Gohsler

2012

Planned Parenthood Sex Trafficking of Minors Exposed by Lila Rose

From the President’s Desk...
Planned Parenthood Sex Trafficking of Minors Exposed by Lila Rose
By Helen Gohsler
Pro-Life Reporter October 2012

On June 28, the first day of the National Right to Life Convention in Arlington, VA, I was in attendance at the beginning session when it was announced that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Obamacare constitutional. Initially, disbelief and gloom came over the attendees. We all knew fully well that Obamacare not only included funding for abortion, but also rationing of health care. That gloom soon turned to renewed energy; we knew what we had to do. Justice John Roberts, who provided the fifth vote needed for approval of the decision, made clear he was not offering a policy endorsement of the law, but rather a belief that elected leaders can be thrown out of office if the people disagreed with them.

On that day, Lila Rose, Live Action president, who had led investigations into Planned Parenthood sex trafficking of minors, spoke at a general session at the convention and expressed the determination of many to continue to oppose the unjust and unpopular health care law. She began by saying “today’s Supreme Court ruling strikes at both life and liberty. Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry stand to gain from Obamacare’s socialized Medicare scheme.” She says the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a Ponzi scheme to expand Planned Parenthood’s abortion empire across the backs of American taxpayers and people of conscience, all at the expense of our religious freedom.

Lila went on to relate how as a nine year old, she looked at Dr Willke’s book on abortion and wondered how anyone could do this to a baby and thought she could have been a victim of abortion. She said she would just pray, “God, use me somehow to do something to stop abortion.” She said she never dreamt it would lead her to do underground work.

In her first investigation she dressed down to be an underage girl and attempted to request an abortion in a Planned Parenthood clinic. When she told the counselor she was fifteen, she was told – lie about your age, just figure an age that works and we’ll get you an abortion.

In her second Planned Parenthood clinic, the counselor said to her: “I know honey you’re having a hard time; I was pregnant when I was seventeen and I had the baby, but if I could do it again, I would do it differently. He’s fifteen now. Abortion is not a big deal – it’s not a baby. We know abortion helps you get on with your life.” Lila had secretly been recording the conversation, and put it on YouTube. Planned Parenthood had threatened to sue her if she didn’t remove the video from YouTube, but Bill O’Reilly already had gotten possession of the video and showed it on his program, “The O’Reilly Factor.”

Lila began to go all over the country undercover. She said sex-selection abortion is happening more and more in the United States. Only four states prohibit it, Pennsylvania being one of them.

In a National Abortion Federation clinic in Phoenix, Arizona Lila sought a sex-selection abortion and was told to lie about the reason. She was told she could not get a sex-selection abortion in Phoenix, but she could go to Tucson and have it done if she lied about the reason. Another alternative was for her to come back the next day and not say it was for sex-selection. See www.ProtectOurGirls.com.

Six studies in the last four years indicate that there are thousands of “missing girls” in the U.S. from sex-selection abortion. Worldwide, over 160 million girls are missing because of sex-selection abortion.

A recent video in Live Action’s “Gendercide” project documenting Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation’s support for sex-selection abortion in America, features two P.P. clinics in Hawaii advising a woman how best to procure a sex-selection abortion of her baby girl because she wants a boy, even recommending Hawaii’s Medicare program to pay for the sex-selection abortion. And in many other states, American taxpayers who are overwhelmingly opposed to sex-selection abortion must foot the bill.

Earlier this year the U.S. Congress attempted to pass a bill banning abortion for sex-selection. It passed in the House but was defeated in the Senate. President Obama did not offer support for the bill. The president says he supports Planned Parenthood because he wants his two daughters to be able to “control their own health choices.” And the President is willing to put our money where his mouth is by overriding the will of five states to revoke taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood’s abortion business.

Less than a week after a young black woman died from a legal abortion in July at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Chicago, the Obama administration went against the decision of the North Carolina legislature to withdraw taxpayer funds from Planned Parenthood by awarding $426,000 in federal grants to Planned Parenthood affiliates in that state. In addition to North Carolina, the Obama administration has now directly assisted Planned Parenthood in four other states including Indiana, New Hampshire, Texas, Tennessee and New Jersey. In New Jersey, the Obama administration awarded $3.1 million in federal funds to Planned Parenthood affiliates and other family planning groups in New Jersey by bypassing Gov Chris Christie.

Earlier this year we learned that under Obamacare in section 1303 there is an abortion surcharge that will go into effect in 2014 that will require individuals who purchase certain health insurance plans to pay an additional $1 monthly surcharge for abortion coverage.

In March 2009, when the Health Care plan was being debated in the House, Nancy Pelosi proclaimed we have to pass the bill so we can learn what’s in it. Unfortunately, the more we know what’s in it, the more fearful we are for our future. Under Obamacare, an “Independent Patient Advisory Board will determine what medical services will be allowed based on their calculation of “quality life years,” and this should scare every one of us.

2011

Planned Parenthood Caught Red-Handed

From the President’s Desk...
Planned Parenthood Caught Red-Handed!
By Helen Gohsler
Pro-Life Reporter March 2011

Events of the past few months have placed Planned Parenthood right in the middle of a firestorm that has culminated with the U.S. House voting to de-fund the largest provider of abortion in our country. One after another, charges against Planned Parenthood have surfaced to reveal their willingness to aid and abet the sex-trafficking of underage children. The pro-life group Live Action has released 10 videos recorded in the states of New York, New Jersey and Virginia showing how undercover investigators set out to prove that Planned Parenthood would cooperate in illegal activities.

In many of the videos Planned Parenthood staffers were very helpful to the self-identified pimp of underage sex slaves. Staffers assured him everything was confidential and coached him how to cover up the abuse and use judicial bypasses to get secret abortions for his underage sex slaves.

A staffer in a Bronx, NY Planned Parenthood offered guidance on how underage girls can get insurance through taxpayer funded programs to pay for abortions even if the underage girls are not U.S. citizens. When told that the girls involved in the sex trade are as young as 13, Planned Parenthood said they see girls as young as 13 and everything is totally confidential.

At a Perth Amboy, N.J. Planned Parenthood center, a nurse who aided an alleged sex trafficker has been fired, while the state health department is investigating the situation.

In ten Planned Parenthood clinics in Virginia, young women posing as underage girls reported they had been sexually abused and sought help. In every case, Planned Parenthood worked to cover up the abuse of the underage girls and did not comply with the mandatory reporting laws for sexual abuse. Instead the girls were coached by Planned Parenthood staffers on how to cover up abuse and get secret abortions.

On the one hand, Planned Parenthood tried to discredit each video that was released, saying they were isolated cases and doctored or distorted and on the other hand they announced that they will retrain their entire staff of 11,000 in how to handle sex-trafficking cases. Lila Rose, president of Live Action, the group that conducted the sting operation and released the videos claims that the announcement amounts to nothing more than “window dressing.”

Planned Parenthood is advancing plans to build an Abortion Empire and is instituting a mandate that all of its affiliates across the nation offer facilities where abortions are done. Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in this country and is also the largest recipient of Title X funds receiving 363 million taxpayer dollars. According to Planned Parenthood’s 2008- 09 annual report, it had performed 328 thousand abortions. The report also shows between 1997 and 2009 a correlation between increased government funding and increased abortions performed. For every million dollar increase in taxpayer funding, there is approximately 1000 more abortions performed. Abby Johnson, a former director at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas, made national headlines late last year when she resigned her position after participating in an ultrasound abortion. The announcement was damning to Planned Parenthood and they tried unsuccessfully to silence her. In her book ,Unplanned, released earlier this year, Abby Johnson exposes the unethical activities of Planned Parenthood and reveals her eye-opening experience of assisting in an ultrasound abortion. As director, she had never been called to assist before and did not really know why she had been this time. (Perhaps it was divine intervention.)

This is a story of a woman who had worked for Planned Parenthood for eight years and finally came to realize her folly, as she assisted and watched the baby struggle in the womb to turn and twist away from the abortionist’s instrument. When the suction was turned on she could see the tiny baby on the ultrasound screen violently twisting as if it were being wrung like a dishcloth. Then it crumpled before her eyes and was completely gone. The uterus was totally empty!

Abby was so completely shaken by the whole experience that at one point she had a sudden urge to yell, “stop,” and then suddenly realized she was a part of the procedure. After it was over, the images of the tiny baby twisting and struggling kept replaying in her mind and she thought, “Never again! Never again.” In looking back, Abby tried to understand how she found herself in that place, living a lie, spreading a lie and hurting the very women she wanted to help.

It is a known fact that Planned Parenthood is a major lobbying force for unrestricted abortion. They fought against the widely supported PA Abortion Control Act, even opposing informed consent for women, parental consent, the limiting of abortions after six months of pregnancy, and a ban on sex-selection abortion.

Leaders in the pro-life movement have long called for removing taxpayer funding from Planned Parenthood. The action by the U.S. House to de-fund Planned Parenthood may be just symbolic due to the lack of support in the Senate, and the likely veto of President Obama. However, it is important because it is making a statement reflecting the view of the majority of the American people, and will eventually happen.

Abby Johnson claims that Planned Parenthood could not survive without taxpayer funding due to the reality that only a quarter of their income comes from private donors. She further claims that if Planned Parenthood went out of business, women could get better and more complete health care from other sources already in existence.

2010

Health Care Reform

From the President’s Desk...
Surprises in Health Care Reform...Read ‘em and Weep!
By Helen Gohsler
Pro-Life Reporter July 2010

Health Care Reform Bill, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, after much arm-twisting and backroom dealings giddily proclaimed “we have to pass the bill so we can find out what’s in it.”

At that time the American public expressed much displeasure with the 2000 plus page bill that they knew nothing about. Now that the American people do know, they like it even less. Aside of concerns over the inclusion of abortion and rationing and the financial burden placed on our children and grandchildren, it’s now known that we will begin paying new taxes for several years before benefits begin to kick in. In addition, the law as written mandates every American purchase health care insurance, or face an annual fine for not doing so.

For months, our two U.S. Senators Bob Casey and Arlen Specter insisted that abortion was not in the bill, though we were confident that unless it was explicitly excluded, it would be included. They wrongly assumed that current Hyde Amendment language would prevent taxpayer funding of abortion.

Since the Hyde Amendment applies only to funds appropriated through the annual Health and Human Services appropriation bill, it will not apply to any of the funds used to cover abortions in the new Health Care Law. The health care measure bypasses Hyde by directly appropriating billions of dollars into a newly created Community Health Care fund where elective abortions can be paid for at will. It has always been the intention of the Obama administration to provide for abortion funding, and now they have found a way to keep a promise to Planned Parenthood, NARAL and NOW.

A surprise in the Health Care law requires that federal funds help subsidize and promote health plans that cover elective abortions. Those who purchase such plans will be required to pay for other people’s abortions through a separate payment solely to pay for abortion. In addition, the Health Care plan lacks adequate conscience protection for health care providers and employers. As a result, health care providers may face penalties for refusing to participate in abortion services.

Another surprise in the new health care law is the coverage of the dangerous RU-486 abortion pill, responsible for killing 13 women worldwide and injuring at least 1,100 in the U.S. Just prior to passage, the Senate voted against an amendment to the reconciliation bill to strike it. All Democrats voted to kill the amendment.

Regarding the rationing of health care to senior citizens, which legislators insist is not in the Plan: Section 3209 of the health care bill signed into law by President Obama allows federal bureaucrats to bar senior citizens from adding their own money, if they choose, to the government contribution in order to get private fee for service Medicare Advantage Plans, which are less likely to ration life-saving treatment. This new law nullifies the current law which does allow private fee for service plans.

Medicare already faces fiscal problems as the baby boom generation retires and the working population decreases; thus the amount of money available for each Medicare beneficiary when adjusted for health care inflation will shrink. The likely scenario will be that taxes will increase while actual health care will decrease.

The Wall Street Journal reported in late December what doctors and patients have to lose under Obama Care. Despite the endorsement of the American Medical Association, the American College of Surgeons and 18 other specialty groups are opposed. The health care law gives sweeping power to the centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. They will be given the authority to write new rules on when medical devices and drugs can be used, and how they should be priced. Under the new health care law, patients will no longer have the ability to appeal any of the decisions of the new Medicare commission.

The Wall Street Journal further points out that Primary-care doctors will feel the financial pressure to limit referrals to costly specialists like surgeons, since new penalties for over-referrals will put the referring physicians on the hook for the cost of the referral. Despite what we have been told by the Congress and the President, there will be rationing in health care. With 32 million more seeking doctors, you may have to wait weeks or months longer to get an appointment with your own doctor and much longer than that to see a specialist.

There is a growing consensus in this country that the only resolution to health care reform, which violates our principles and shows disdain for the overwhelming will of the public, is to repeal and replace it. Due to the fact that much of the law will not take effect until 2013, the November General elections will be telling. Beyond that, so too will be the 2012 Presidential election.

The March of Dimes Boycott Continues

From the President’s Desk...
The March of Dimes Boycott Continues
By Helen Gohsler
Pro-Life Reporter Spring 2010

The 2010 Annual Fund Appeal of the March of Dimes carries a simple message: “America’s babies are losing their lives to premature birth and don’t survive their first months of life. And, others face lifelong disabilities from disabling birth defects such as blindness or mental retardation.”

So, what is it about the March of Dimes that has caused this decades-long boycott of the organization established by President Franklin Roosevelt to save children from polio? The short answer is its use of amniocentesis in what has been described by pro-life groups as a search-and-destroy mission. The March of Dimes has encouraged testing in the fourth month of pregnancy at a time when no genetic diseases are treatable. As a result, babies are usually aborted in the fifth month when they could survive outside the womb. The March of Dimes is very much involved in the rather direct promotion of elective abortion by setting the stage to discover handicapped babies who are then selectively aborted.

We need to look at a little history to get the long answer. Since the March of Dimes was founded in 1938 to defeat polio, its partnership of scientists and volunteers has been instrumental in funding research for the prevention, detection and cure of various birth defects. According to Life Issues Institute, since the legalization of abortion, March of Dimes has refused to fight for the lives of most pre-born babies with birth defects. Instead, they have left their fate to the pro-abortion counsel of geneticists. Because of this, pro-lifers have withheld contributions to MOD since 1976. Unfortunately, based on their reports in recent years, pre-born babies with birth defects remain at high risk for abortion.

Although pro-lifers have been boycotting the March of Dimes for three decades, the general public seems unaware of the boycott, because MOD has improved the lives of many by striving to improve prenatal care and by providing treatment to children born with birth defects. However, MOD reveals its true intention in their “Global Report on Birth Defects.” In it they indicate a prevention strategy “to reduce the number of children born with birth defects.” They cite programs in various countries that use prenatal diagnosis in combination with pregnancy termination, which they note as successes because they have reduced the incidence of children born with certain birth defects.

March of Dimes support of federally funded embryo-destructive stem cell research is a matter of public record. MOD also supports pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, a technique that encourages eugenics by providing the means for rejecting embryos that have undesirable genetic traits.

March of Dimes current campaign in preventing birth defects ignores strong evidence that prior abortions are the third highest risk factor associated with premature birth. MOD claims impartiality toward abortion and yet they withheld this information about abortion risks.

MOD’s endorsement and promotion of the abortion industry is revealed by its contributions to Planned Parenthood. Their justification is that the money does not go toward abortions. Nevertheless it supports an organization that is the country’s largest provider of abortion, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of pre-born babies every day. MOD’s financial sponsorship of Planned Parenthood gives implicit approval to what the organization does, including abortions.

According to Life Issues Institute in a statement reported in July of last year:

The reality of MOD’s neutral stance on abortion is this: by not opposing abortion, MOD implicitly accepts it as a viable option and has the freedom to allow abortions without publicly condoning them. Clearly, their acceptance of the abortion option lays the groundwork for their strategy.

In summary, Life Issues Institute reports, while there is certainly some good work done by MOD, it is not an organization that values each and every life. Its associations with abortionists and the abortion industry, its support of procedures that allow and encourage eugenics, its dishonesty concerning abortion risks, and its lack of respect for the dignity of the pre-born child all make support for this organization objectionable from a pro-life point of view. This is why pro-lifers boycott MOD. This is why pro-lifers support organizations like The Michael Fund, whose mission is to help children with birth defects while respecting the dignity of every human being from conception until natural death.

Further information can be obtained at: www.michaelfund.org. Contributions can be mailed to: Michael Fund, 4371 Northern Pike, Pittsburgh, PA 15146.

2009

Don't be Fooled...

From the President’s Desk...
Don’t Be Fooled...House Takes Abortion Out-Senate Puts It Back In!
By Helen Gohsler
Pro-Life Reporter December 2009

Don’t be fooled! The win in the House Health Reform Bill (H.R. 3200) which removed funding of abortion was indeed a pro-life victory – but only a temporary one. Government officials are already planning to remove pro-life language when Senate and House versions are debated in Conference Committee.

On November 21, in a rare Saturday evening session, Senator Harry Reid presented his version of Government Health Care. He was successful in garnering sixty democratic votes to gain “cloture”, a maneuver designed to cut off filibustering of his health care bill when it is finally debated in Senate chambers.

Unlike previous versions of Senate bills which purposely avoided using the term “abortion” in order to trick us into believing that abortion would not be included – Sen. Reid’s version clearly advocates taxpayer funding of abortion. Make no mistake about it, abortion is playing a major role in the Health Care debate, and the pro-life movement has shown its power and clout – and in the end could possibly doom the current versions now being offered. Sen. Reid’s rush to gain cloture was designed to prevent filibustering by pro-life senators and others who will propose amendments to the bill.

The ploy by Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, to ram through her version of Health Care Reform in early November, is another example of how abortion is shaping the debate. Speaker Pelosi was willing to allow the Stupak Amendment, prohibiting funding of abortion to be voted on in order to entice Pro-Life Democrats in the House to vote in favor of its passage, thus leading the way for final passage of the bill.

No sooner had the bill passed, the Associated Press reported that abortion rights groups, outflanked and outnumbered in the health care debate, were scrambling to regain lost ground after the House passed a health care bill with strict abortion limits. Cecile Richards, speaking for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said “We’re not going to have health care reform off the backs of women – this isn’t what we’ve all spent out lives for.” Both Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) admitted they hope to mandate access to abortion for all women through national health care reform legislation. Democratic congressman and White House officials are already plotting how to remove the Stupak amendment in Conference committee.

President Obama has taken both sides in the debate depending upon his audience. When speaking to Planned Parenthood, he has always claimed that “reproductive rights” would be an integral part of health care reform. To the American public he claims that no federal funds will be used to fund abortions, and that pro-life advocates are wrongabout abortion funding and rationing components of the health care bill. Yet it has been no secret that the Obama administration would use health care reform to expand access to abortion. From his chief of staff on down to Kathleen Sebelius, Health and Human Services Secretary, all of his appointments have been pro-abortion activists.

Senator Bob Casey has been a disappointment in the matter of health care reform. In his letter to constituents, he does not hesitate to say he is “pro-life,” yet in the Senate debate on the cloture vote, Casey remained silent on the inclusion of abortion by Sen. Harry Reid.

For months, Sen. Casey and his staff were adamant in insisting that abortion was not in the Senate version of health care reform, though we were confident that unless abortion were explicitly excluded, it would be included. It appears the senator is still under a misguided notion that the current Hyde Amendment would be sufficient to keep abortion out of health care.

As of this writing as debate begins in the Senate chambers, Casey has not addressed his colleagues on the floor of the Senate to express his opposition to the inclusion of abortion in the health care bill. According to the November 27 New York Times, Senator Casey wants to talk about anything but abortion. “Both sides shooting at you," Casey said in the interview. Abortion rights supporters would like him to lend the credibility of his family name to compromises that are totally unacceptable to the pro-life side.

The debate is far from over. The momentum is on our side to ensure that abortion and rationing of health care is not included in health care reform. We must continue to contact our two U.S. Senators and local congressional representatives, even if we have previously done so. If we fail, the inclusion of abortion funding in health care will result in the greatest expansion of abortion since Roe V Wade. We can’t let that happen.

Pregnancy Is Not A Disease...

From the President’s Desk...
Pregnancy Is Not A Disease; Abortion Is Not Health Care
By Helen Gohsler
Pro-Life Reporter September 2009

Finally the news media is reporting it and the truth is out: abortion will be paid for under the Health Reform Proposal crafted by the Congress. Time magazine and the non-partisan FactCheck.org website at the University of Pennsylvania now join the Associated Press in confirming that House bill HR 3200 funds abortion through the so-called public option (government option).

Despite this revelation, President Obama in his Aug 22 radio address claimed that pro-life advocates are wrong about the abortion funding and rationing components of the health care bills. Yet, it has been no secret since the start of the Obama administration that health care reform would be used to expand access to abortion. Starting from his chief of staff on down, all of his appointments have been pro-abortion activists. It is disturbing that with all the evidence that Obama wants abortion included in health care that he would continue to deny it. Many times he has stated that reproductive health care is at the center and heart of the plan I propose,and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton now admits that reproductive health includes access to abortion.

According to Doug Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, Obamacare would result in the greatest expansion of abortion since Roe v Wade. Johnson says that Obama backed legislation, HR 3200, explicitly authorizes the government plan to cover all elective abortions.

Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortion in the country has been in the forefront of lobbying for the inclusion of abortion in health care reform. In 2007 alone, Planned Parenthood killed over 305,000 children by abortion in the United States and millions more worldwide.

It has not been widely reported in the media that our Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was the honored recipient of the Planned Parenthood Margaret Sanger award in Houston on March 27, this year. Clinton considered it a great privilege to receive the award and expressed her admiration for Margaret Sanger; her courage, her tenacity, her vision, and her desire to see Sanger's work continue here in the U.S. and across the globe.

Please understand that the person Hillary Clinton is in awe of was an unapologetic eugenicist and racist who once said, the most merciful thing a family does for one of its infant members is to kill it. In her book, Pivot of Civilization, in a chapter entitled Cruelty of Charity, Sanger pens a shocking case for the systematic denial of prenatal and maternal health for poor, pregnant women. She writes that such benevolence leads to the perpetuation of defective, delinquents and dependents.

In light of the background of the late Margaret Sanger, it is unbelievable that a Secretary of State could be enamored with someone whose views were in stark contradiction with those of protecting all human rights. Shame, shame on Secretary of State Clinton, whose admiration of Margaret Sanger is problematic to say the least, and suggests a foreign policy that would spread abortion all over the world at the expense of U.S. taxpayers.

The Affordable Health Choices Act, which is the bill in the Senate Health Committee has found a new way to make us pay for abortions without saying so. The bill creates a Medical Advisory Council that will make decisions about which treatments are covered; and the person who would appoint the members of that council would be Health & Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius, a notoriously pro-abortion advocate.

Sebelius would also be given the authority to order hospitals and doctors to implement any mechanism to improve health qualities she decides to require. This is how the feared rationing of government health care to the elderly and the disabled could occur. Is this what Hillary Clinton was suggesting when she said Margaret Sanger’s work here in the United States is not done? And what about the proposed legislation in the Senate bill that doctors would be paid to provide end-of-life counseling to Medicare patients?

Under government health care, could compassion take on a meaning that would make us cringe? We already have a picture of such a grim future. Randy Stroup, a 53-year-old cancer patient applied for aid under Oregon’s state health plan in 2008. He was denied payment for chemotherapy, but was offered money for assisted suicide.

It is imperative that every one of us contact our two U.S. Senators and House Congressional member, and ask that abortion be specifically excluded from any Health Care Plan, and that there be no rationing of health care, particularly to the elderly and disabled. And be sure to remind them: PREGNANCY IS NOT A DISEASE; ABORTION IS NOT HEALTH CARE.

Make Abortion Unthinkable

From the President’s Desk...
Make Abortion Unthinkable
By Helen Gohsler
Pro-Life Reporter June 2009

The passage of a Human Life Amendment, a long-time goal of the Pro-Life Movement is no longer likely in the lifetimes of most of us.

Since last year’s election of the most pro-abortion president in our history, it is necessary for us to re-group and re-capture the momentum and to re-invent our movement. And we start by fighting abortion on the local level! For the first time since 1994, the legislative and executive branches of our government are controlled by a pro-abortion majority: the U.S House, the U.S. Senate and the Presidency.

With the impending departure of Supreme Court justice David Souter, and possibly two more during the next few years, we are assured of an Obama Court stacked with abortion advocates. This could change the composition of the Court for decades.

We must understand that politics really does follow the culture, so we must start by changing the culture of our society. We have to make our voices heard and let society know we are drawing a line in the sand. We must say to the Congress, and to the President and to all elected officials that the killing of unborn babies must end. We need to utilize today’s technology and go to the Internet where today’s generation gets all its information. We need to use the Internet to quickly inform our legislators on how we want them to vote on pro-life issues.

We need to “Make Abortion Unthinkable.” We need to make women aware there are alternatives to abortion and show them how abortion hurts women both physically and psychologically. We need to let them know healing is available through programs such as Rachel’s Vineyard.

We need to reach out to fathers who have no rights in the aborting of a child that is also his. They suffer as much or more than women who have chosen to kill their unborn child.

If each of us would educate five people per month regarding the realities of abortion, we could truly make abortion unthinkable. If we urged our pastors to speak out about abortions, it would be a new day in America.

Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, believes the vast majority of Americans are pro-life, and they are ready to fight abortion on the local level. “They will do this by opening pregnancy centers and closing abortion mills, activating their churches and educating their children, proclaiming the message in the media and demonstrating in the streets.”

Students for Life groups in college campuses across the country are becoming involved and speaking out against abortion. Forty-five percent of all abortions are performed on college women, who have been targeted by Planned Parenthood. College students across America are participating in the Genocide Awareness Project created by the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform based in Lake Forest, California. Featured are photo mural exhibits which compare abortion to widely recognized forms of genocide, such as the Cambodian Killing Fields and the Nazi Holocaust. Visit http://www.abortionno.org/gap.html to learn how to bring the Genocide Awareness Project to your campus. Then contact Pennsylvanians for Human Life (http://prolifescranton.org) for assistance in getting started. We are encouraged that our movement is growing younger and in many instances our youth are more pro-life than their predecessors. A new Gallup poll, for the first time, shows 51% of Americans are pro-life, with 42% claiming to be pro-choice. More and more women are standing up to say “we regret our abortions” as they joined the Silent No More demonstration in front of the Supreme Court building last January 22. To quote Father Pavone, the goal of the pro-life movement is not simply to make abortion illegal, although that is one aspect of the whole effort. The goal is to make it unavailable, unnecessary and unthinkable.

Genocide Awareness

From the President’s Desk...
Genocide Awareness Project Challenges College Students Across America - It Can Come to YOUR Campus!
By Helen Gohsler
Pro-Life Reporter March 2009

From Temple University in Philadelphia to the University of Nebraska, to the University of Florida; Students for Life groups are sponsoring life-changing photo mural exhibits which compare abortion to widely recognized forms of genocide such as the Cambodian Killing Fields and the Nazi Holocaust.

The powerful Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) is the brainchild of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform based in Lake Forest, California. Mark Harrington is the executive director of the Midwest Region.

At Florida State University, Mr. Harrington said, one student’s views were changed within 10 minutes of seeing the abortion photos.

“What we’re trying to do is plant the seed of thought,” he said, “Adolf Hitler’s persecution of the Jews was legal at the time. There’s a different motive, but the result is the same.”

GAP was conducted at Temple University on Oct. 30-31, 2007. CBR Midwest made a second visit to Temple because it has a large African-American student population, which Mr. Harrington claims they are eager to reach since these women have a disproportionately higher rate of abortions.

Mr. Harrington shared a letter from a woman who volunteered with the Temple GAP project, who is the College Outreach Coordinator of Generation Life (www.generationlife.org).

“I saw people come to new realization about the personhood of the unborn child right before my eyes. I even witnessed one young woman who considered herself to be pro-choice realize after some dialogue and seeing the display that she didn’t want to be pro-choice anymore.”

GAP will be visiting Penn State University in early October.

Abortion Images “Win Debate,” Pro-Aborts Say
An opinion piece appeared in the student newspaper at North Dakota State University as a follow-up to a GAP presentation on campus. Although the author struggled with the ethics of the genocide comparison, she readily affirmed the effectiveness of GAP. Her opinion piece states the following:

* Images do speak more loudly to our generation than words, and everyone passing by those signs knew they were being faced with gruesome, visceral truth.

*Protesters said they didn’t like to be faced with the painful pictures. I can’t think of who would. But it does spur a question: What is it about those images that speak to us so profoundly?

*The fact that people are surprised and shocked by the images suggests that maybe the whole story isn’t being told.

*When evaluating the validity of a disturbing display like GAP, we need to ask: are we going to allow fear of disturbing some people to trump awareness of reality? Should we prefer ignorance to knowledge, however tragic and convicting that knowledge may be?

More and more students are realizing that GAP is the best pro-life campus outreach available. Pro-life activism is being re-invented! The president of the Pro-Life Alliance at Florida State University said that people who stopped to visit the GAP exhibit would normally pass by their usual information table with literature on it. “That is why pro-abortion forces would much prefer that we restrict ourselves to such “inoffensive” tactics – because they are not as effective at bringing the truth to our campuses and our culture.”

How Do Post-Abortive Women React?
After more than 10 years of exhibiting abortion photos through the GAP project, the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform claims that post-abortive women respond much like the rest of the population. They range from highly supportive to deep anger. Many stop rationalizing the sin of their own abortions and repent.

Women who have had one abortion are at greater risk of aborting again. Should we not care about those women and their future babies? Should some supposed fear of upsetting these women stop us from showing the truth? Some of the strongest advocates in our movement are post-abortive women who have sought forgiveness and personal help through healing groups such as Rachel’s Vineyard. The testimonies of many post-abortive women can be found at www.abortionno.org.

Make Abortion Unthinkable
This is a call to college students everywhere. Visit the GAP website www.cbrinfo.org/gap. html and learn how to bring the Genocide Awareness Project to your campus. Then contact Pennsylvanians for Human Life www.prolifescranton.org for assistance in making this project a reality.