JANUARY 2023 NEWSLETTER

Featured Article:

Impact of Abortion on Mothers: by Julianna Britt

The man who started a huge homeschool sports association based in Indianapolis, Indiana is an abortion survivor. His grandmother forced his mother to take abortion pills as soon as she got pregnant, but his mother slipped them under her tongue and spit them out in another room. Years later, the man is now a father of four and the leader of a thriving Christian homeschool athletic program with over five hundred athletes and six different sports. Since 1973, over sixty-three million children have been aborted worldwide—that’s one for every five babies born. An abortion not only kills an innocent human being, but having an abortion can have grave effects on the mother as well.

One-third of all women who have had abortions have experienced severe emotional trauma in the years following the killing of their child. Over half of the mothers develop a form of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) known as Post-Abortion Syndrome (PAS), a form common in women who have received abortions. Individuals who suffer from PTSD have experienced a traumatic event and live with debilitating fear, feeling traumatized even when not in danger. Mothers who, even willingly, have their unborn child killed may enter into a period of numbness before the symptoms of PTSD appear. The woman may feel distant from her emotions and carry a feeling of regret, even if the regret is minor. Further down the road, the woman may develop anxiety disorders, depression, and suicidal behaviors. After an abortion, women are 165% more likely to abuse alcohol and marijuana. In America, approximately 2,300 mothers are at risk of these effects every day by getting abortions.

Since 1973, enough children have been aborted in the United States to fill more than nine hundred average-sized National Football League stadiums, not including chemical abortions, which make up over half of all total abortions. Chemical abortions are pills taken by mothers with the intent to end the unborn baby’s life. Twenty-four women have died and thousands more have been injured from taking the chemical abortion pills, not to mention the countless babies. The pills cut off the blood and necessary hormones that provide the child with nourishment, but also stimulates the expulsion of the child in the mother. This can last several hours and is extremely painful for the mother, who is now also at higher risk for infection, severe nausea, prolonged bleeding, hot flashes, ectopic pregnancies, permanent infertility, and, in some women, even death.

Another impact an abortion can have on a mother is an increased risk of breast cancer. Every year, abortions add up to ten thousand cases of breast cancer, and studies have shown that one induced abortion can increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer by 44%. For example, if a child is aborted before reaching thirty-two weeks old, the natural maturation of breast cells is disrupted, leaving the cells at a higher risk for harmful changes. However, mothers that choose life, carrying their child for a full 40-week pregnancy and delivery, acquire stronger, more breast cancer-resistant tissue than before.

If a mother does not want to raise a child, there are options safer for both, such as adoption. The number of infertile families to abortions is roughly equal, and there are between one and two million hopeful couples waiting to adopt in the United States. Placing an unborn child whose mother is considering abortion with an adoptive family will ensure the baby will have a permanent, safe, and loving home when born. Adoption provides the unborn with a chance and the mother with a choice of life.

Abortions are extremely harmful not only for the child whose life is attempting to be ended, but for the mother, as well. A woman cannot walk away from an abortion unscathed, both physically and mentally. Having an abortion can expose a woman to PTSD, severe pain, a higher risk of breast cancer, and, occasionally, even death. After an abortion, a woman is likely to abuse alcohol and marijuana. Even though mothers can seek out abortions for varying reasons of self-interest, abortions can have devastating effects on their own health.

Prayers:

New Year's Prayer

As the dawn breaks on a new year, let us give thanks for all we hold dear: our health, our family and our friends.

Let us release our grudges, our anger and our pains, for these are nothing but binding chains. Let us live each day in the most loving ways, the God-conscious way. Let us serve all who are in need, regardless of race, color or creed.

Let us keep God of our own understanding in our hearts and to chant God's name each day. Let us lead the world from darkness to light, from falsehood to truth and from wrong to right.

Let us remember that we are all one, embracing all, discriminating against none.

May your year be filled with peace, prosperity and love. May God's blessings shower upon you and bestow upon each of you a bright, healthy and peaceful new year.

Amen.

Source: https://www.xavier.edu/jesuitresource/online-resources/prayer-index/new-years-prayers#:~:text=Gratitude Quotes-,New Year's Prayer,%2C the God-conscious way.

Pro-Life Quotes:

"I think at the heart of the pro-life movement is the idea that all people are created equal, endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights starting with life." – Mike Huckabee

"The fundamental human right, the presupposition of every other right, is the right to life itself. This is true of life from the moment of conception until its natural end. Abortion, consequently, cannot be a human right – it is the very opposite. It is a deep wound in society." – Pope Benedict XVI

"Nothing we do to defend the human person, no matter how small, is ever unfruitful or forgotten. Our actions touch other lives and move other hearts in ways we can never fully understand in this world. Don’t ever underestimate the beauty and power of the witness you give in your pro-life work.” –  Archbishop Charles Chaput

News:

SFLA Files Petition to the FDA, Calling for Higher Medical Standards Protecting Mothers Taking Chemical Abortion Pills

A second citizens’ petition has been filed continuing SFLA’s “What’s in the Water?” Project, calling on the FDA to return health and safety standards known as REMS (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy) designed to save mothers’ lives when exposed to Chemical Abortion Pills. The second petition reports: “Mifepristone carries risks of life-threatening hemorrhage, infection, continued pregnancy, retained tissue, need for emergency surgery, and death. The FDA should restore and strengthen elements of the Mifepristone regimen and provider requirements, including: limiting Mifeprex use to 49 days gestation; requiring that Mifepristone be administered only by or under the supervision of a physically present physician; requiring three office visits by a patient who has been prescribed Mifepristone; and clarifying that Mifepristone use is contraindicated for patients who do not have convenient access to emergency medical care.”

Source: https://studentsforlife.org/2022/12/19/sfla-files-second-citizen-petition-to-the-fda-calling-for-higher-medical-standards-protecting-mothers-taking-chemical-abortion-pills-to-be-restored/

U.K. Pro-Lifer Arrested on Suspicion of Praying

If you think the censorship of speech is bad, what about the censorship of thoughts? Thoughts may seem an impossible thing to regulate, but recent reports show that a pro-lifer from the United Kingdom was actually arrested for standing outside an abortion facility and potentially praying in her mind. While Americans may shrug off this case as too extreme to happen in the United States, we have our own issues that could spiral into such pro-abortion tyranny if we don’t fight back. After all, we are already clearly being discriminated against by our justice system. Law enforcement agencies are refusing to act impartially and treating pro-lifers as second-class citizens as acts of pro-abortion terrorism go unchecked.

Source: https://studentsforlife.org/2022/12/22/praying-without-a-license-u-k-pro-lifer-arrested-on-suspicion-of-praying-are-the-faithful-in-the-u-s-next/

Artificial Womb Technology Is Coming To Fix Underpopulation

Yemeni producer and biotechnologist Hashem Al-Ghaili has created the world’s first artificial womb facility called “EctoLife” which could grow up to 30,000 lab-created babies a year. According to the promotional video, preborn children would be “grown” in artificial womb machines called “growth pods.” These pods would monitor the child’s development and vital signs, including their heartbeat. At the end of the nine months, the child’s parents can deliver the baby from the pod “with just the push of a button.” In a darker turn, the video also advertises the chance to make a customizable baby. Regardless of any newfangled technology or immigration plan, a moral society should choose the real solution to a declining birthrate: cherishing the children we have been given while also loving pregnant and parenting women.

Source: https://studentsforlife.org/2022/12/22/crazy-artificial-womb-technology-is-coming-to-fix-underpopulation-but-what-if-we-just-stopped-aborting-our-babies/

Upcoming Events:

Saturday, January 7th at 2:00pm EST - monthly pro-life rosary

Saturday, January 7th at 7:00pm EST - monthly meeting

Our speaker for this month's meeting will be Dr. Monica Miller, PhD, one of the most well-known pro-life activists in Michigan. She is the founder and director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, and has been active in the pro-life movement since 1976. Dr. Miller has written several books, one of the most popular being Abandoned – The Untold Story of the Abortion Wars.

Submit Content:

This newsletter relies heavily on the contributions of group members. There are a number of items we are looking for:

1. Creative content: We have implemented a segment of the newsletter dedicated to the topically relevant artistic contributions of group members, regardless of medium. If you have anything to share, please send it in. We'll accept most mediums, including (pictures of) paintings, graphic design pieces, songs, videos, poems, etc.
2. Articles: We are accepting topically relevant articles from group members. Please note, however, that the newsletter editors reserve the right to modify articles in order to make them suitable for publication. Such modifications may include grammatical corrections and removal of potentially offensive content.
3. Quotes & Literary Passages: We are also looking for any topically relevant quotes or literary passages to fill a segment of the newsletter. Anything from a simple sentence spoken by a saint to a paragraph from a book can be accepted.

If you want to submit anything from the above categories, or you simply want to provide feedback or suggestions, please email us at hscstudentsforlife@gmail.com and we will get in touch with you shortly.