. . . because action speaks louder than words.
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Abortion industry converts tell the inside story
News and commentary from the Pro-Life Action League
News and commentary from the Pro-Life Action League
In spite of polls showing that a majority of Americans generally oppose abortion, the legislative and judicial environment remains hostile to life. As a result, pro-life activists and lawmakers have been forced to become increasingly creative in their attempts to protect the unborn.
The partial birth abortion ban was a start in a trend to prohibit a certain type of abortion. Nebraska, Alabama and Idaho have enacted laws that highlight the unborn baby as the victim capable of feeling pain at least by the twentieth week of gestation.
Idaho Governor Butch Otter signed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act into law in April 2011. Not surprisingly, the Idaho law is being challenged. [Continue reading ...]
Kameron and Kaydon Manns
On March 31, 2010, Kameron and Kaydon Hayes were born to Brianna Manns at the University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago.
They were identical twins—closer than most. Kameron and Kaydon were conjoined twins, joined at the thorax and sharing a heart and liver. From the beginning their mother and medical professionals knew that their lives would be short and fraught with difficulties.
But Kameron and Kaydon defied odds. Everyone was surprised that they survived to celebrate their first birthday. But on Friday, August 13, they finally lost the battle they had fiercely fought. Their heart was beating erratically, and there was nothing more that the medical team could do.
When doctors discovered the complication during Brianna Manns’ pregnancy they talked to her about aborting them. But their mother said abortion was never an option. “I am a strong believer in not having abortions — very, very strong,” said Manns. “They are my babies. I had the feelings that any mother would have,” I wanted my children to experience life to the fullest, to whatever extent that it might be.” [Continue reading ...]
Joe Scheidler outside the Robbinsdale Clinic abortion facility, August 6 [Photo by Ann Scheidler]
Pro-Life Action Ministries in St. Paul, MN hosted the first ever national sidewalk counseling symposium last weekend, and the Pro-Life Action League was well-represented. League Director Joe Scheidler spoke on Friday evening, along with Fr. Frank Pavone and Pastor Walter Hoye, to spiritually prepare for the work scheduled for Saturday.
Prior to the Saturday workshops, attendees boarded school buses (not equipped with springs or shock absorbers) and headed for the Robbinsdale Clinic abortion facility, which promotes itself as a family health clinic. Pro-Life Action Ministries owns the building next door to the clinic. The PLAM center includes an office, a chapel and a gathering space.
In the backyard PLAM has erected a platform so that sidewalk counselors have an opportunity to speak to the abortion clinic clients and offer information and alternatives. The front yard of the PLAM house includes a large crucifix and a grotto to Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The local authorities have placed unreasonable restrictions on the pro-lifers in Robbinsdale. A limited number of people can be on the sidewalk. Photographs of the clinic are prohibited. But there is a pro-life presence at the abortion facility whenever they are doing abortions. Babies are being saved in spite of the clinic and the community’s efforts to thwart the pro-lifers’ mission. [Continue reading ...]
On Friday, as I stood at the Face the Truth staging area at our site near a Taco Bell at 79th and Stony Island Avenue on Chicago’s South Side, a young woman drove up and asked to buy one of our red Truth Tour shirts. She then sat in her car eating her lunch.
About 20 minutes later, this young woman rolled down her window and asked if we had any information about counseling after an abortion. I brought her a Project Rachel card [PDF] with the number 800-848-LOVE for post-abortion counseling.
She then told me that looking at the pictures of the aborted babies is very hard. And she told me it brought back to the forefront her own abortion over 20 years ago. She talked about the fact that she knew it was wrong. She had repented and she believed that God had forgiven her. But still she felt the need to talk to someone about her own personal experience. [Continue reading ...]
Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade recently wrote in a syndicated column that appeared in papers across the country that he now knows “what winning really means.”
Wade was just awarded custody of his two sons. He grew up in Chicago, and his own father was heavily invested in his upbringing. Wade wrote that since his sons have come to live with him, “every day has been like Father’s Day.”
President Obama recently appointed Wade to a new parenting program geared toward encouraging fathers to become more involved in their children’s lives. That means accepting the responsibility for the lives they help to create. Being a responsible dad means serving as a role model for his sons and daughters. That demands honesty, integrity, dependability, compassion, discipline and love. [Continue reading ...]
A woman is carried into an ambulance behind a sheet at Planned Parenthood in Aurora, Illinois [Photo by Eric Scheidler, 4/1/11]
The Chicago Tribune ran a front page story today reporting that many Illinois abortion facilities are not reporting how many abortions they perform or the number and nature of the complications that arise from the abortions.
Megan Twohey, author of the Tribune article, called the Pro-Life Action League back in March, in the wake of the news about the filthy conditions in Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s “House of Horrors” abortion facility in Philadelphia. Twohey was looking into inspections and reporting in Illinois.
We sent her the summaries of the malpractice lawsuits against Chicago area abortion clinics on file in the Circuit Court of Cook County. We routinely check the court files and have uncovered dozens of Complaints against Family Planning Associates, Planned Parenthood, and American Women’s Medical Center. Complaints range from deaths due to complications during or following an abortion, to hemorrhaging, perforated uterus, excessive bleeding and damage necessitating a complete hysterectomy on a 14-year-old girl. [Continue reading ...]
The second floor windows of Chicago’s Women’s Center CPC are boarded up following a fire [Photo by John Jansen]
Shortly before midnight on Saturday, June 4, a woman arrived to pray at the Perpetual Adoration chapel housed within the Women’s Center, a crisis pregnancy center on Chicago’s Northwest Side. She saw smoke coming from the second floor of the building and immediately called 911. Within minutes, firefighters were on the scene.
The second floor suffered significant damage. This is the area where the Women’s Center maintains its Family Room, with resources for the pregnant mothers they serve. The Family Room was filled to capacity with clothing, toys and baby items donated by generous supporters of the Women’s Center to meet the material needs of the mothers who face an untimely pregnancy and choose life for their unborn babies.
The fire department suspects that the source of the fire is electrical, but a full investigation will be conducted. Were it not for the Eucharistic adorers having been on site at the time, the damage would have been considerably worse.
The Women’s Center was the focus of a picket and leafleting campaign on Tuesday, May 31, organized by Walk for Choice Chicago, which appears to be associated with the Illinois Choice Action Team, the outfit that supplies the aggressive “deathscorts” at the Albany abortion clinic just a half block south of The Women’s Center. [Continue reading ...]
Last Friday I attended the dedication of Heather’s House, a new project of Aid for Women, a Chicago crisis pregnancy center.
Heather’s House is a residential facility for pregnant women who have nowhere to live when they make a choice for life. It is located on the campus of Maryville Academy in Des Plaines, Illinois.
The dedication ceremony began with Mass in the Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel celebrated by Bishop Francis Kane and Msgr. Michael Boland, director of Catholic Charities for the Archdiocese of Chicago.
Following the Mass, papal biographer George Weigel spoke about Blessed Pope John Paul II’s commitment to the pro-life movement and drew a parallel between his beatification and the life-affirming work of Aid for Women. [Continue reading ...]
The Albany abortion clinic dumpster, where our signs were tossed
Now that the Albany Medical Surgical Center abortion clinic in Chicago has aggressive deathscorts on duty, it is particularly difficult to offer real choice to the women who come there thinking abortion is their best option. Many have no idea that abortion can be dangerous or that help is available just less than a block away.
So to make sure they have an opportunity to choose life, we have printed professional signs with the name and phone number for The Women’s Center, in both English and Spanish.
Clearly the sidewalk counselors and prayer warriors are having an impact on the abortion clinic.
First they installed the deathscorts.
Now they are attacking our signs.
Today, I posted five signs—three in English, two in Spanish. When it was time for me to leave, I gave the signs to the prayer group that was coming on duty next.
If anyone needed more evidence that the mood of the country is becoming more decidedly pro-life, the unprecedented number of pro-life bills in state legislatures is it. And the abortion industry is in a panic over it.
Three hundred seventy-four anti-abortion bills have been introduced in state legislatures, which accordingly to a NARAL spokesperson, is 200 more than last year. CNN reports that 29 states have pro-life governors and in 15 states both houses of their legislatures are pro-life.
The Guttmacher Institute’s public policy associate called it a “free-for-all” against abortion. And she said, “I’ve been doing this for almost 12 years now, so I feel like I have some historical sense. This year is just unlike any other year we’ve seen before.” [Continue reading ...]