a thorough investigation of the University of Pittsburgh’s research practices,” Gallagher added.

********************************************************************************************************************************************************************The Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation is a grassroots right-to-life organization with members statewide.  As the state affiliate of National Right to Life, PPLF is committed to promoting the dignity and value of human life from conception to natural death and to restoring legal protection for preborn children.

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