. . . because action speaks louder than words.
League history, NOW v. Scheidler, Action News, Joe Scheidler, League staff
Q & A on abortion, the unborn child, where we stand on the issues and more
Helping abortion-bound women choose life for their babies
Unmasking the truth about abortion in the public square
Our youth outreach, raising up a new generation of pro-life leaders
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
You are currently browsing the archives for the The Unborn Child category.
Two basic tenets of the pro-life position are: (1) abortion destroys the life of a genetically distinct, whole human being; and (2) abortion is psychologically harmful to women.
Conversely, two basic tenets of the “pro-choice” position are: (1) abortion does not destroy the life of a genetically distinct, whole human being; and (2) abortion is not psychologically harmful to women.
With this in mind, I was interested to read this recent post by Jill Filipovic at the stridently “pro-choice” blog Feministe, in which she starts off referring to some “fun facts” from Jena Pincott’s book Do Chocolate Lovers Have Sweeter Babies?, as highlighted in the popular mom blog Mommyish:
Well here are some fun facts: Pregnant women’s bodies are basically swimming with the cells of their fetuses. And even when they give birth, some cells remain. By the end of the first trimester of pregnancy, cells from the fetus account for one in every 50,000 cells in the woman’s body. Further along in the pregnancy, it increases to one in 1,000. Six percent of the DNA in her blood plasma also comes from the fetus. Which is interesting given some standard pro-life arguments like this:
Here is the “standard pro-life argument” Jill linked to: [Continue reading ...]
Madeline Mann, born at only 26 weeks [Photo by Loyola U Health System]
Both Chicago’s major newspapers, the Tribune and the Sun Times, ran feature stories on Monday, December 12, 2011, about the tiniest babies that survive and thrive.
The smallest and fourth smallest premature babies ever delivered were born and treated at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago. Madeline, born in 1989 at 9.9 ounces held the record until Ramaisa stole it in 2004, weighing in a 9.2 ounces.
Both girls are doing extremely well. Madeline is an honor student in college and Ramaisa is an active 7-year-old.
The story of their survival is heartwarming. But for a pro-life activist is it also a dramatic reminder of the humanity of the baby before she is born, and the tragedy of late-term abortion. [Continue reading ...]
My wife, Erin, who is herself pregnant with our fourth child, pointed me to this amazing talk given by scientist, mathematician, artist, journalist, photographer and all-around Renaissance Man Alexander Tsiaras. In the video, Tsiaras presents a unique glimpse into development of the human body.
Tsiaras, among many other projects in his fascinating life, has developed special lenses and computer programs to give us an inside and up close look at human life as it develops from conception all the way to birth. Check out the video for the stunning detail of the process.
One of the most interesting aspects of the video is Tsiaras’ remarkable admission that how this process occurs, over and over again with very few mistakes, is simply beyond the reach of human understanding. In the video he says: [Continue reading ...]
Eric Scheidler speaks on activism at the International Pro-Life Youth Conference, Nov. 12 [Photo by Dave Bathon]
This past weekend I traveled to Los Angeles for the first ever International Pro-Life Youth Conference to join a cast of fantastic speakers and 300 of the most enthusiastic young pro-lifers I’ve ever seen.
The conference was expertly organized by Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust and cosponsored by several other pro-life groups, including the League, which provided copies of our Sharing the Pro-Life Message handbook to all attendees. Rev. Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition did an extraordinary job as Master of Ceremonies.
My contribution to the conference was a new PowerPoint presentation on conducting successful events entitled, “10 Keys to Effective Pro-Life Action,” which drew on my years as an activist. These keys included such advice as “Devise your battle plan,” “Cooperate with police” and “Take care of volunteers.” [Continue reading ...]
Face the Truth Tour outside the Wrigley Building in Chicago [Photo by Matt Yonke]
Yesterday the League took to two sites along Michigan Avenue in Chicago for the final “Face the Truth” day of 2011.
Equipped with graphic images of the victims of abortion, League staff and 15 volunteers lined Michigan Avenue outside the historic Wrigley Building.
Being in the neighborhood where most Chicago media outlets have their offices made it easier than usual to get press coverage. Several media outlets interviewed League Executive Director Eric Scheidler and WGN radio did some “man on the street” interviews with passersby to gauge their feelings on the subject. [Continue reading ...]
Were you ever a fetus? How about an embryo? Or a zygote?
The answer to these questions are yes, yes, and yes. Now, one more question:
Were you ever a “fertilized egg”?
The answer to this question is no.
It’s no more accurate to say you were once an egg than to say you were once a sperm. Once an egg is fertilized — that is, once fertilization (also called conception) occurs — it’s no longer an egg.
At that point, a genetically distinct human being is created, and this new life is properly called a zygote — a fact that, for what it’s worth, even Wikipedia recognizes:
In other words, there is no such thing as a fertilized egg. [Continue reading ...]
This week the Mississippi Supreme Court put the brakes on Planned Parenthood and the ACLU’s bid to stop a pro-life law in the state from taking its place on the ballot for a vote this November.
The law, known as the Personhood Amendment, is three sentences that, if passed, would have a dramatic impact on abortion law. The amendment reads as follows:
Unalienable right to life of every prenatal person is protected. The intentional taking of a prenatal person’s life shall never be allowed in this State. For the purpose of this section only, the term ‘prenatal person’ includes every human being at all stages of biological development before birth.
Planned Parenthood and the ACLU tried to argue to the Mississippi Supreme Court that the measure would redefine “person” in the Mississippi constitution, but the court responded that the constitution currently carries no definition of “person,” so the amendment couldn’t possibly redefine a term currently undefined.
Get the full story here.
Ann and I will be traveling to Columbus, Ohio with our good friend Jill Stanek this Tuesday, September 20 to join the rally urging the state Senate to pass the state’s “Heartbeat Bill”.
The rally is being touted as “the most important pro-life rally of our time.” And it may well be, since its passage would, according to medical specialists, save 96 to 99% of unborn babies slated for abortion. The heart begins to beat as early as 18 days from conception and be detected on present monitors as early as 6 weeks.
House Bill 125 (the “Heartbeat Bill”) says that no abortion can be performed if the unborn baby has a detectable heartbeat, with the only exception being to prevent the death of the mother or irreversible impairment of a major bodily function. THe bill has enormous support in the state and needs only 17 votes to pass in the 33-member Senate. The House vote was 54-43. [Continue reading ...]
David Mills over at First Things tells the story of Dr. John C. Cutler, a researcher who, in the 1940s carried out horrible experiments on poor natives in Guatemala in search of a cure for syphilis—all with the knowledge and consent of the US Surgeon General. It is shocking and well worth your time to read.
Mills points out the shocking similarity between the way Cutler treated these poor people like objects to further his research in precisely the same way we are currently treating human embryos and children in the womb, which is to say like objects to be used or discarded, not ends unto themselves.
League Vice President Ann Scheidler appeared on Fox News Chicago Tuesday night to talk about a new breed of early gender prediction home test kits.
Fox’s Robin Robinson, who conducted the interview, as well as most of the “man-on-the-street” interviewees felt at least somewhat nervous about the slippery slope from early gender prediction to abortion based on gender. But strangely, Ann’s fellow guest, OB/GYN Dr. Lauren Streicher, had almost no fear of such a thing.
Citing her years dealing with pregnant mothers, she states that she has never seen a patient choose to abort because of the gender of their child. But Dr. Streicher ignores two prominent concerns.
First, gender selective abortions have, in actual fact, led to a exactly that—children, mostly girls, being killed in utero because of their gender leaving a massive dearth of female children in Asia, known as the missing women of Asia. Second, we have never had the ability to predict gender so early at a stage where people feel much more comfortable choosing abortion.
Watch the video to hear Ann’s side of the story and the rest of the report.