By Mary Beth Beacom
To counteract the current pressure to divide families and communities, I don’t think we can state this truth often enough: we can love, and love abundantly, those with whom we do not agree.
“Acceptance” cannot be a litmus test. Disagreement is not hate – and if it is, then each side of the disagreement hates – and we know that’s not true.
Love continues to speak the truth.
Our identity comes from our unique dignity afforded to us by our very creation as a distinct human being – not by the sum of our activities, our wounds, and even our achievements do not “make us who we are”.
We are especially not defined by a series of things we reject or accept. It’s unjust to make caricatures of ourselves, or one another, thereby objectifying , and ultimately reducing our humanity.
We allow rhetoric to divide us, and let’s be clear, there are many entities which profit, and therefore encourage, that division. That doesn’t mean for a moment that we back down from the truth, but it also means we have to be be vigilant, that we do not feed the monster.
[Thanks to pro-life warrior, Mary Beth Beacom, for sharing this reflection on family and national unity.]
A message from Maggie DeWitte
Maggie DeWitte, Executive Director of Iowans for LIFE
Dear Pro-Life Supporter:
Big Media makes it hard to promote pro-life messaging. You can help us work around the obstacles by making monthly, automatic donations to Iowans for LIFE billboard campaign.
Even if it’s only $5 a month, it matters. A hundred-dollars a month is even better! We leverage every dollar, every penny, in fact, to maximize our media reach in Iowa … and YOUR investment in LIFE.
Look at the billboard banned at Times Square
I’m writing because of what just happened to Live Action. They contracted to run the billboard above at Times Square, New York City. Talk about exposure! But a day later, the billboard company bowed to Big Abortion and took this pro-life message down, deeming it “inappropriate.”
This comes on the heels of Pinterest entirely banning Live Action from their platform.
We’ve had our own battles with social media. Facebook prevents us from promoting our most potent pro-life messages by declaring they don’t “meet community standards.” For example, here is one of our memes that wasn’t approved:
Support our pro-life billboard campaign
Despite the obstacles, Iowans for LIFE is on track to have our Facebook messaging hit a “reach” of a million people this year.
So social media platforms matter when it comes to pro-life messaging. Iowans for LIFE focuses on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. But because of anti-life censorship, we’ve got to reach further.
That’s why we designed and launched a pro-life billboard campaign across the Hawkeye State. We reach 39,632 Iowans a day between Council Bluffs, Ames, Des Moines, Cedar Falls, and Waterloo with messaging like this.
You can view our entire #SayLifeIowa campaign here.
Iowa billboard companies are friendly to our pro-life messaging which counters Planned Parenthood’s anti-life billboard campaign. We coordinated the campaign with the Iowa Coalition of Pro-Life Leaders.
As the next political campaign gears up, social media platforms have made it clear that they are increasingly hostile to pro-life messaging. That means Iowans for LIFE has got to step up the pace by reaching at-risk Iowans with educational pro-life messaging.
Online messaging remains critical
So does our presence at the Iowa State Fair. And so do our pilgrimages to the annual March for Life with hundreds of high school kids.
Billboards expand our reach. Our campaign will end soon unless we can find the funds to extend it through this calendar year.
Pro-life messaging works
Did you know that 10,022 abortions took place in Iowa in 1997?
Did you know that the number dropped to 3,269 by 2017?
How is that possible? Non-stop pro-life messaging that educates Iowans on the dignity of human life is one of many key components.
That’s why I’m writing. Support the campaign that helps reduce our abortion rate to zero. A single abortion is one too many.
To reiterate, we ask you to support this campaign with an ongoing automatic, monthly donation of $100, $50, or $20.
Thank-you in advance for partnering with Iowans for LIFE as we cultivate a culture of life in Iowa.
Very truly yours,
Maggie DeWitte, Executive Director
P.S. Questions? Give me a call today at 515-255-4113.
Abortion advocates accuse pro-life groups of hypocrisy. They claim we only care about limiting abortion instead of caring about kids after they’re born.
The claim raises an immediate question: what does Planned Parenthood do to help kids after they’re born?
Planned Parenthood doesn’t care for kids after birth
The question was clearly answered publicly a few years ago in Florida. In testimony before their legislature, a lawmaker asked Planned Parenthood lobbyist, Alisa LaPolt Snow, what should be done about babies who survive an abortion. Here is the exchange, as reported by the American Center for Law and Justice:
“[I]t is just really hard for me to even ask you this question because I’m almost in disbelief,” said Rep. Jim Boyd. “If a baby is born on a table as a result of a botched abortion, what would Planned Parenthood want to have happen to that child that is struggling for life?”
“We believe that any decision that’s made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician,” said Planned Parenthood lobbyist Snow. . . .
Rep. Jose Oliva followed up, asking the Planned Parenthood official, “You stated that a baby born alive on a table as a result of a botched abortion that that decision should be left to the doctor and the family. Is that what you’re saying?”
Again, Snow replied, “That decision should be between the patient and the health care provider.”
So how do you help a baby after she’s born? According to Planned Parenthood, ‘Let her die or let her live. We don’t care. It’s up to you. It has nothing to do with us. Oh, and here’s your bill for the abortion.’
Pro-life Christians care for kids after they’re born
By contrast, an entire industry of faith-driven organizations provides tangible outreach for these kids AFTER they’re born. The Wall Street Journal ran an entire piece today on an incredible organization called the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO) providing tangible assistance to children.
Groups like Catholic Charities, Lutheran Family Services, Focus on the Family, and Bethany Christian Services have been around for a long time. Dynamic new groups, members of CAFO, have launched in recent years, such as:
- Replanted Ministries: they offer post placement support for adoptive and foster families.
- Patty’s Hope: they provide counseling, training and housing for biological mothers of kids in foster care.
- Reece’s Rainbow: they advocate for children with special needs and awards grants to families who adopt them.
Pro-life Christians don’t receive public funding
The WSJ points out that these groups don’t receive public funding. Abortion cynics sneer that these ‘do-gooders’ are only doing it to gain converts to the faith, which is kind of rich.
Think about it. Big Abortion and their political, media, and Hollywood allies try to gain converts with a club. The latest is their insistence that we scrap the Hyde Amendment and require pro-life taxpayers to fund abortions through their tax dollars.
The power of love
By contrast, pro-life Christians use love, not a club, to gain converts. Jedd Medefind, the president of CAFO put it this way:
“If you just want to proselytize, you can go to the park and pass out tracts. Adopting or fostering or becoming involved in the life of a struggling family is far more costly than cheap proselytizing.”
So why do they do what they do? Is it out of guilt? Is it just a duty? Mr. Medefind says it’s more than that:
“Being loved is the most transformative power on earth. The Christian gospel said our God welcomes us amidst our great need. We seek to reflect that same heart.”
This blog writes about local groups providing compassionate outreach to women dealing with crisis pregnancies, such as Agape and Innervisions. What’s interesting is the loving support they provide even after the baby is born. And they’re just two of many groups here in Iowa doing the same in the name of Christ. And national/international groups like Catholic Charities, CAFO, and the Knights of Columbus are but a few working on a larger scale.
Big Abortion is built on lies. One of their most cynical is that pro-lifers don’t care about babies, kids, or moms after the baby is born. What bunk. Pro-life Christians expose the lie.
Get ready for a stunning Psalm at Mass this weekend: Psalm 8.
The psalmist sings:
“When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you set in place — what IS man that you should be mindful of him, or the son of man that YOU should care for him?”
Yes, what is man that we are that important to the Creator of the universe? And yet the psalmist is just getting warmed up on this subject:
“You have made him little less than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands, putting all things under his feet.”
Angels are awesome, spiritual creatures, superior to man in every way, but one: only man can take Christ into his body, as we do at the Table of the Lord at Mass. The psalmist says despite our human failings, we’re just about in the league with the angels. What an honor and serious responsibility!
Nothing else on earth compares to man, as the psalmist concludes:
“All sheep and oxen, yes, and the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.”
God has given man dominion over all the rest of His creation.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 355) explains the four ways that man occupies a unique place in creation:
- God made him in his image.
- He united in man the spiritual and material worlds.
- He created him male and female.
- And God established man in his friendship.
Join us in honoring this friendship. Support Iowans for LIFE’S mission to protect man from the instant of fertilization until natural death.
What is man? A friend of God.
By Tom Quiner
Dad died 34 years ago. I just ran across his recollections of participating in the D Day invasion as a 23 year old young man. He wrote it on the 40th anniversary of D Day, June 6th, 1984, a year before he died.
A few excerpts written by John Quiner:
John V. Quiner
“Several weeks or so prior to the D-Day landing, I was involved in a mock landing at Slapton Sands, Cornwall, England This was an amphibious military operation consisting of, as I recall, three LST’s, several LCI’s, a flotilla of LCT’s (18 of this type of craft and a hundred or so of LCVP’s and LCM’s).
There was an obvious paucity of protective type vessels such as destroyers or cruisers. At dusk several German E-Boats came across the Channel, one going past the bow of my ship firing torpedoes as they came and sinking 2 LST’S. The ships literally exploded as the torpedoes went into the fuel tanks, setting off ammunition and many large explosives.
I could see the GI’s jumping and falling overboard in mass hysteria. As the E-Boats made their quick turn, returning back to the other side of the channel, we commenced picking up as man dead American soldiers as we could and we had 50 to 60 dead bodies in grotesque positions which we dragged aboard our ship.
At that time we anchored along side the shore for the night and the next morning took the bodies into one of the ports in Cornwall.
I sensed from the expression on the faces of the military personnel under his command, that this might have been their first experience with this type of death as it was with me.”
Bombed a few weeks before D-Day
“One to three weeks prior to the D-Day landing, we were anchored in a port called Portland-Weymouth in Cornwall England, and during the night the German Airfare sent over a group of bomber planes dropping bombs and delayed mines in the harbor.
Again for a young officer of 23 years, I was amazed at the fact that I had again survived after being in the center of a lethal target area. After the confusion of the bombing subsided, we attempted to sleep for a few hours.
Early the next morning we were awakened again by a huge series of explosions and I was thrown from my bunk clear across my cabin, striking my head on the steel bulkhead. My ship which was at anchor, was apparently anchored over a delayed mine which exploded, blowing out all three of the engines of my ship and splitting open the entire hull of the rear section of the craft.
Inasmuch as we were taking on water very quickly, I had my signalman signal ashore and ordered two tugs to come out. They responded immediately and straddled each side of my ship with steel cable and were able to get the ship to the shore and up to a marine railway. They immediately set to work on the ship and over the next week or ten days they completely welded in a new steel bottom and installed three new marine engines.
This was the same ship that I sailed across the English Channel, landing at Omaha Beach on the third wave on D-Day of June 6th, 1944.”
***
On my ship I carried nine Sherman tanks and the crews of the tanks commanded by Lieutenant Colonel. The colonel was in the lead tank and as he went on to the beach, his tank went over a land mine blowing the track off of it. I saw his head appear out of the tank opening and he was shot by machine gun fire and apparently killed at that point in time — as nearly as I could determine.
There is a God
… there was a disastrously severe storm which occurred sinking hundreds of landing ships and craft including my own. I was washed overboard without a life preserver, in full foul weather gear and heavy boots. I emerged gasping from an 8 to 10 foot wave, full of swallowed sea water and fuel oil.
I was sure I was drowning and felt the deepest despair that I had ever encountered. I was cold, I was sick, and I was fighting to survive. At the moment of my deepest despair, at the moment when I felt that I was drowning for sure, I felt something at my back which turned out to be the top of the mast of an old sunken ship.
At the top of the mast, I saw a metal ring which was fastened thereto, and hanging from this ring was a section of old heaving line or halyard about three to four feet long. At the peak of the wave, I was able to grab the rope and quickly tie it around my waist where I was able to hang for several hours before the waves subsided enough for a rescue boat to get me off.
At that moment, at the risk of being melodramatic, I knew that there was a God in the sky. I survived!”
Does war prove God doesn’t exist?
World War II was supposed to be the war that ends all war. It wasn’t. If there’s really a God, as my Dad claimed there was, why does God allow war?
War’s very existence is proof to some that God doesn’t exist. And yet C.S. Lewis suggests that God allows war for a reason. Here is an excerpt from his story, The Screwtape Letters, where the demon, Screwtape, explains God’s logic:
C.S. Lewis
“This, indeed, is probably one of the Enemy’s [God’s] motives for creating a dangerous world—a world in which moral issues really come to the point. He sees as well as you do that courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty, or mercy, which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky.”
The indisputable virtue
D-Day
In a world where forces are at work to redefine society’s virtues, courage remains an indisputable virtue. Our soldiers have gone into battle absolutely terrified at the thought of dying. Their legs shook. They vomited. Their heads pounded. And yet they stormed the beach in the face of enemy fire, in the face of probable death. Watch the reenactment above from Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan.”
Courage is essential for humanity to flourish
Historians called this scene the most accurate depiction of the D-Day invasion in cinema history. However, a veteran who lived through the hell of that day said Spielberg didn’t use enough body parts. They were everywhere, making the reality of war more grisly, more horrific, more demonic.
Mr. Lewis suggests that these examples of courage, that these examples of spilled blood, bear fruit by nourishing something absolutely essential to our humanity: courage.
A different kind of war
Those of us engaged in the pro life movement are engaged in a war of a different nature, but indeed it is a war, complete with body parts and grotesque death. Mother Teresa called abortion war:
St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta
“The greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?”
We’re all tested in life. It takes courage at the “testing point” to do the right thing. Who knows, this day may test you. Remember the examples of our veterans who faced physical danger that most of us will never face.
We salute you, brave soldiers. You gave your best to America.
We need your courage more than ever.
[Tom Quiner is president of Pulse Life Advocate’s board.]
China is a cesspool of human rights abuse. Despite the despicable degradations imposed upon its citizens, the Walt Disney Company aggressively pursues commerce with the country known as the Red Dragon. By contrast, Disney threatens to withdraw from Georgia because of recent pro human rights legislation that restricts human abortion.
Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Protests
Thirty years ago today, a fledgling freedom movement in China was snuffed out when the military indiscriminately fired into a crowd of protestors consisting of unarmed students and civilians. Soldiers killed thousands. The government persecuted thousands more later.
Have human rights gotten better in China since? No. And yet Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger, recently gushed about Disney’s desire to expand aggressively into China:
“We have a lot of development activity right now to make Disney-branded films in China,” he said, speaking at Disney’s 963 acre resort in Shanghai, which opens in two weeks. “We are very far along on this process, including developing ideas, concepts for films and identifying talent to make those films.”
To borrow a colloquialism of our age, “it’s all good” as far as Disney is concerned when it comes to China.
Disney’s different standard in the U.S.
However, Mr. Iger sings a different tune when it comes to Disney’s relationship with the state of Georgia here in the U.S.
If you recall, on May 7th the Georgia Governor signed into law a bill which bans human abortion at the point when doctors detect a human heartbeat.
The Walt Disney Company loves making films in Georgia. Recent blockbusters filmed in the Peach State include “Black Panther” and “Avengers: Endgame.”
But Iger indicated it would be difficult for Disney to continue working in Georgia because of this new Heartbeat law:
“I think many people who work for us will not want to work there, and we will have to heed their wishes in that regard. Right now we are watching it very carefully.”
He said if the law is implemented: “I don’t see how it’s practical for us to continue to shoot there.”
He has no such compunction about China. And yet just last Friday, the Wall Street Journal detailed China’s war on Christians. The government has begun shutting down underground mega churches with a goal towards making religions “instruments of the Party.”
If religion doesn’t cooperate, they face the wrath of the Red Dragon. It’s even worse for Muslims. The Pentagon said some 3 million Uighur Muslims have been detained in Xinjiang province.
That’s like imprisoning the entire state of Iowa. Disney has no problem doing business with such a nation at the same time they threaten to withdraw from a state that demonstrates tremendous respect for human rights beginning at the first heartbeat.
Ironically, Walt Disney himself never made a movie in a place that tolerated abortion. His heirs tarnish the Disney pro-family legacy.
Des Moines Register columnist, Kathie Obradovich, attempted to identify common abortion-related principles upon which we can all agree in her May 22nd opinion piece: “How do Iowa and federal lawmakers fail pregnant women and mothers? Let’s count the ways.”
She succeeded in some and missed the mark on others. If you missed it, here are common principles covered in part one of this series. Now here are a few more-honest common principles:
Humanity is a scientific fact at the instant of fertilization. Embryologists tell us human life begins when the sperm and ovum, neither of which can sustain life or direct growth by itself, come together at fertilization. For the first time the new life has all 46 chromosomes and all the directions (DNA) it needs for the rest of life. The sex of the baby, the color of the hair, everything is already fixed. Humanity is fixed., and personhood is fixed, as if there were even a distinction.
It is a class B felony in Iowa to kill a person in the womb without the consent of the pregnant person. This leads to the next critical common principle:
Killing an innocent human being is always wrong. Morality is not determined by who does the killing, but upon who is killed. Is it okay to kill a woman but not a man? No, both are immoral. Is killing acceptable if the killer is a doctor, but not if he’s a car salesman? No, both are immoral. Is the killing moral if the person is unwanted, but not if she’s wanted? Of course not.
Check back for more common ground on abortion principles.
[The early bird registration deadline for IFL’s Annual Banquet closes on June 15th. Register now and $ave!]
Des Moines Register columnist, Kathie Obradovich, attempted to identify common abortion-related principles upon which we can all agree in her May 22nd opinion piece: “How do Iowa and federal lawmakers fail pregnant women and mothers? Let’s count the ways.”
She succeeded in some and missed the mark on others. Let us re-count the ways by revising her list of “common principles.” Here are two:
Abortions rarely take place due to rape. According to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, less than half a percentage point of abortion victims had an abortion due to rape. Both sides of the debate agree it’s a rarity. And yet Ms. Obradovich spent half of her column scolding pro-lifers for regulations that don’t allow abortion due to rape. Why doesn’t she address the other ninety-nine percent of abortions?
Rape IS a monstrous act of violence. Abortion makes it worse. Abortion-minded politicians and pundits ignore this common ground principle. It is a common principle because 8 out of 10 rape victims tell us that the trauma of abortion made the trauma of their rape worse. Conversely, women who were raped, conceived, and gave birth don’t regret not having an abortion. This information comes from a survey of rape victims conducted by researchers who detailed results in their book, “Victims and Victors: Speaking Out About Their Pregnancies, Abortions and Children Resulting From Sexual Assault.”
Check back for more common ground on abortion principles.
[The early bird registration deadline for IFL’s Annual Banquet closes on June 15th. Register now and $ave!]
By Maggie DeWitte
The Des Moines Register’s Kathie Obradovich sets up a straw man in her May 22nd opinion piece, “How do Iowa and federal lawmakers fail pregnant women and mothers? Let’s count the ways.”
She focuses entirely on rape and incest when writing about the the gains made by the pro-life movement in this state and around the country.
But, abortions rarely take place due to rape. According to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, less than half a percentage point of abortion victims had an abortion due to rape. Both sides of the debate agree it’s a rarity. And yet Ms. Obradovich spent half of her column scolding pro-lifers for regulations that don’t allow abortion due to rape.
Abortion makes rape worse
Rape and incest ARE monstrous acts of violence. Abortion makes it worse. Abortion-minded politicians and pundits ignore this common principle. It is a common principle because 8 out of 10 rape victims tell us that the trauma of abortion made the trauma of their rape worse. Conversely, women who were raped, conceived, and gave birth don’t regret not having an abortion.
This information comes from a survey of rape victims conducted by researchers who detailed results in their book, “Victims and Victors: Speaking Out About Their Pregnancies, Abortions and Children Resulting From Sexual Assault.”
Artificial birth control doesn’t reduce abortions
Ms. Obradovich implies that accessible and affordable birth control is essential to reducing the incidence of human abortion. She is mistaken. In fact, data from the Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood, and NARAL leads to the exact opposite “common principle”.
Artificial birth control does NOT reduce the incidence of abortion. Planned Parenthood and NARAL claim that 99% of women have used some form of artificial birth control. The Centers for Disease Control concurs. Some 99% of sexually active women have used some form of artificial birth control between the ages of 15 and 44. And 88% of women in the same age range have used artificial contraception at some point, whether they’ve ever been sexually active or not.
Despite the widespread adoption and availability of artificial contraception, nearly 60 million unique human persons have been aborted since Roe V Wade.
More than half of the women getting abortions were using artificial birth control
Even more, the Guttmacher Institute reports that ”More than half of women obtaining abortions in 2000 (54%) had been using a contraceptive method during the month they became pregnant.” Artificial contraception fails. When it does, it creates unwanted, disposable human beings.
Pro abortion politicians now praise abortion as an intrinsic good. They want all pro-life regulations outlawed, even up to the point of birth, and in some cases, beyond. And they want principled people to pay for these abortions through their taxes in violation of their consciences.
Common ground
In her final paragraph, Ms. Obradovich says, “But surely we can agree that it is incumbent upon our government to prosecute and punish rapists, insist mothers receive equal treatment in the workforce and prevent childbirth from becoming a death sentence.”
No argument there.
Iowans for LIFE maintains that we fail women miserably by suggesting that abortion is the best solution to their unplanned pregnancies. Abortion is painful. It includes the potential for permanent changes in a woman’s body, the possibility of injury or inability to bear future children and even the risk of death. In addition, abortion piles trauma on top of trauma for victims of rape or incest.
Please visit www.saylifeiowa.com to read some real life personal testimonies of women who were traumatized by abortion.
Pro abortion Hollywood actress, Alyssa Milano, has solved the abortion crisis! She has called for a national sex strike! It seems she is angered at the Georgia legislature for banning human abortion at the point at which a human heartbeat is detected.
She is angry that women can’t get abortions later than six weeks after conceiving. To retaliate against “the patriarchy,” she calls for a national “sex strike” which … would … reduce …abortion …even … MORE … than the Heartbeat Bill!
Three cheers for Ms. Milano!
Iowans for LIFE is all for reducing the incidence of human abortion. We join Ms. Milano in calling for a sex strike when the conjugal act is done outside the bounds of a traditional marriage between one man and one woman.
Within marriage, sexual intimacy is an act of profound beauty and love. Within marriage, it shouldn’t be used as a weapon, but as an expression of unity with an acceptance of the potential for new life when a man and woman make love.
Don’t weaponize love
Ms. Milano seems more interested in weaponizing love making, as she expressed in her recent Tweet:
“Our reproductive rights are being erased. Until women have legal control over our own bodies we just cannot risk pregnancy. JOIN ME by not having sex until we get bodily autonomy back. I’m calling for a #SexStrike. Pass it on.”
The only rights that are being erased by the Alyssa Milano’s of the world are the rights of the unique human beings who are denied their right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness when aborted.
We agree
We agree that women should have control over their bodies as long as it doesn’t deny immutable rights to the vulnerable person in the womb who doesn’t have control over her own body.
So Ms. Milano instincts are wrong, but the net result of her sex strike are spot on.
Chastity is back! Join the movement! JOIN Alyssa!