Abortion Changes You: A Campaign for Healing

(note: I have not read the book this article is promoting, but the website did look good)

ABORTION CHANGES YOU
A Campaign for Healing
By Mark Earley

Note: This commentary was delivered by PFM President Mark Earley.

I have a difficult subject to talk to you about today, but the fact that it is difficult to talk about, and so many people avoid it, makes it all the more important.

You have heard us speak before on this broadcast about the sanctity and dignity of human life. But while it is easy to debate the issues surrounding abortion, it is less frequent that we stop and really think about the women and men who have been touched by it-or even think about how we can offer our compassion and help.

One newly developed outreach is doing just that. The campaign is called Abortion Changes You, and the purpose is to reach out to all those who have been impacted by abortion: from the woman who chose to abort and is still struggling with difficult emotions; to the man who was her partner; to the mom or dad who would have been grandparents, but instead suffer a silent loss; and to the boys or girls who later learn that they will never meet one of their siblings.

Here is the sad fact: One in three women in this country will have chosen to have an abortion by the age of 45. That's right-one in three. Given that, it is likely that you know someone who has been impacted by abortion.

That is why I am grateful that AbortionChangesYou.com and the companion book Changed are now available to begin to offer direct help for these hurting women, men, and children. Both website and book offer help in a way that is non-threatening and non-political, making them accessible to women and men from every walk of life. The book includes testimonies of people who have all been profoundly changed by abortion.

Rarely have I been as moved emotionally as I have been by reading these stories.

There is the teenage girl whose parents insisted she have an abortion; the husband who drove his wife to the abortion clinic against his own better judgment and later watches his marriage unravel. One is about a grandmother who each year, as the date nears of her daughter's abortion, silently mourns the loss of the grandchild she never knew. These stories will change you. They will make you look at this issue differently, just as the experience has changed the people involved.

The founder of the Abortion Changes You movement and author of the book Changed knows full well. Michaelene Fredenburg shares her own experience in the book. She says, "There are still many times that are painful for me. Mother's Day is particularly difficult. The year my child would have graduated from high school was filled with pain. . . . If my child had gone to college, she would have graduated this year. This child would now be a young woman with gifts and abilities, hopes and dreams, her whole life ahead of her. There will always be a hole in my heart," she says, "a hole in the fabric of our family and our community."

Some of you listening may be impacted by these words because abortion has touched your life in a deeply personal way; others of you may be moved to compassion to help others contemplating an abortion or dealing with its aftermath.

Either way, I want to encourage you to visit our website, BreakPoint.org, to find out how you can get a copy of the book Changed or find out more about the Abortion Changes You campaign.

from Breakpoint May 5, 2008

Google and Abortion

Google UK won't sell ads to religious sites that discuss abortion

Jeff Johnson - OneNewsNow - 4/14/2008 8:00:00 AM

The world's largest Internet search engine has denied a British Christian group's application to advertise because the group's website addresses abortion from a religious perspective.

The Christian Institute -- a United Kingdom-based charity that promotes biblical beliefs -- recently applied to place ads (referred to as "adverts" in Great Britain) on Google UK. But Christian Institute's Mike Judge says they were denied. "[W]e wanted to place [an ad] on the issue of abortion," explains Judge. "And we wanted to advertise some of the articles that are on our website regarding that issue.

The ad would have stated: "UK Abortion Law – Key views and news on abortion from the Christian Institute" – and included a link to the group's website. Currently searching the word "abortion" on Google UK returns paid ads for abortion clinics and pro-abortion lobbying groups, and that is why Google UK's response shocked Judge.

"Google banned the ad," he continues, "[b]ecause they don't allow religious sites to place adverts on the issue of abortion. But they're quite happy to accept abortion adverts from non-religious sites."

Judge believes Google UK's response is an infringement of free speech, which is unlawful under British law. He says even Google admits they rejected the ad based on religion.

But the British Equality Act of 2006 makes it illegal to discriminate on a number of grounds, including religion. The Christian Institutes' attorney has since sent a letter to Google UK demanding that they publish the ad within seven days, and that they pay attorney's fees.

"We have not heard anything back from Google, and it is very rapidly approaching the end of that deadline," says Judge.

If Google fails to respond, Judge says he will "rapidly" proceed with legal action. He adds that the Christian Institute is hopeful this dispute will establish the right of all Christian groups to advertise on Google worldwide, not just in the UK.

Lies? Deceit? Planned Parenthood?!

Pay close attention to the segment talking about statutory rape and the segment talking about Planned Parenthood's monetary profit. I was simply astounded at the report.

Abort73.com

Abort73.com has been an invaluable resource as I studied abortion. You may have noticed this site cited in many of my earlier posts, but I wanted to dedicate a post specifically to this site to bring it to your attention. The opening video makes some very interesting points about abortion and I definitely encourage you all to check out the website!

Have You Heard?

In 1986, government scientists wrote a letter to the British journal Lancet and acknowledged that abortion is a cause of breast cancer. They wrote, "Induced abortion before first term pregnancy increases the risk of breast cancer." (Lancet, 2/22/86, p. 436)

As of 2006, eight medical organizations recognize that abortion raises a woman's risk for breast cancer, independently of the risk of delaying the birth of a first child (a secondary effect that all experts already acknowledge). An additional medical organization, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, issued a statement in 2003 calling on doctors to inform patients about a "highly plausible" relationship between abortion and breast cancer. General counsel for that medical group wrote an article for its journal warning doctors that three women (two Americans, one Australian) successfully sued their abortion providers for neglecting to disclose the risks of breast cancer and emotional harm, although none of the women had developed the disease. Click here for more.

source

How Abortion Affects Men

The Phasing Out of Fatherhood?
by Motte Brown

We begin tomorrow's podcast with a heartwarming chat about Father's Day. This post is anything but heartwarming.

A couple of days ago on National Review Online, Katheryn Jean Lopez wrote about the "countless" fathers of aborted unborn babies who'll feel "sadness and regret" this Sunday.

Here's the testimony of one of them Lopez highlights from Kathleen Parker's book, Save the Males: Why Men Matter Why Women Should Care.

With no foreknowledge of the abortion, one man writing on a website writes of "nauseating feelings of helplessness and dereliction of duty. ... " He displays a deep compassion for the child he will never father and the mother of his child. And even while feeling guilt over being party to "the thoughtless and criminally careless conception of a child" and anger for having no choice over what happened next, he expresses a profound sense of regret that he could not protect his girlfriend from the "violent procedure. ... Such a cold, soulless, and brutal experience."

There's a lot to unpack here. It could be that this man's feelings about his role in the abortion aren't all that common. But his "anger for having no choice" is a legitimate issue to consider. And Parker picks up this plight in her book.

More Parker from the article:

"Given that every baby has a father, at least technically, shouldn't men have a voice in the decision to abort? The feminist playbook has an absolute response: No. Men legally have no voice when it comes to abortion, even though the child is theirs to either love or disown. They can neither force a woman to carry a baby to term — Hallelujah! — nor force her to have an abortion. Ibid., chorus. Yet by law, men can be forced to become fathers against their will and held financially responsible until the child reaches adulthood. Is that fair, or is fairness mandated only when women are the beneficiaries?"

The state of parental politics and law today is such that "Woman is arbiter of the life force, while man is reduced to sperm and a wallet."

True. But woman is only the arbiter of life if first the man leads her down the path of fornication.

from the line

British Mum Overjoyed: Miracle Baby Survived Abortion

By Peter J. Smith - LifeSiteNews.com

LONDON - A British baby has now become a cause célèbre for his mother and pro-life advocates in the United Kingdom for miraculously defying twin death sentences from abortion and genetics.

Finley Crampton's birth has overwhelmed his mother, Jodie Percival, who is happy that in the end her baby beat the enormous odds against him to be born a healthy boy.

Percival, 25, had decided to abort baby Finley at 8 weeks, because she carries a gene which triggers multicystic dysplastic kidney (MCDK) - a condition where cysts grow on the kidneys of an unborn baby. The condition is fatal when it affects both kidneys; however patients who have MCDK in one kidney can live normal lives, provided the other is healthy.

Percival's first child, Thane, had died from MCDK just 20 minutes after birth, and her second son, 20-month old Lewis also suffers from the disorder and now has one kidney. Percival and her fiancé Billy Crampton, 35, had been using the contraceptive pill to frustrate pregnancy when they discovered Percival was pregnant again. They opted to abort the baby.

"Deciding to terminate at eight weeks was just utterly horrible, but I couldn't cope with the anguish of losing another baby," Percival, 25, told the UK Daily Mail.

Miraculously, baby Finley survived the abortion attempt. Percival was unaware that her child had survived the abortion until she felt him move in her womb months later. A doctor's scan then confirmed Percival was 19 weeks pregnant.

"I couldn't believe it," said Percival. "This was the baby I thought I'd terminated. At first I was angry that this was happening to us, that the procedure had failed."

Percival first berated the hospital for the failed abortion, which the hospital insisted was a rare anomaly in the business of killing unborn babies.

Although the child in her womb was still under the 24-week limit abortion limit, Percival and Crampton decided to keep the baby, as he had survived the abortion and doctors said he would likely be born healthy with only minor damage from MCDK.

In November 2007, Finley was born three weeks premature, at 6lb 3oz, with just minor kidney scarring; doctors expect he will live a normal healthy life.

"I knew if that operation hadn't failed he wouldn't have been there," Percival told the Mail. "I just couldn't believe that this child had got through it all and looked so perfect."

"I still struggle to believe just what he has fought through. Now he's here I wouldn't change it for the world."

Bella

I normally don't comment on movies here, saving that for my other blog, but this was such an excellent movie I had to talk about it here.
Bella is the winner of the 2006 People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, and is refreshing in it's story and acting. This movie isn't about action and adventure, but it's a movie about life. Everyday life, and how two people cope with theirs. Part of what makes the movie so enjoyable for me is the acting feels real. When watching the movie I wasn't struck with the fake feel I get from so many typical Hollywood movies. This movie feels genuine, the tears and laughter seem real instead of put on to make money. I think a large part of that has to do with the case selected for this movie. They actually believe in the story and it's message, and aren't concerned solely about the money making aspect of the film. That makes this movie all the more real and powerful.

The movie is rated PG-13 (for thematic elements and brief disturbing images) largely for one scene. Most mature children probably 8 or 9 and up should be able to watch the movie and handle it well.

Bella has won several awards in addition to the People's Choice. Along with other accolades Edward James Olmos chose this movie to open the LA International Film Festival. At that time he said, "It is one of the most impressive landmark films to open our festival in 10 years ... a film people have to see, it really captures the heart and makes you think. It is one of the best films to come out in a long time." (emphasis mine)

I certainly agree, and highly recommend this movie. I hope to add Bella to my movie collection very shortly.

Official Movie Site

Abortion Gone Wrong

Parent sues Planned Parenthood

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 5/30/2008 9:00:00 AM

Washington, DC-area resident Emma Jean Butler and her daughter are suing a local Planned Parenthood clinic. The girl became pregnant due to a rape at age 13, and had an abortion at the facility after she turned 14.

The next day, she was rushed to an emergency room where doctors had to repair damage from severe abdominal bleeding, severe injury to the cervix, significant uterine perforation, and a small bowel tear. In addition, parts of the baby were found in the girl's abdomen.

It was tragedy on top of tragedy, says Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life of America, in what she describes as a "poster case for abortion."

"This is what the pro-abortion movement has demanded, that we have legalized abortion in all nine months," notes Hawkins. " ... [T]his is a poster case, and they almost killed this young girl."

The victim will never be able to have children. She and her mother are asking for $50 million in damages.

Planned Parenthood denies the injuries happened, and believe they are not liable because an informed consent document was signed. But Hawkins emphasizes the case is not an isolated one.

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Thanks to the reader who brought this to my attention! --S.A.