Ruth Institute Blog

by Helen Alvaré, Greg Pfundstein, Matthew Schmitz and Ryan T. Anderson

This article was first published January 17, 2011 at publicdiscourse.com.

Do pro-lifers care about life after birth?

One of the most frequently repeated truisms of the abortion debate is that pro-lifers really don’t care about life. As much as they talk about protecting the unborn, we are told, pro-lifers do nothing to support mothers and infants who are already in the world. Liberal writers such as Matthew Yglesias are given to observing that pro-lifers believe that “life begins at conception and ends at birth.” At Commonweal, David Gibson, a journalist who frequently covers the abortion debate, asks how much pro-lifers do for mothers: “I just want to know what realistic steps they are proposing or backing. I’m not sure I’d expect to hear anything from pro-life groups now since there’s really been nothing for years.” Read more…

by Jennifer Roback Morse

As an advocate of conjugal marriage, I am often told that I am on the “wrong side of History.” The justice of “marriage equality” is overwhelming; the younger generation favors it; same sex marriage is inevitable. But this analysis is false. Indeed, there is ample reason to think that the March of History storyline will be proven incorrect. The reason? We were told all these same things about abortion. Read more…

National Right to Life News:
PPFA often argues that increased funding will enable them to reduce the numbers of abortion. The problem is their own organizational reports don’t seem to show that.

The amount that Planned Parenthood has gotten from federal, state, and local governments has been increasing steadily over the past several years, more than doubling since 1998, but abortions done at Planned Parenthood have not gone down. In fact, they have increased dramatically during that same period, rising at a rate … that very nearly matches the rate of those funding increases (see chart).

Keep reading.

This video was made by the White Rose Project.  Who are they?  From their video description:

In 1942, a group of students from the University of Munich began a campaign to shine the light of truth in Nazi Germany. The White Rose was a movement to educate the citizens Germany and prick their conscious about the atrocities ravaging their country.

Though the danger was great, these students were determined to be a voice for victims of the Nazi Holocaust by educating the people of Germany. The White Rose believed the German people needed to know the truth and risked their lives to call them from apathy to action.

In 2011, a collection of American Pro-life Youth have come together in the face of the abortion holocaust that has been plaguing our nation. We have seen the need to shine the light of truth and activate the youth of America to rise up and take a stand. Read more…

Remember when our universities were places where civil discourse was sacred?

Take a look at this video. Read the article while you’re at it.

And yet the advocates of same-sex ‘marriage’ keep assuring us that nobody’s civil rights will have to be abridged for them to have their way.

Between 130,000 and 160,000 people demonstrated in central Madrid, Spain, on Saturday against laws that make abortion easier, according to organizers.

Why is it that this event was covered only by Christian news websites?

JillStanek.com:
Julie Rovner, NPR health policy correspondent: Well, the conflict is really that PP keeps its statistics according to the percent of those services that are provided, not according to how many people get what… Sarah Stoesz from PP kind of misspoke when she said it was 3% of patients who come in get abortions.

It is actually a little bit closer to the 10% that [Susan B. Anthony List President] Marjorie Dannenfesler suggested, because there are about 3 million patients who come in. There are about 300,000 abortions provided…

Neal Conan, host: And the difference might be that the same woman who later received an abortion also got a pregnancy test and counseling and some other services.

Rovner: Absolutely. So many of those patients are getting more than one service and who – many of the patients who get an abortion are probably getting other services as well.

“A little bit closer”? 3 million divided by 300,000 is actually 10%. Furthermore, and the bigger point, as LiveAction.org pointed out, over 35% of PP’s income comes from abortion. NPR would be fair and balanced to report that statistic as well.

Actually, almost 37% of their health center income is from abortions, in fact… Read more…

Would it surprise anyone to find out that left-wing extremists believe that religious hospitals must perform abortions?

Uh… no, I doubt very much that would surprise anyone at all.

In fact, I doubt anyone would be at all surprised to learn that, as this article points out: Read more…

From The Columbus Dispatch:
Members of the House Health Committee watched silently in a packed hearing room yesterday as ultrasounds were given to two pregnant women. The fetal heartbeats were played through speakers while any movement was shown on a large projector screen. Read more…

One of the greatest media hoaxes of the 20th century is The Reproductive Healthcare Movement’s concern for social justice & women’s safety

Also from the article:

…history has proven this to be completely false! After 1967-73 most abortionists simply moved out from the back alley onto Main St. and little has changed to help make surgical abortion anymore safe since Roe vs. Wade.

The article speaks for itself.

You have to see this. (Be sure to watch the video.)

The question at the end of LifeNews.com’s article says it all: “Which side has more joy?”

(For the storm troopers who besieged NOM’s Summer for Marriage Tour at every stop last July and August: This is how to do a counter demonstration people! Don’t intimidate, be non-threatening, don’t charge the opposing rally’s stage, stand off and respect the other assembly’s right to free speech, and above all else, do it with joy – not hatred.)

By the way: Did you notice how young the overwhelming majority of the Pro-Life demonstrators were? They are the future, my friends.

You can watch additional videos here.

There’s been some flak in the news lately about new abortion counseling guidelines issued by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

LifeNews.com:
The guidelines, which have already been panned for ignoring the link between abortion and breast cancer, contain other scientific flaws.

The guidelines say “Women should be advised that abortion is generally safer than continuing a pregnancy to term,” even though abortion comes with a host of medical and mental health concerns and has been found to cause more problems for women than childbirth. Read more…

He’s finally been arrested, but apparently Theodore Shulman harassed and threatened the lives of pro-lifers over the course of four years…

…a lot of pro-lifers: Read more…

From LifeSiteNews.com

On Monday the Arizona House voted overwhelmingly to pass a bill that would ban abortions based upon either the race or the gender of the unborn child.

Just a quick reminder that, in America, not only can one abort a child at any time during the entire pregnancy, but for absolutely any reason as well.

The 38th annual March for Life was held today, an event for which media coverage is always a contentious topic. The video embedded here is something that came out from a pro-life group after some of the media coverage of last year’s march. As such, the language is rather partisan. But I highlight it to show what, exactly, pro-lifers complain about. Others argue that these complaints are such an annual rite themselves that maybe pro-life leaders should take some of the blame for their public relations problems. Read more…

Friend of Ruth, Steve Hicks, sends this report from the March for Life in DC. 

Cute Girls from the Archdiocese of Omaha

Jan 24 2011 – Wash DC 

It may have well been called the “youth march” for life!  I don’t know what the numbers were yet, but I stood and listened to the youth bagpipe band playing on the curb of Constitution Avenue while I watched 4 lanes of mostly teens and young adults pass by for at least a half hour.  It was staggering.  A tsunami of pro-life youth.

Earlier that morning the VERIZON Center (capacity for basketball game is around 20,000, JRM) was full and 10000 more we at the US Armory attending the morning Youth Mass.

The night before saw The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception packed into the side aisles with youth for a heavenly polyphonic sung Mass, with an endless line of seminarians and priests in a procession that seemed to last forever.

(Buy the DVD on EWTN.com to find out how long for sure!) Then the Crypt of the Basilica hosted an all night vigil for life. 

Wow.  My bones needed to sleep.

 No wonder there was so much young energy on display in defense of the unborn.  All manner of chants and high school cheers were shouted with sheer joy.

One group that looked like a hundred kids on the steps alongside Constitution Ave. cheering:

 Who do we want!? Babies!?

How do we want them!? Alive!

What do we need to do?! Save their lives!

How are we gonna do it?! Thru prayer and sacrifice!!!

 Amen AMDG Steve

     Berkeley Students for Life, at the 2010 West Coast Walk for Life

IMG_2375 –Sent by a friend of the Ruth Institute, who attended the March for Life today. The March commemorated the 38th year anniversary of Roe v Wade, legalized on January 22nd, 1973.

Here are some pictures taken while waiting for Mass to begin. Read more…