Celebrating 40 Years of Protecting Innocent Lives!

This year marks North Carolina Right to Life's 40th anniversary, and what better way to celebrate than a party?

Please join us on September 28th as we commemorate this special occasion! Our banquet, featuring Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest and National Right to Life President Carol Tobias, will begin at 7 o'clock in the evening at the Embassy Suites in Greensboro.

For guests with VIP tickets, there will be an hors d'oeuvres reception with an opportunity to meet and get a complimentary photo with the lieutenant governor at 6 o'clock. 

Seating is limited, so visit our website for tickets and pricing soon!

Tales from Camp Joshua, Part Three

[This is the third installment of our Camp Joshua 2013 series. Click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2.]

Dr. Mistrot's presentation

Saturday night, we welcomed Dr. Jacques Mistrot, a retired surgeon, to speak about stem cell research. While many of us hear about stem cell research in the news, most people don't know much about it, so his talk was one of our favorites. Dr. Mistrot, who has devoted much of his retirement to speaking on bioethics, told us how stem cells can be broken into two main categories, adult and embryonic. Adult stem cells are taken from sources such as bone marrow or umbilical cord blood, and they have been used to treat over 70 diseases to date. Embryonic stem cells, on the other hand, are taken from living embryos, destroying those lives in the process. Not only does it take many thousands of embryos to conduct research, but no illnesses have been successfully treated using embryonic stem cells. This, he explained, is why adult stem cell research is better from both a scientific and ethical standpoint, because it has effectively treated all kinds of diseases without destroying embryonic human lives. 

The students enjoying a bit of free time together.

Saturday was such a busy day that everyone was ready for a relaxing evening. The teens grabbed their blankets and pillows, threw on comfortable clothes, and settled down for a movie night complete with popcorn and candy. We watched October Baby, a powerful pro-life film following the journey of Hannah, a young woman who learns she was born after a failed abortion. Because Hannah hadn't even known she was adopted, she struggles to reconcile the life she thought she knew with the one she now has. It's a great movie...even when, despite your best efforts, your DVD player and projector inexplicably show it in black and white with Spanish subtitles! 

The next morning we were up bright and early for the optional church services and breakfast. Afterwards, Sarah Zagorski (Louisiana Right to Life) motivated everyone with her "Pro-Life Activism" presentation. Since the earlier sessions focused on learning the facts and rhetorical tools for effective pro-life persuasion, this one was all about actively using those skills. Our goal is that these students will return to their families, schools, churches, and communities and share what they have learned! 

The next few hours were occupied with lunch, evaluations, and packing. We couldn't believe how quickly the time had gone! It wasn't quite time to go home yet, though. In the afternoon, Dr. Melinda Snyder spoke about euthanasia and how it is a growing problem in the United States. For some vulnerable elderly or disabled adults, basic food and water is often considered extraordinary care, meaning they will die slow, painful deaths by starvation. She pointed out that even though it's a lot easier to defend the rights of a cute little baby, we'll all be elderly someday and in need of just as much love, care, and protection. The teens seemed interested in what she had to say; like stem cell research, the facts about euthanasia and end of life issues aren't as well known or understood. 

Camp Joshua NC officially ended with a small closing ceremony. We told the students how impressed we had all been with their attention, respect, and attitude, and also how glad we were that they had come! We reminded them of their responsibility to use what they had learned, to talk to their friends and family, and to share the pro-life message in whatever way they could. We also told them that the relationships they had formed while at Camp Joshua are absolutely priceless, and to rely on each other in times of discouragement. Finally, we called each student up and gave him or her a certificate of completion. We are so proud of them!

After our closing ceremony

Our first experience with Camp Joshua was so wonderful! We are grateful to all the people who helped make it happen, especially the adult volunteers and, most of all, the teens who sacrificed a weekend of their summer to come. They were an ideal group to work with, and we can't wait to do this again next year!

If you or someone you know might be interested in Camp Joshua, please, tell them about it! We can always use volunteers to help promote our camp, not to mention teens to attend! We will be posting updates as to our progress on our website, our camp website, Facebook, Twitter (@ncrtl), Pinterest, and this blog. Check back often for more details about next year's camp! 

Tales from Camp Joshua, Part Two

Saturday afternoon, everyone returned to the classroom for the next workshop, The Impact of Abortion. The session overview describes it as follows:

This session will highlight people whose lives have been directly impacted by abortion – abortion survivors, women who have had abortions, former medical professional who have performed or promoted abortions and men who have lost children to abortion will be a part of a panel to express the personal impact of abortion.

While any personal story about abortion is bound to be moving, Hannah Rose Allen, from Raleigh, has an especially beautiful and powerful experience. If you do nothing else today, listen for yourself.  She has a real gift for storytelling, and you will be as spellbound as we were. 

Hannah Rose Allen on the "Impact of Abortion"

When Hannah Rose was only 19, she found herself pregnant. Ashamed and alone, she chose to have an abortion. Her depression and pain brought only more bad decisions, and mere months later, she was pregnant again. Although she scheduled another abortion, God touched her heart and gave her the courage to choose life for her child, whom she named Lily Katherine, meaning purity. Lily, she knew, was the innocent vessel that God used to bring Hannah Rose back to Him. After a normal pregnancy, Hannah Rose went into labor, only to hear her doctor tell her that her baby's life was already gone. Although she still grieves both her children (she named her first baby Luke Shiloh), Hannah Rose is grateful for the time she had with Lily, and marvels at how a person who never took a breath could change her life so much.

By the end of Hannah Rose's talk, many of us were in tears, so we took a short break before moving onto our next session, Abortion Alternatives. Michelle Reeves, a pregnancy resource center director, did an awesome job describing what resources they offer pregnant moms who come to them for help. Michelle clarified North Carolina's adoption laws, explained some of the myths and stigmas surrounding adoption, and passed out a list of "positive adoption language" that we can use in conversation. Every pro-lifer knows that the language we use matters, and adoption is no exception. For example, telling someone she can "put her child up for adoption" makes it sound like a process she has very little control over. Instead, telling her she can "make an adoption plan" helps her to feel involved in the decisions she's making for her child. Michelle emphasized that while adoption is a wonderful choice, it's always a painful sacrifice for the birth mother and shouldn't be downplayed.

The afternoon ended with another group discussion, a presentation about pro-life legislation from our president, Barbara Holt, and a group photo. Everyone looked great in their green Camp Joshua T-shirts! We were glad to have an official camp photo, especially since we still couldn't quite believe the camp was actually happening! We are so glad it did. 

Camp Joshua NC, 2013
This was such a wonderful group of people!

If you missed it, make sure you read Part One in our Camp Joshua 2013 series, and watch for our next post soon!

Tales from Camp Joshua NC, Part One

What a busy few weeks it’s been! Besides all of the excitement at the legislature, NCRTL was pleased to host its first Camp Joshua July 19th-21^st, and we are finally able to tell you all about it! 

Camp Joshua was such a success, and so much fun for everyone involved! The weekend kicked off on Friday night, when the campers arrived, settled in, and got to know each other at dinner. Then they played a game of “Pro-Life Jeopardy,” which led right into their first workshop, Abortion 101. Afterwards, we had a long group discussion about abortion and fetal development. The students asked such thoughtful questions!

Some of the prize-winning posters!

Although we’d only been there for a few hours, after our discussion we were all ready for a little bit of fun. Commence the poster contest! The teens really blew us away with their enthusiasm and made more posters than we anticipated. Although it made our classroom look great when they were all hung up, it also made judging much harder, too! We gave out numerous prizes for the winning posters of categories like “Most Artistic” and “Best Message.”

On Saturday, the real work began. Because Camp Joshua is only a 48 hour weekend camp, the students have a lot to learn in a short period of time. They all did a fabulous job of staying alert, paying attention, and asking questions. We couldn’t ask for a better group! The main focus of the morning was the art of pro-life persuasion and how to effectively convey the pro-life message. Speaker Sarah Zagorski, from Louisiana Right to Life, explained how to address the questions from their most basic root: Is the unborn a living human person or not? She also shared her moving personal story about her troubled childhood in an abusive home and her eventual adoption into a loving family. She reminded students that we all have a personal story that we can use to win hearts for the pro-life cause, but it must be supplemented with sound knowledge about the life issues.

Having been equipped with the facts and tools for effective dialogue, the students took to the stage. Each team performed a skit showing off their understanding of the material they had learned. Practice is the key to mastery of a concept, and we are confident that these students have it down! One team focused on a dramatic presentation of a conversation about life outside of an abortion facility, while the other team took a more comedic approach and staged a scene at “Planned Pizzahood.” Needless to say, everyone was impressed with them both!

Team 2: Their "Planned Pizzahood" skit 
had us all giggling.

Team 1: The scarf represented this young woman's
shame and uncertainty due to her unplanned pregnancy.

We were all excited by our first Camp Joshua’s great start! As you can see, it was a busy weekend and one blog post just won’t do it justice. Click here to read Part Two, and visit our Facebook page to see more pictures from our camp!

Guest Post: The Right Frame of Mind, by Dr. Mark Creech

The Right Frame of Mind

Coat Hangers with Baby Clothes on Them 

By Dr. Mark Creech

Listening to some of the railing by pro-choice legislators against SB 353 – Health and Safety Law Changes – the abortion bill considered this week in the North Carolina House – could at times be exasperating.

No moment was more strenuous to the ears of pro-lifers than when Rep. Alma Adams (D-Greensboro) insisted that if the bill closed abortion clinics across the state, it would force women back to the time of back alley abortions and pregnancies ended with coat hangers.

Adams decried, “What a terrible day for North Carolina women – shame on us,” while waving high a coat hanger. “Do we really want that blood on our hands? I do not,” she said.

Granted, this is an emotional issue, but the use of such hyperbole is really what’s shameful.

More than a decade before abortion was legal in this country; the vast majority of illegal abortions were performed by reputable physicians in good standing. [1] In 1960, Planned Parenthood stated 90% of all illegal abortions were done by physicians. [2] Actually, the vast majority of women were not getting abortions from butchers as pro-choice people like to claim. In fact, most abortions performed after legalization were performed by the same doctors that were providing them before legalization. Neither their training nor their equipment really improved after abortion was decriminalized. [3] So, the entire argument about back-alley abortions and coat-hangers is, to say the least, highly exaggerated.

The late Dr. Bernard Nathanson, an abortion activist of yesteryear, admitted that he and his cofounders of the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) fabricated the figure that a million women were getting illegal abortions every year, as well as the number of maternal deaths, 5,000 to 10,000 each year resulting from them. [4]

Nathanson said: “I confess that I knew the figures were totally false, and I suppose the others did too if they stopped to think of it. But in the ‘morality’ of our revolution, it was a useful figure, widely accepted, so why go out of our way to correct it with honest statistics? The overriding concern was to get the laws eliminated [laws against abortion], and anything within reason that had to be done was permissible.” [5]

Research confirms that in 1972, the year preceding the legalization of abortion, the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported only 39 maternal deaths from illegal abortions. [6] These numbers are a far cry from those figures of tens of thousands touted by pro-choice advocates. Today, maternal deaths caused by an abortion procedure are very difficult to track because the reporting is dependent on the abortion clinics, which is much like asking the alcoholic to guard the liquor cabinet. But make no mistake, women are still dying from abortions and the fatalities are mostly post-abortion surgery and secondary reasons for these deaths like a blood clot, blood poisoning, heart attack, hemorrhage, pelvic abscess, etc., are listed as the official cause instead of the actual cause – the aftermath of an abortion procedure. The point here is that abortions performed today are characteristically performed as they always have been, but there is now a greater risk posed to the health of women largely by the incredible increase of the numbers performed every day.

Moreover, women lawmakers on the House floor defending so-called abortion rights repeatedly said that women are smart. Women know what they are doing when seeking an abortion and don’t need the government to tell them what to do with their own bodies. But then they turned around and insulted women by arguing that if some or all of the clinics were to close in North Carolina these same intelligent women would be so foolish as to use a coat hanger to end their unwanted pregnancy. Such logic not only boggles the mind, but is demonstrably revealed for what it is – hypocritical propaganda!

There is one final critical thought, however, that has yet to be mentioned. For every two people that enter an abortion clinic, in some cases neither come out alive, while in all cases, only one comes out alive and it’s not the baby. Whether an abortion is legal or illegal, whether it’s safe or unsafe, whether it’s in a clinic or in a back alley, in no situation is it ever safe for the unborn innocent that is subjected to the violence of a uterine invasion. The primary horror of abortion, no matter the means, is not the threat it poses to a woman’s health (as bad as that threat is), but the certain death it causes to the most vulnerable of all human beings – a tiny and defenseless little baby.

That being said, perhaps next time Rep. Alma Adams and her cohorts, Planned Parenthood, Pro-Choice North Carolina, and NARAL wave their coat-hangers in protest to pro-life legislation, then those who respect life should wave coat-hangers in kind with baby clothes on them.

Dr. Mark Creech is the Executive Director of the Christian Action League. 






Resources

[1] Original source, Alfred Kinsey, cited by John Wilke, Abortion Questions and Answers (Cincinnatti: Hayes Publishing Company 1988) pg. 169.  Cited by Randy Alcorn, Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Arguments (Portland: Multonomah Press 1992) pg. 137

[2] Original source, Mary Calderone, “Illegal abortion as a Public Health Problem,” American Journal of Health 50 (July 1960):949. Cited by Randy Alcorn, Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Arguments (Portland: Multonomah Press 1992) pg. 137

[3] Original source, Bernard Nathanson, Aborting America (New York: Doubleday, 1979), pg. 193. Also quoted by Randy Alcorn, Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Arguments (Portland: Multonomah Press 1992) pg. 138

[4], [5] Randy Alcorn, Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Arguments (Portland: Multonomah Press 1992) pgs. 137, 138

[6] National Right to Life, “Argument 4: If Abortion is Made Illegal, Women Will Die,” http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/facts/responseargument4.html

Testimony: H695 Will Help Support and Protect Babies with Disabilities

My name is Julie Scott Emmons, and I am a longtime Educator and advocate for persons with disabilities.  I believe that every single human life has value, and that individuals with differences make our society whole. 

I’d like to bring your attention to a provision in Section 6 of H695.   It requires that the Department provide resources on the State website that a woman may contact upon receiving information that her child might have a disability or serious abnormality. 

There are two reasons why this provision is necessary.  First of all, this will address an alarming trend in our nation to abort babies with disabilities.  In a society that has a renewed emphasis on tolerance and social justice, almost 90% of babies with Down Syndrome are never allowed to bring their gifts into this world.  90%.  Women whose babies are suspected to have disabilities are often pressured to abort during an extremely painful, vulnerable time.  There are dire predictions of low “quality of life” and a life sentence of “inconvenience”.  There is no mention of the goodness, truth and beauty that a child with disability will bring into their home.  

Secondly, these resources will provide parents with information about a vast network of support that is available to parents of children with special needs. They’ll have information about Down Syndrome Adoption Programs and support communities for families with differences such as Spina Bifida, Cystic fibrosis, various Trisomy Syndromes and more.  Studies show that 80% of parents with poor prenatal diagnosis choose to abort.  When they are presented with comprehensive support, however, 80% choose Life. 

**On February 7, 2013 a beautiful young Kindergarten teacher named Jennifer died in a Maryland hospital.  Jennifer’s daughter, whom she had already named Madison Leigh, had been prenatally diagnosed with a seizure disorder at 31 weeks.  Both Jennifer and Madison died painful deaths during a legal abortion.  I’ve often thought of Jennifer during the last few months, and wondered if positive support and information about her daughter’s condition would have caused her to give birth to this very wanted baby.  Unfortunately, we’ll never know.  However, we can make sure that every mother in North Carolina has access to the resources she needs during a very difficult time. **   

It is heartbreaking to find out that your child might have a severe disability.  I’ve watched close friends walk that road.  Parents who receive this diagnosis deserve support, compassionate care and resources that will lead them to information and communities that will value both them and their differently-abled child.  Our world will be better for it.  

Texas, North Carolina, and Pro-Life Legislation

It was a crazy week in Texas. On June 25, the Texas legislative session was winding down, but the Senate had yet to vote on a bill that would greatly increase regulations on abortionists and their facilities. Senator Wendy Davis became an overnight celebrity when her 10-hour filibuster, combined with the noise of the pro-abortion audience, pushed the final vote til after midnight. Because the legislative session ended at midnight, the vote was invalid.

The story doesn’t end there, though; Governor Rick Perry called a special session in order to give the bill another chance. Since Monday, July 1, thousands of Texans have swarmed Austin to voice their opinions of the bill. Supporters of HB2 wear blue; opponents wear orange. After hearing hours of testimonies, the House State Affairs Committee voted in favor of the bill, 8-3. Next week, HB2 will continue to the House, while its companion bill, SB1, will likely be discussed in committee on Monday.

In part due to the dramatic end to the legislative session, Texas has received national attention and attracted support, criticism, and debate from all over the country. However, North Carolina is fighting a similar battle, and it’s important for North Carolina citizens to be actively involved in what’s going on at home.

On Wednesday, July 3, in spite of hundreds of pro-abortion supporters who flooded the Legislature, the NC Senate passed H695.  This bill includes provisions seeking to prohibit sex selection abortions, to require physicians to be physically present during an abortion, and to opt out of abortion coverage in the federal exchange.  To pro-lifers, these measures seem obvious. Why wouldn’t people want to ban sex selective abortions, or to ensure that a doctor is in the room when a mother takes a deadly pill with risky side effects? To abortion rights supporters, though, such measures are merely obstacles between a woman and her “right” to choose, and they are desperate to protect that “right” to abortion for any reason, any time.

While H695 has passed in the Senate, it still has a long way to go before it becomes law. On Tuesday, July 9, there will be a vote to concur in the House Health and Human Services Committee, and the bill could possibly be on the House floor later that day for the full House vote.  If the committee and full House concur then it will be on its way to the governor’s desk. YOUR SUPPORT IS VITAL! These measures will save lives, but our legislators need to hear from their pro-life constituents immediately. You can be sure they are hearing from those who want abortion to be legal without any restriction.  Please visit our website, www.ncrtl.org, and look under “Action Alert” to see how you can help!