Offering Help and Taking Action

If you are actively sharing the pro-life message or taking part in any of the pro-life activism described later in this section, you may well find yourself in a conversation with someone who could use the help of a pro-life pregnancy resource center. Refer to the previous question to find the pregnancy center nearest you, and make note of the address and contact information.

You may also wish to visit the center to familiarize yourself with the services they provide. This would also be your chance to ask about volunteer opportunities.

It is possible to reverse the effects of the abortion pill mifepristone, as long as a woman has not already taken the second medication, misoprostol. If after taking the first pill, a woman regrets that decision — as many do — its effects can be reversed with doses of progestrone, allowing the pregnancy to continue.

This protocol is effective in 60% or more of cases. Over 4,000 children have been born as a result of this abortion pill reversal protocol.

• Abortion Pill Reversal
  Website: AbortionPillReversal.com
  Call: (877) 558-0333

See also How is a medication abortion performed?

Many of the pregnancy resource centers that can be reached through the national referral organization Option Line, listed above, can also offer women help placing their babies for adoption. In addition:

• Bethany Christian Services specializes in
  adoptions.
  Phone: (800) 238-4269
  Website: Bethany.org
• Catholic Charities in some states can help women place their babies for adoption, regardless of their religious affiliation. Contact your local Catholic Charities chapter for more information.
  Phone: (703) 549-1390
  Website: CatholicCharitiesUSA.org/find-help

See also Where can a woman get help with an untimely pregnancy?

Dealing with the aftermath of abortion can be extremely painful. Several resources are available to help.

• Support After Abortion connects women who are hurting from abortion with resources to facilitate healing.
  Phone: (844) 289-4673
  Website: SupportAfterAbortion.com
• Project Rachel is a nationwide network for individual post-abortion counseling.
  Phone: (888) 456-4673
  Website: HopeAfterAbortion.com
• Rachel’s Vineyard Ministries provides weekend retreats for women to facilitate post-abortion healing.
  Phone: (877) 467-3463
  Website: RachelsVineyard.org
• Your Abortion Experience offers women who have had abortions the opportunity to tell their story and move through the healing process at their own pace.
  Phone: (619) 501-9414
  Website: YourAbortionExperience.org

See also Is help available for men who have been involved with abortion?

It is not only women who suffer from the aftermath of abortion. The abortion experience can be very painful for men as well, and help is available.

• Support After Abortion is a general post-abortion resource that includes help for men who are hurting from abortion.
  Phone: (844) 289-4673
  Website: SupportAfterAbortion.com
• Men and Abortion Network (MAN) helps men locate a local counselor for dealing with the pain of abortion.
  Website: MenAndAbortion.net

In addition, the book Men and Abortion: A Path to Healing by C.T. Coyle is an excellent resource for men involved with abortion.

See also Where can a woman get help dealing with the pain of abortion?

Finding out that the baby they are expecting will be born with special needs is one of the most difficult experiences parents can face. But they are not alone. Resources and support from other parents who have faced this painful situation — including pressure from doctors and others to abort the child — are available.

• Prenatal Partners for Life connects parents facing an adverse diagnosis with other parents who have faced the same diagnosis.
  Website: PrenatalPartnersForLife.org
• Be Not Afraid provides comprehensive case management to parents carrying to term following an adverse prenatal diagnosis.
  Website: BeNotAfraid.net

If you’ve been using this handbook to share the pro-life message with others, you’ve already begun to fight abortion in your own community. And now you may be wondering what else you can do to put your pro-life convictions into action.

There’s a great deal you can do, and the organization that produced this handbook — the Pro-Life Action League — is eager to help you. Here are just a few of the activities the League can equip you to carry out:

• Public demonstrations that reveal the humanity of the unborn child and the injustice of abortion.
• Prayer vigils that invoke God’s help and mercy and motivate the faith community.
• Political action to support pro-life measures, fight pro-abortion bills, or stop abortion from coming to your community.
• And so much more! Like Jericho Marches, literature distribution, displaying banners on highway overpasses …

To learn more about the many ways you can fight abortion in your own community, visit the source listed below.

There are many things you can do to bring an effective pro-life witness to an abortion facility in your area, including:

• Praying for the women arriving for abortions, for the clinic staff to have a change of heart, and to mourn for the children dying that day.
• Sidewalk counseling to compassionately offer help and alternatives to women who are seeking abortions.
• Special events like a Way of the Cross service or rally to support mothers in need.

To learn more about these activities and bring them to an abortion facility in your area, visit the source listed below.

See also What is “sidewalk counseling” and how can I get involved?

Sidewalk counseling refers to the practice of going to an abortion facility — typically out on the sidewalk — to compassionately reach out to abortion clinic clients and offer them help. This often involves letting them know about the services available at a nearby pregnancy resource center.

To learn more about this life-saving ministry and find training resources, visit the source listed below.

See also Where can a woman get help with an untimely pregnancy? 

If you spend any significant time out on the front lines of the pro-life movement — demonstrating in the public square, reaching out at abortion facilities, protesting abortion advocates — you may at times wonder if you’re really making any difference. Rest assured, you are. Here are five ways that public protest advances the pro-life cause:

1. Protest keeps abortion in the public eye. People would like to forget about the shameful injustice of abortion. Every public protest pushes back against this indifference.
2. Protest educates the public about abortion. If you’ve spent any time sharing the pro-life message, you know how little Americans really understand about abortion and human life in the womb. Your public witness helps to dispel that ignorance.
3. Protest cuts through media bias. Not only does your public witness against abortion directly reach the people, but you may even be able to earn your own media coverage and use the media itself to share your message. 
4. Protest advances pro-life public policy. Public action like demonstrations, phone banking, and office visits (lobbying) make the priorities of the pro-life movement visible to elected officials. Such action has been instrumental in both the enactment of pro-life legislation and the scuttling of pro-abortion measures.
5. Protest saves babies from abortion. The most profound impact our public witness can have is to inspire a woman to cancel an abortion appointment and choose life for her unborn child. Many pro-lifers have even had the opportunity to meet children saved through their activism.

The most effective way to share the pro-life message is through one-on-one conversation. But there may be times you might find it helpful to hand some printed material to someone that they can look at on their own time. See the list under “Pro-Life Flyers, Bumper Stickers and other Materials” on the resources page at the end of this handbook.

The group that produced this handbook, the Pro-Life Action League, offers several excellent flyers on some of the most important topics you will encounter as a pro-life advocate, including:

• Getting to Know Planned Parenthood draws readers into the controversy surrounding the nation’s largest abortion chain, and exposes their extremism to the American public.
• Understanding Abortion Later in Pregnancy debunks the myths about late term abortion — including the shocking fact that the vast majority of late term abortions involve both a healthy fetus and a healthy mother.
• The Abortion Pill: What You Need to Know reveals the horrors of the most common form of abortion — including a powerfully moving image of an embryo killed by the abortion pill.
• They Were Our Brothers and Sisters invites the reader to sympathize with the victims of abortion by showing what this violent procedure does to their tiny bodies.

To learn more about these impactful flyers and order copies you can share, visit the source listed below.

After this section of the handbook, you will find two pages of resources for further exploring the abortion issue and learning how you can advance the pro-life cause. Staying up to date is essential, so pay special attention to the resources under “Pro-Life News.”

And to find out about the latest developments, urgent action items, and pro-life events across the country that you can take part in, sign up for updates from the Pro-Life Action League — the organization that produced this handbook — by visiting the source listed below.

If you’ve taken action in any of the ways described above, you’ve already made the first step in becoming an effective pro-life activist: showing up. Most people won’t. They may have the best intentions, but in the end they leave the work up to others.

After all, there are many challenges to witnessing against abortion in the public square. How do you recruit volunteers? What should you do if the police show up? How can you get the attention of the media?

The Pro-Life Action League is ready to equip you to handle all these challenges and more.

Visit the source listed below.

Absolutely! The pro-life movement is far more diverse than you might have been led to believe. While it’s true that religious faith motivates a great many pro-life activists, an increasing number of people are publicly opposing abortion for non-religious reasons. This includes the arguments against abortion advanced by groups like Secular Pro-Life, and the bold public protests of groups like the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU, pronounced “POW”) that have earned national media coverage.

That said, if you attend a pro-life event in your community, you are likely to find most of your fellow activists there are indeed religious, and the event may even include religious elements such as a closing prayer. However, don’t let this make you feel unwelcome; simply quietly abstain from those aspects of the event. Moreover, realize that with your perspective, you have something very special to offer religious pro-lifers, who often struggle to make their message relevant to secular audiences.

See also Why don’t you stop trying to impose your religion on others?

In addition to the selected resources on various topics listed below, you may refer to the citations throughout this guide for additional resources.

How to Share the Pro-Life Message & Answering Common Pro-Choice Arguments

Alcorn, Randy. Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Arguments. Colorado Springs: Multnomah Books, 2000.

Crutcher, Mark. Pro-Life Answers. Denton, TX: Life Dynamics International, 2006.

Equal Rights Institute. EqualRightsInstitute.com.

Klusendorf, Scott. The Case for Life: Equipping Christians to Engage the Culture. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2009.

Life Training Institute. ProLifeTraining.com.

Secular Pro-Life. SecularProLife.org,

Wagner, Stephen. Common Ground Without Compromise. Signal Hill, CA: Stand to Reason Press, 2008.

Life in the Womb & Abortion Facts

Abortion Docs. AbortionDocs.org.

Charlotte Lozier Institute. LozierInstitute.org.

Clowes, Brian. The Facts of Life: An Authoritative Guide to Life and Family Issues. Front Royal, VA: Human Life International, 1997.

The Endowment for Human Development. EHD.org.

Nilsson, Lennart. A Child is Born. New York: Delta, 2003.

Tsiaris, Alexander. From Conception to Birth: A Life Unfolds. New York: Doubleday, 2002.

Willke, John, MD, and Barbara Willke. Abortion: Questions and Answers. Cincinnati: Hayes, 2003.

Getting Help with an Untimely Pregnancy

Abortion Pill Reversal. (877) 558-0333. AbortionPillReversal.com.

Option Line. (800) 712-4357. OptionLine.org.

Getting Help with Post-Abortion Healing

Project Rachel. (888) 456-4673. HopeAfterAbortion.com.

Support After Abortion. SupportAfterAbortion.com.

Getting Involved in Pro-Life Activism

Citizens for a Pro-Life Society. ProLifeSociety.net.

Created Equal. CreatedEqual.org.

Pro-Life Action League. ProLifeAction.org.

Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising. PAAUNow.org.

Sidewalk Advocates for Life. SidewalkAdvocates.org.

Students for Life of America. StudentsForLife.org

Pro-Life Legal Issues

Americans United for Life. (202) 289-1478. AUL.org.

Thomas More Society Pro-Life Law Center. (312) 782-1680. ThomasMoreSociety.org.

Pro-Life Flyers, Bumper Stickers and other Materials

Life Cycle Books. (800) 214-5849. LifeCycleBooks.com.

Heritage House. (800) 858-3040. HH76.com.

Pro-Life Action League Store. (630) 896-1200. Shop.ProLifeAction.org.

Pro-Life News

LifeNews. LifeNews.com.

Live Action. LiveAction.org/news.

National Right to Life News. NRLC.org/news.