Showing posts with label human life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label human life. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

1st Way's 1st Sponsored Race a Success!

1st Way's first sponsored race was a great success!

New T-shirts were designed for the Aquafina Butte to Butte race, in pink and blue, all with the 1st Way logo. The runners stood out and drew attention to the fact that they were running for the lives of unborn babies.

Our first running team had four runners and two walkers, all of whom completed the 5K race! Runners ran to represent many causes and it was good to see 1st Way well represented by such a dedicated team on the beautiful 4th of July day!

We appreciate those who sponsored this year's race. More sponsors are needed next time around, so please be thinking about pledging to support our runners next year.

Many thanks to Kendall Leatherman, our coordinator, for doing such a great job to start a new tradition here in Eugene!

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Crash Course in Pro-Life Apologetics

Why are you pro-life? 

What would you say if someone asked you that? Have you ever had to defend your position in conversation? Were you afraid to offend someone with your point of view? Were you afraid your reasons were just not good enough to persuade anyone? Take a look at these very good websites and brush up on your apologetics skills!

At the pro-life conference this year, I attended a really good session on pro-life apologetics. The basic gist of how to be a good apologist is this: pro-choice people want to talk about anything and everything except for abortion itself. They want to talk about things like "back alley abortions,"  saving the life of a mother (which makes up under 1% of all abortions,) problems of poverty in our society, how other people overlook problems of poverty, a woman's choice, a woman's body and on and on.

Pro-choice people do NOT want to talk about the child itself being killed. They will spin the conversation every which-way they can to avoid this painful reality. That is why your main points need to be about things like the the humanity of the child in the womb, the uniqueness of human life, the child's ability to feel pain and the ethical issue of ending an innocent human life.

Here are some helpful websites to review:

(1) This well presented website offers succinct and logical "talking points" for every situation. For example, fact #12 details how, before Roe v Wade, only 10% of women had "back alley" abortions. The argument that abortion ban would increase death from "back alley" abortion ignores that there is no evidence that abortion is any less dangerous today but more importantly, it leaves out the issue of the ethics of taking a human life completely. Review this page. It's filled with clear logic to counter common arguments.


(2) What about when people want to talk about how young mothers will "ruin their lives" if they give birth? That's a hard position to argue without knowing the statistics of how abortion creates a greater number of emotional, physical and societal problems than giving birth at a young age. You need to know that suicide risk is 6 times higher with teens that have abortions and that they are twice as likely than their peers to use drugs.


Review these sites and you will feel more secure when faced with pro-choice arguments, but most importantly, always steer the conversation to the undeniable fact that abortion is taking an innocent human life- no ifs, ands or buts.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Should Infants Born Alive Be Protected?

Should Infants Born Alive Be Protected?

"What kind of question is that," most people would think, if they are not familiar with what is going on.

 (The baby on the left is alive, 21 weeks old.)


The Pro-Life World has become rather intense lately.

The media is beginning to show us some extreme positions being taken.

After-Birth Abortion: What is that? Does this make sense to anyone?

What is a "Born Alive Infants Protection Act?"

When babies are born alive after botched abortions, what should happen to them? Often these babies are missing limbs, or are paralyzed. They are breathing, crying and their heart are racing. Sometimes, as in the case below, the doctor is sued either for the damage done or the fact that the abortion job wasn't completed, usually depending on whether the parent sues or the child grows up and sues.

 http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/16/judge-abortionist-must-pay-36m-to-botched-abortion-survivor/

 http://www.lifenews.com/2005/04/29/state-1014/

Should infants born alive be saved? 

Planned Parenthood says that decision is between a woman and her doctor.
 http://www.priestsforlife.org/alert/alert.aspx?id=36

Obama voted twice (as a senator) that if the mother wanted the infant killed, she should be able to choose that. It's even here on video:
 http://www.lifenews.com/2012/08/22/unearthed-video-shows-obama-supporting-late-term-abortions/

Obama, as a member of the Illinois Senate, opposed a state version of the federal Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, a measure that would make sure babies who survive abortions are given proper medical care. This is the same bill being considered right now in Florida.


I'm not just talking about late-term, third trimester pregnancies. Sometimes, an infant can be viable (able to live outside the womb) in the 5th month, by around week 20.
This is what a 21 week old baby, born alive, looks like. Notice how alert he is.
 http://www.endtimeprophecy.net/Articles-Non-EPN/5-21week.html

Look at what's happening in Canada- Hundreds of babies a year are just being left to die, because the law offers them no protection-
 http://www.lifenews.com/2012/11/23/canada-491-babies-born-alive-after-failed-abortions-left-to-die/

In the UK, if a baby weighs under a pound, the baby HAS to be left to die, even if that is not what the parents want. In the government run healthcare system, the cost of trying to save babies that small makes it cost-prohibitive.
http://www.lifenews.com/2012/12/18/miracle-accident-saves-preemie-baby-doctors-would-have-let-die/

In this situation, a baby was born although his mother's water never broke. So, you can see him still peacefully curled up, in his ambiotic sac, as if he was in the womb. In a late term abortion, a doctor often punctures this sac so that the water comes out and the baby is drowned.
http://www.lifenews.com/2013/04/03/doc-delivers-baby-still-in-amniotic-sac-would-abortion-be-ok/

Can you believe that this baby, as large as he is, could legally be killed or left to die without the protection of a "Born Alive Protection Act?" He could. He isn't breathing yet. The baby is also technically not considered, "born."

Could anyone read these facts and not be stunned by pro-choice "logic?" I can't imagine how much denial a person would have to be in, or how many lies they would have to tell themselves to justify killing an infant born alive. 

Of course, it all started with people getting comfortable with the idea that it is okay to kill a baby as long as it isn't born alive.

Be on the lookout for this movie, "22 weeks," which will be playing at Cannes, about a botched abortion survivor:
http://www.lifenews.com/2010/04/19/int-1514/

Click "like" and share their Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/22weeks


Friday, March 8, 2013

Until we really honor women, there will be no Happy Women's Day.

On this day, we celebrate women and all they give to our families, communities and the wider society. It is time to end violence against pregnant women. 

We live in a culture that tells women
  • Be liberated! No double standard! Sex is for fun, just wait two weeks into a dating relationship.
  • Use birth control. Eat organic food to keep your body pure and natural, but then  fill your body with potentially harmful chemicals and hormones.
  • If you make a mistake and forget the pill or condom, it's okay. There's no baby inside your womb yet. It's just tissue or a cluster of cells at this point. Just get it taken out.
  • If you don't abort, your future will be ruined. No more opportunity. You will sit at home eating greasy chips and watching soap operas, bemoaning the failure of your life as you live on welfare.
  • There goes your career! There goes your chance of a higher education! No man will want to marry you now. You're just done.
 So, into the Planed Parenthood clinic you walk.

 "Wow, we understand," they say. "You're a liberated woman. We will help you."

"I don't feel so liberated right now. I just feel miserable," you answer, and isn't there a baby in there, somehow? What happens in an abortion?"

"Don't worry. The doctor will just 'gently remove the contents of your uterus.' " (from actual Planned Parenthood literature and their website)

"But, it's still human, right? That's kind of like a sacred thing, right?"

"Oh, don't listen to that stuff from people out to take away your right to do what you want with your body," they say.

Most common line heard on the way to the abortion room-

"Will my baby feel pain?"

To which is answered, "There is no baby, just cells."

Still, you wonder, trying to comfort yourself with the thought of cells being removed. Surely, that's all it is. And then, it is over. Time to get out there and be that strong woman, let them hear you roar. You are liberated!

Wouldn't you REALLY rather hear this?

Woman, you are precious to society. You are worth being cherished, nurtured and loved by one man who is committed to you for life. You will have great sex when you want to and when you don't want to have children, you are strong enough to abstain from sex. You're not powerless.  You're worth deep, enduring love. Children will enrich your life, not take from it. You're smart and skilled and able to provide for your family. You can work if you want and receive an education and still be a great mom. I love you and I want this for you. You are amazing. You give life.

Why does no one hear this anymore? We are a jaded, sad society, lying to ourselves about our freedoms. 

Until we really honor women, there will be no Happy Women's Day.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Support The New "Talk To A Friend" Outreach!

Imagine being a young woman, about twenty-two years old, struggling on your own, making under $12,000 a year. Your get pregnant and your boyfriend either abandons you or pressures you to get an abortion. 

42% of women fall into this sort of profile. They earn under 100% of the poverty line. They are aged between 20 and 24. And they are overwhelmed. Most were barely making ends meet before they got the news about pregnancy. For a few hundred dollars and in just a couple of hours time, this woman could be free of the "problem" forever (so she feels) and just get on with her life.

What could help a woman in this scenario? I've been researching this demographic of women to find out what they want and need. The result is a new online outreach idea: Talk To A Friend. 

"Talk To A Friend" now has a facebook page and a blog. We've reserved talktoafriend.org and info@talktoafriend.org is a working email address now. Although it will take a while to get all the components running and polished, it is okay to link to the Facebook page and blog now.

Sponsored by 1st Way, "Talk To A Friend" websites  have no direct mention of abortion, 1st way or any other crisis pregnancy center, although some do have a link. These sites are designed to be warm, friendly and comfortable places for women to go to get support. Some of our former clients will be volunteer peer support workers. An extended list of resources will be kept, so that the women can get the help they need to keep their child. Through this resource, women will be referred to 1st Way, but reason for this effort is to make the experience more appealing and welcoming to them.

Please subscribe to http://talktoanewfriend.blogspot.com and "like" http://www.facebook.com/Talktoafriend?ref=hl. Share both links. Pass them on in emails. Please do all you can to help and support "Talk To A Friend."

Thank you!

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

So, abortion is not a holocaust, you say?

Infancy is a time of innocent trust. The newborn has a lot of development to do and she requires safety and protection to grow up healthy and well.

A newborn infant is not like you and me. They can't sit and debate philosophy or jet ski or write novels. They don't really do much but sleep, poop, cry and eat.

An article posted a few hours ago on Crushable.com is about someone's opinion that, for similar reasons, it is ludicrous to compare abortion to a "holocaust." The reason the author gives is that, "It’s an event in recent history that resulted in the systematic murder of six million people. SIX MILLION LIVING AND BREATHING HUMAN BEINGS.  People who had jobs and lives and families and histories before being enslaved, tortured and murdered. To compare their lives to the lives of developing fetuses disgusts me."

Let's take a look at this. These "people" of the "holocaust" had jobs, lives and families, unlike "developing fetuses." Also, they had jobs and families, unlike infants and children who do not have jobs and have not yet created families. Children are DEVELOPING, just as the "fetus" in the womb is developing. So the reason the author gives why the pre-born aren't people so they cannot be victims of a holocaust isn't sensible at all, since she defines a person with such lazy and careless terms, in a tone (all capitals, emotional language, such as "disgust," "offensive," and "makes me want to foam at the mouth") that is more akin to a person spouting off about their bad hair day than someone writing an intelligent article.

This author even titles her article, "Someone Needs To Explain The Difference Between A Holocaust And An Abortion To The Duggars." For those who don't know, the Duggars are the parents of over twenty children who have recently formed a coalition of pro-life groups who will work together, called, "Life United." The idea for this coalition came to them as they were touring a Holocaust museum and they realized that abortion was a form of holocaust.

So, the author, Jenni Maier, is concerned that the Duggar family has not been educated about what a holocaust is and how it is not the same as abortion. 

Looking up the definition of holocaust in Merriam-Webster online, we see, "a thorough destruction involving extensive loss of life especially through fire." Call a pre-born baby what you will, from a "fetus" to a "sea monkey," you still can't logically say it is not alive or not human. So, the definition of holocaust applies. The Duggars never used the word "holocaust" with a capital "H," which would refer to the most famous holocaust, the Holocaust that occurred in Nazi Germany.

So Jenni, have you been able to stop "foaming at the mouth" long enough to think about things before writing an article on a major internet website?  As I look around the web, I see many examples of this crazy, lazy thinking, which is hungrily embraced by others who want to be lazy in their thinking to justify what they want.

The only reason why it would even occur to me to critique such an inane article is that today's world is so filled with emotion-driven people who lack critical thinking skills. When a person's emotions "resonate" with the emotions of an author, that's all a person needs to make a point these days.

Surely, opinions like this cannot sway an intelligent public from protecting the lives of the unborn.

Jenni Maier's Article


Wednesday, January 23, 2013

"Roe" of Roe v Wade AND "Doe" of Doe v Bolton- Both Pro-life Activists Now

Well, the memorial of Roe v Wade has passed and I have taken some time to collect and integrate my thoughts after hearing so many more talks and reading so many more articles than usual.

One of the articles that impacted me most was realizing that both women who fought hard to legalize abortion (Norma McCorvey "Jane Roe" of Roe v Wade and Sandra Cano "Jane Doe" of Doe v Bolton) no longer support abortion and wish these decisions were revoked.

The Doe v Bolton case made abortion legal up to nine months, at the discretion of the states. However, Sandra Cano said she was forced to sign an affidavit agreeing to an abortion she didn't want to have and even tried to flee the state to prevent abortion. The irony of this situation is that one of the most famous "victories" for the pro-choice movement didn't involve a choice at all.

“No one should have a right to kill their children. No mother should ever want to do so,” she said, describing her case as a “covenant with death.” -Sandra Cano (Jane Doe)

Norma McCorvey "Jane Roe" was a pro-choice activist who worked at abortion clinics. Once, she was on her cigarette break and struck up a conversation with an "operation rescue" preacher and in time was converted, baptized and became a pro-life activist.

Over the past forty years, the two women who sparked the landmark pro-abortion legislation have both re-thought it and had a dramatic change of heart.  

It's not impossible to hope that our country won't be too far behind.






Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Abortion Hurts Society (even if you don't believe it hurts a woman and a child.)

At today's First Way staff meeting, I gave a brief presentation about the psychological effects abortion can have on men. After all, it's their child, too. And, they are powerless to do anything. Beyond that, communication between the man and woman breaks down, because any opinion the man might have about saving his child may be seen as an affront to her "rights" as a woman.

The primary biological drive in a woman is to nurture children. The primary biological drive in a man is to protect his wife and children. When a woman chooses abortion without the agreement of the baby's father, not only is she going against her biological nature, but she forces a man to go against his biological nature as well. How can any of this be good for the human psyche?

Not all men who have lost a child to abortion will experience recognizable trauma any more than the child's mother did. The key word is "recognizable." Many men and women experience PTSD-like symptoms and cannot trace the symptoms to any traumatic event. People are experiencing this more and more now that abortion is increasingly seen not only as socially acceptable, but as a desirable alternative for a woman who finds herself pregnant. So, many men and women have no idea why they are suffering.

What happens to the relationship when a man and woman disagree about whether to abort? Once communication breaks down, the relationship is rarely salvaged. While this is an expected outcome when the couple disagree, statistically the majority of relationships do not survive post-abortion, even when the couple mutually agree to abort.

Abortion is not natural or healthy for women, men, relationships or families. Abortion may be considered good for careers, for independence and for gathering material financial success for men and women. Meanwhile, 60% of marriages are ending in divorce and 33% of women are having an abortion in at least one point in their lifetime. Since abortion has been legal, primary biological drives of men to protect and women to nurture are repressed. As men and women go against their natures, the concept of "family" has been less and less important, so no wonder we are seeing so few intact families. Abortion is both a causal factor and a symptom of the problem. How could abortion not be damaging psychologically to men, women and children?

Abortion is not a decision made by a woman that only affects herself and her body. Abortion affects the father of the child and society at large. Even for people who don't view human life as sacred or even worthy of respect, the wider ramifications of abortion should be of concern.



Wednesday, January 2, 2013

What Happens When Government Takes Over Health Care?

What happens when government takes over health care? In some ways, I like the idea of health care being available to all citizens. I think any first world country should have citizens who can have access to health care. However, when the government is footing the bill, the government can call the shots about who lives and who dies. Some have called this, “death panels,” but it is worse than that. Panels don't exist as much as hard and fast rules that doctors must follow.

In England, doctors may only save premature babies that weigh one pound or more. To save smaller babies is considered a drain on state resources, so infants that small are not provided the medical care other premature babies are offered, and almost all of them die. Here's a link to an article in which a tiny baby's life was saved because the medical staff made an accident and allowed scissors to touch the scale adding weight. So, it is okay with the government to call the shots over what is human or not, alive or not, salvageable or not .


Also in England, “Geoffrey Clark, who sought a seat on the Kent County Council, set off a firestorm of criticism when he recommended that the National Health Service, the British government-run health care system, mandate that mothers of unborn children diagnosed with disabilities have abortions. He said such abortions would be a big help in reducing the nation’s debt, by supposedly cutting the medical and other costs associated with raising such children.” While Mr. Clark was removed from his affiliation with his political party, what is to stop government from taking actions such as this? After all, they are paying the bill and in the USA, our current administration dismisses all pro-life concerns. What Mr. Clark recommended could happen here, probably more easily than in the UK.

http://www.lifenews.com/2012/12/27/candidate-suspended-who-okd-mandatory-abortion-of-disabled-children/

Now, to be fair, those who live in the UK have half the amount of heart attack and stroke that Americans do, and at half of the cost. So, the United Kingdom is doing something right and I believe we have a lot to learn from them. Health care is a mess in this country, but in our desperation for hope, we cannot end up selling our soul. When a society becomes desensitized to protecting our most vulnerable, we are losing that soul. 

Let's work together in 2013 to stand up for the unborn who cannot speak up for themselves. Humanity depends on it, for without basic respect for life, "humane" has no meaning.

(Granted, corporations and private industry may not be counted on to do a better job either, although more possibility for change exists with them. Ultimately, we need to change our culture's values to assure humane treatment for all.)

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Merry Christmas from 1st Way!

Merry Christmas 
from 1st Way!

We at 1st Way wish you a very merry Christmas and all of the peace and joy of the season.




Monday, December 10, 2012

There Is NO Social Justice Without Protecting the Unborn

I've often wondered why so many well meaning social activists and even human rights organizations rarely protect the rights of the unborn. In fact, many of these organizations somehow see having access to abortion as helpful to society, since people believe many pregnant women cannot afford to be parents. Rather than working to solve the underlying social issue of poverty, these organizations seem to believe that human rights are best served by ending the human lives of the unborn.

I am struck with the word, "human," because I regularly contemplate how little regard is placed on the value of human life in general. Our unborn have become commodities in fertility clinics, torn in pieces for experiments, and looked at clinically as developing humans, but not humans. Although I won't argue "personhood" here, I will say that it is undeniable that a zygote and baby that is developing in the womb are human. They are not made up of corn cells or mouse cells, but human cells. Does that mean anything to anyone?

Protecting life carries a broad range of responsibilities. Opposing the death penalty is one of them. Refusing euthanasia or anything that smacks of euthanasia is another. Raising the quality of life for those alive is another responsibility. But to me, for anything we say and do to be logical and consistent, we must begin our conversation where life begins, with human DNA.

People who support pro-life get a bad rep for "caring more about the unborn than the born," but that is not intended. It is simply not true that the only solution to poverty and unintended pregnancy is to kill the unborn. One thought (poverty bad) does not lead to another (kill unborn). As a volunteer at 1st Way, I can assure you that we are thinking hard and working hard to help women who are in crisis pregnancy find ways and resources to support that child. We are also available throughout the early years offering diapers in all sizes, baby and toddler clothing and even car seats and high chairs when we get those donations.

It's simply wrong to say that to be pro-life means not to care about social justice. Social justice begins with protecting the basic building blocks of life, human DNA. Ask Dorothy Day. Ask Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Both of them would agree with what I'm saying, unquestionably.