by Stephanie Hauer — Emily was only nineteen years old when she found herself pregnant unexpectedly. Though she was building a good life for herself, she was terrified at the thought of having a baby at that time. Afraid to tell her parents or to ask for help, Emily made an appointment with Planned Parenthood to seek a chemical abortion. She was hesitant in the days leading up to her appointment, but a nagging sense of fear pushed her to go for the abortion. The nurse had h

by Stephanie Hauer -- The dust is beginning to settle now that the midterm elections are over. Three different states included referenda on abortion on their ballots this year. What do their results mean for the pro-life movement? Alabama The Alabama referendum sought to change state policy to reflect the right to life of a baby in the womb. Those who voted yes on the referendum supported the statement that Alabama should “recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life

by Herb Geraghty — Abortion is wrong because it kills a human being. I suspect almost everyone who identifies as pro-life or anti-abortion would likely agree with this sentiment, despite pro-choice rhetoric that attempts to paint pro-lifers as cranky old Christian men who simply want to control women’s bodies and punish them for having sex. We know this stereotype isn’t true: that pro-lifers come from all different backgrounds, that we are compassionate, that we seek to prote

by Stephanie Hauer — A Dutch doctor is now sending abortion-inducing pills to Americans. Around seven months ago, the organization known as Aid Access launched quietly as an extension of Dr. Rebecca Gomperts’ pre-existing organization, Women on Web. (1) Both of these organizations act as online consultation and prescription services for people in the early stages of pregnancy. The pregnant individual can go to the website, fill out an online questionnaire that evaluates the

by Herb Geraghty -- Despite media silence and even censorship, a pro-life movie has made it into the Box Office top ten during its opening weekend. This film is proving to be more than what many of us expected -- including me. I’ll admit I’m often the first to roll my eyes at the overly sanctimonious religious dramas that hit the big screen every couple of years. So when I heard of the Gosnell movie, which was crowdfunded primarily by anti-abortion Christians, I didn’t have h

“The [Irish] State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.” Inserted into the Irish Constitution on the 7th of October 1983. Voted to be removed on the 25th of May, 2018. As the dust settles and we reflect on the results of the most recent referendum, certain facts become clear. One, that has been sy

It’s been four days since the results of Ireland’s referendum on the 8th Amendment were released. It’s been four days of mourning and sadness and grief. I shared my original thoughts on the Rehumanize International Facebook page -- a brief, but forward-looking assessment. “Today, we mourn over Ireland with the millions of people worldwide whose commitment to human rights does not exclude the smallest and most defenseless members of our human family: the preborn. Ireland has v

You don’t get to the truth through logic, most of the time. You get to the truth through relationship; and relationship through dialogue. Dehumanization is like a wound. The process of gradually removing, through language, another human being’s humanity in the perception of his or her fellows can only be addressed by deliberate re-humanization. To rehumanize is to reverse that damage done by dehumanization. This involves rehabilitating one's way of perceiving the other(s) in

This week the Supreme Court will be hearing arguments for NIFLA v. Becerra, a case that is fundamentally about the right to freedom of speech. However, the ruling will have a major effect on the anti-abortion cause. The question that the court is addressing is whether the government can force Americans to express or support ideas they oppose. The law that is being challenged is California’s Reproductive FACT Act which requires pro-life pregnancy centers, typically charitable

by CJ Williams Director of Outreach & Education “But what does that refer to?” The young man looked thoughtfully down at the stickie-backed label in his hand. It read yellow vermin. “I don’t know…” he said, “I’d guess rats. But…” We were both standing in front of a Darth Vader-height banner, honey-combed with images of -- he squinted at it despite the close distance, and I turned to look again too at the images of human beings. Humans in orange jumpsuits. Humans in utero. Hum

Growing up, I always read Teen Vogue and considered it to be an incredibly woke publication discussing mental health in celebrity interviews, as well as other social issues, and having a relatively diverse model base. So naturally as I grew older and moved away from the print publication, I still followed Teen Vogue on social media and only paid a little bit of attention to it, but not much really. Then one day, something caught my eye, it was an article shared on Facebook ti

I’m not alone among pro-life advocates in that people sometimes ask me, “Why only abortion? Why do you advocate on this issue only?” When pro-choicers ask me that question, it often takes the form of “Why don’t you talk about the problems of women?” My first reply might be that I do not in fact ignore other issues. I have done a lot of pondering about the miserable treatment of women throughout most of history, in most of the world, and I have even ventured to write about a p

As a Collegiate Women's Soccer Coach, I enjoy recognizing principles within sport that can be applied to everyday life. I refer to these principles as transferable concepts. One such transferable concept is the correlation between performance and abortion. Maximum performance is a key component for any collegiate soccer team. Each training session is filled with the fundamentals of the game: mastering the first-touch, trapping, passing, dribbling, shielding, shooting… techniq

A chilly Saturday morning in Cleveland, standing outside a clinic next to my pastor saying the rosary in the bitter cold penetrating my gloves. Others rattle their rosary beads murmuring the various prayers, the smell and taste of the exhaust from downtown traffic cuts through my half-asleep stupor. People drive by, somewhat apathetically; some walk up to me and get into my face, saying that I am less of a woman for doing this, telling me I’m being stupid and restricting wome

There has been a lot of media attention recently on conscientious objection (CO), mostly due to a bill currently being considered by the US Congress: HR 4828, the Conscience Protection Act of 2016. The bill protects all health care providers and health care insurance companies from facing discrimination or fines for being pro-life. It states that the government cannot force health care providers (such as churches and universities) to cover abortions through their insurance p

[The following is part of a series on bringing the Consistent Life Ethic to various political conventions. Click to see Day 1 & Day 2] Wednesday was by far the longest day for us, but arguably also our most productive. Not only did we have many wonderful conversations with the guests of the RNC, but we received quite a lot of media attention as well. The attention we received, I believe, was in large part to our non-traditional message: we were not there to criticize solely t

We knew when it happened. For three hours we had been in the sea of shouting, chanting, and chaos, and in an instance, it was all over. Frozen with shock, we barely heard the surge of volume rise up from the other side. Exchanging looks between each other, we knew: it did not pass. The days prior to the Supreme Court dismissal of Texas HB2—a bill which had common sense health and safety regulations for abortion clinics—had been nerve-wracking, but hopeful. I had started my ti

On June 7, #SummerTeam16 headed to Harrisburg for its first rally of the summer to educate Pennsylvanians on the facts of late-term and dismemberment abortion. HB 1948, which is an amendment to an earlier abortion law (the Abortion Control Act of 1989), aims to restrict abortion procedures to 20 weeks (following the idea that fetuses begin to feel pain at that point) and ban the practice of dismemberment abortions (D&E), except in the case that the mother’s life is threatened

My name is Rosemary and I’m a #SummerTeam16 intern at Life Matters Journal. I recently attended Reason Rally 2016, the largest gathering of non-religious persons in history, to promote the Consistent Life Ethic among fellow atheists. I arrived armed with “Why Should Atheists Be Pro-Life?” handouts that included a fetal development timeline as well as some basic scientific facts relating to the humanity of the pre-born. While there, I had some awesome conversations about the h

morass: 2. a complicated or confused situation Think of all the array of views related to abortion that you have ever encountered. It’s a lot, isn’t it? And now let’s try to imagine all the array of contradictory views related to abortion as they have inhabited all the minds of all people through all of history. That array must be staggering. How could such a plethora of mutually exclusive ideas have originated? I think it is largely explained by the psychological morass on m