American Life League Associates Newsletter
October 9, 2006
Vol. 3, No. 39

From Associates

• Houston Coalition for Life

  On September 29, the Houston Coalition for Life completed its 40 Days for Life prayer campaign outside the busy Houston Planned Parenthood Clinic. For forty days, around the clock, a minimum of two peaceful and prayerful protesters maintained a vigil on the sidewalk outside the clinic.

  Christine Melchor, executive director of Houston Coalition for Life, explained that the vigil was an effort spearheaded by the Houston Coalition for Life but greatly assisted by area and national pro-life groups and numerous volunteers. Local businesses and individuals came forward with offers of financial assistance and supplies for the vigil. The most moving donations were from two homeless men that the pro-lifers befriended during their 40 day vigil on the street. One homeless man gave $4 and another man gave $1. They said that they wanted to do their part to help. A homeless, pregnant mother sat and prayed and socialized with the pro-lifers every day that they kept their vigil. She herself would approach other pregnant women heading in to the clinic and offer them pro-life literature.

  Houston Coalition for Life also seized the opportunity to educate the population of Houston to the Planned Parenthood agenda for their area. Volunteers handed out thousands of flyers in the Houston area in a door-to-door evangelization effort that also extended to the local community college where almost every student received a flyer with the pro-life message. A number of students who were pregnant were directed to a pregnancy counseling center and given options other than abortion.

  Melchor said the fruits of the vigil and other efforts were obvious throughout the 40 days. In only the second week of the prayer vigil, one of the other most notorious abortion mills in Houston closed down for no given reason after being in operation for over 20 years. Two pro-life protestors were present and praying at that clinic when the closure was announced and actually helped to remove the clinic sign from the building. Melchor said they conservatively estimate that at least 35 women were directed away from the Planned Parenthood clinic for pregnancy testing and three babies were saved from abortion. A dozen other women left the clinic for various reasons without having an abortion. Even the Planned Parenthood escorts seemed to have a softening of heart and engaged in courteous conversation and asked genuine questions of the protesters. One escort, known for his rudeness to pro-lifers, even referred a couple over to the vigil keepers for a free pregnancy test instead of directly escorting them inside the clinic.

  Melchor is not sure if the prayer vigil will be an annual event in Houston. She said that the fruits of the vigil have prompted the Houston Coalition for Life to begin coordinating the Campaign for Life – a similar but smaller scale effort to have peaceful protestors in front of the clinic at least four hours a day during the week and five or six hours on Saturday. She hopes the effects of the 40 Days for Life will keep benefiting the Houston community. “Its amazing what can happen when God’s people come together united with a common goal. People of many faiths gathered at the site where babies are dying and mothers are being exploited and offered their prayers and sacrifices to God for an end to abortion and then abandoned the results to Him.”

• Pro-Life Wisconsin

  Pro-Life Wisconsin supporters gathered at seven sites around the state last Monday in recognition of Pro-life Memorial Day. The pro-life vigils were mostly held at Planned Parenthood clinics across the state. In a Badger Herald interview with Marc Tuttle, communications director for PLW, Marc explained that the vigils were designed to bring about remembrance for the 47 million lives ended through abortion since the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions.

• New Hampshire Right to Life

  NHRTL will hold its annual banquet on October 29 at the Manchester Country Club in Manchester. This year’s keynote speaker is American Life League's Jim Sedlak, the man who wrote the book on defeating Planned Parenthood. For more information and reservations, call 603-626-7950 or e-mail New Hampshire Right to Life.

From ALL Headquarters

• Training and Activism Weekend 2007

  American Life League will sponsor a number of events in Washington, D.C. the weekend of January 20-22. In addition to Rock for Life youth training and activism, there will be Training and Activism Briefings at the Holiday Inn on the Hill on Sunday January 21 beginning at 9 a.m. These briefings will include, thus far, Judie Brown, Jim Sedlak, David Bereit, Fr. Tom Euteneuer and Chris Slattery. Other speakers are in the process of being confirmed. A Monday morning breakfast meeting with a panel discussion will also be held.

  Watch this space for additional information in the weeks ahead. If you are planning to be in the D.C. area that weekend, now is the time to reserve your room (or rooms). Contact Erik Whittington for reservation details.

• Teleseminar on Planned Parenthood

  
  If you have not yet had the opportunity to listen to American Life League’s teleseminar training on Planned Parenthood with Jim Sedlak and David Bereit, it is still available online.

• STOPP CD sets

  Jim and David have also produced a four-CD set of talks on how Planned Parenthood is harming the nation's communities and what active pro-lifers can do to stop the organization from achieving its objectives. The package is available online. It can also be ordered by phone at 866-LET-LIVE. The set is $29.95 plus shipping and handling.

• South Dakota

  The conference call concerning pro-life efforts in South Dakota is still available for you to listen to as well. Please remember to keep the Vote Yes on 6 efforts in your prayers.

News

• New study shows pro-choicers more likely to spread violence

  A new research project is raising serious doubt about claims from abortion supporters who say pro-lifers are violent people. The study suggests that, despite their assertions to the contrary, pro-choicers may be the more frequent perpetrators of violence.

  Throughout the abortion debate in America, pro-abortion activists have accused pro-lifers of spreading violence; however, Human Life International's senior analyst, Brian Clowes, has just completed a project that suggests the complete opposite is the case. "Seven murders are carried out by so called pro-life people in the time period 1993 to 1998," he notes, "and yet we've documented over 500 murders done by people who are pro-choice."

• Clinic records lead to charges of child rape

  Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline announced September 28 that abortion records involving minor girls have led investigators to charge a man with child molestation, The Kansas City Star reported. The records were obtained from the clinics only after a court order.

  In 2005, Kline subpoenaed records from two abortion clinics -- files on women who had late-term abortions -- in order to prosecute criminal cases, including statutory rape. The clinics refused, and the case eventually landed before the Kansas Supreme Court. The high court gave Kline access to the records -- as long as identities were not disclosed until it could be determined a crime had been committed.

  In addition to the charges filed in Kansas, Kline said, his abortion-sexual abuse probe has led to six other cases that he has referred to prosecutors in Illinois, Missouri and New York.

• Fake 'Catholic Voters Guide' published by former aide to John Kerry

  An attempt to recapture the Catholic vote has been launched by Democratic supporters. A new 2006 Voter Guide has been put out by "Catholic in Alliance for the Common Good," a group headed up by Alexia Kelley who in 2004 worked as a religion advisor to John Kerry in the closing weeks of his campaign.

  An initial printing of one million copies of "Voting for the Common Good: A Practical Guide for Conscientious Catholics" will be distributed nationwide through on-the-ground organizers and partner networks in all 50 states. The group admits in a press release that the new voter guide is a response to the original "Catholic Voters Guide" issued by Catholic Answers last year.

• Upswing predicted in popularity of physician-assisted suicide

  A Chicago doctor who specializes in geriatrics says attitudes are changing toward end-of-life healthcare choices as costs continue to rise.

  A Kaiser Family Foundation report says healthcare costs are rising at twice the rate of inflation. Dr. David Fisher, a spokesman for the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, says Medicare and insurance companies are covering costs for now, but he expects things may change as more of the population becomes senior citizens.

  "Dying patients or patients who are very sick and receiving costly treatments are likely to feel like they are a burden on their family," Fisher says, "and for that reason [they] may be persuaded to elect physician-assisted suicide if it were legal."

Closing thought

I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord. — Psalm 40:1-3