MARCH 2023 NEWSLETTER
- Featured Article
- Prayers
- Pro-Life Quotes
- News
- Upcoming Events
- Submit Content
Featured Article:
St. Joseph and His Pro-Life Spirit: by Sofia Niekrewicz
Oftentimes, the pro-life/pro-choice argument is thought of as a women's issue. Nevertheless, it is just as important to men. You need both genders to conceive a child, and you can conceive a child of both genders. Just because women are blessed with the capability of being pregnant for nine months and men aren’t does not mean they have less of a say in the matter of abortion. Life is more than what begins at birth. Life encompasses the human state both before and after that. Life is indispensable whether or not you’re the pregnant one.
St. Joseph loved his Son just as much as Mary. We frequently neglect Joseph, though. I find myself feeling bad for him. Jesus wasn’t even conceived through him but through the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, Joseph played a vital role in Christ’s upbringing. We don’t know much about Joseph, but one thing we do know is that he was a carpenter. I’m sure he taught his Son his trade. I’m sure they had a tried-and-true father-son relationship.
The month of March is dedicated to St. Joseph in the Catholic Church. It’s a month for us to appreciate him as a father figure to Christ and to admire his holiness. He stood up for life. Even though back in his day it was unthinkable to end a child’s life in the womb, we must acknowledge Joseph’s perseverance. Think about it: he was told by God out of the blue that he would be a father. Even though he had his concerns and contemplated leaving Mary in the beginning, he ultimately persisted, and I doubt he regretted that decision.
In many instances, when a father forces or encourages his wife or girlfriend to abort their child, he’s overcome with guilt when he realizes what he’s done. Quite often it’s the father who wants the abortion. This is another reason why the subject of abortion is more than just a women's issue. The father will force it upon the mother and might even threaten her. Even if the father has no regrets, the mother probably will. He doesn’t truly love his wife/girlfriend if he forces her through the doors of an abortion clinic. This is not Joseph, though. Joseph supported his wife through her pregnancy and after she gave birth to Our Lord. This is what all fathers are called to do. They’re called to love their wives throughout their whole lives and to love their children throughout their whole lives, too.
Prayers:
Prayer to St. Joseph
To you, O blessed Joseph,
do we come in our tribulation,
and having implored the help of your most holy Spouse,
we confidently invoke your patronage also.
Through that charity which bound you
to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God
and through the paternal love
with which you embraced the Child Jesus,
we humbly beg you graciously to regard the inheritance
which Jesus Christ has purchased by his Blood,
and with your power and strength to aid us in our necessities.
O most watchful guardian of the Holy Family,
defend the chosen children of Jesus Christ;
O most loving father, ward off from us
every contagion of error and corrupting influence;
O our most mighty protector, be kind to us
and from heaven assist us in our struggle
with the power of darkness.
As once you rescued the Child Jesus from deadly peril,
so now protect God's Holy Church
from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity;
shield, too, each one of us by your constant protection,
so that, supported by your example and your aid,
we may be able to live piously, to die in holiness,
and to obtain eternal happiness in heaven.
Amen.
Source: https://www.usccb.org/prayers/prayer-st-joseph-after-rosary
Pro-Life Quotes:
“Those who speak out against life are people who are hurting. We pray for them to find truth, because we want them to know peace.” — Abby Johnson
“If everybody doesn’t have the right to life, then nobody has the right to life.” — Nellie Gray
“If we are truly committed to social justice, creating an environment where people are treated equally and given equal rights, then that has to include the unborn.” — Charlotte Pence
News:
Abortion Survivors Network Expands Outreach
Students for Life of America is proud to call the Abortion Survivor’s Network one of their Post-Roe Accelerator Partners as this organization applies a unique and innovative approach to spreading the pro-life message. ASN works to create a world where the incidence of failed abortions and the lives of abortion survivors is openly discussed and accepted, and survivors and their families are supported and healed. Since partnering with SFLA, ASN has begun to expand its reach in exciting ways both in person and online — here are the top five advancements ASN has made since our partnership began: ASN trained six abortion survivors to share their story publicly for the first time, reached 2,000 people online with new social media advertising, partnered with the SFLA group at Benedictine College, testified on behalf of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, and attended the National Pro-Life March in Washington D.C.
Pro-Life Generation Sues After Smithsonian Museums Told Them to Hide or Remove Pro-Life Apparel
One of the beautiful things about the United States is the fact that our Constitution protects our God-given rights, including our right to free speech so it’s always shocking and alarming when those rights are violated. When several pro-lifers entered both the National Archives and Record Administration and the National Air and Space Museum, they were told articles of their clothing weren’t allowed in the buildings and must be either hidden or taken off because they had a pro-life message. At the National Archives and Record Administration, pro-life parents, high school students, and college students were also asked to leave for different articles of pro-life clothing. Wendilee Walpole Lassiter, a member of Students for Life, was told to remove her sweatshirt as soon as she passed through the metal detectors. While Lassiter did as she was asked, she says she saw two other visitors wearing messages that did support abortion. In the lawsuit against the Air and Space Museum, almost a dozen pro-life plaintiffs were all wearing hats with the message “Rosary Pro-Life.” They were told to remove their hats within the museum. According to these plaintiffs, guards at the Air and Space Museum told them, “You’ve been told multiple times to take your hats off, and you have not taken them off. You need to take them off or leave.” The guard also allegedly added that the First Amendment did not apply in the museum. Interested if there was a double standard, Students for Life of America team members went into the museums later in pro-abortion apparel and found no trouble.
New Mexico is Unquestionably the New Frontier of Abortion
The governor of New Mexico, Michelle Lujan Grisham, has been very active in her campaign to convert New Mexico into an “abortion sanctuary” in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse Roe v. Wade. Grisham has also squandered $10 million in taxpayer money for an abortion facility and essentially put a large neon arrow pointing to New Mexico that reads: “Welcome to the place end your preborn baby’s life!” However, pro-life residents in New Mexico are far from waving the white flag of defeat.
Thanks to Chemical Abortion Pills, You Should Be Worried About What’s in the Water
We are taught to be careful what we put down our kitchen sinks and flush down our toilets, yet when it comes to Chemical Abortion Pills and aborted fetal bodies, our society shrugs their shoulders as if to say what could go wrong? That’s an excellent question, and one that our government isn’t prepared to answer as Students for Life of America has found out while investigating the environmental concerns of these life-ending pills. Chemically tainted blood, placenta tissue, and human remains resulting from the use of abortion pills have been flushed into America’s wastewater system for more than 20 years. These abortions jeopardize more than the health of women who take the pills alone at home. The potential endocrine-disrupting properties of the drugs makes the practice of flushing the chemically tainted blood, tissue, and human remains that result from a chemical abortion an environmental hazard. Endocrine disruptors are substances known to interfere with a body’s hormones; exposure to them is linked with developmental, reproductive, brain, immune, and other problems, according to the NIH. As may be expected, a drug that disrupts the reproductive life of human beings can do the same to aquatic, animal, and even plant life.
This Pro-Abortion Doctor Breaks Laws in Order to Kill Babies As a Business
A doctor from the Netherlands, Gomperts, has made it her business to destroy families via Chemical Abortion Pills for profit for several years. Her operation sends the life-ending pills into countries in which abortion is restricted, and she will make her sale regardless of the means to the end — no matter who she hurts or what laws she breaks. Gomperts is a doctor who has gone to extraordinary lengths to circumvent abortion restrictions around the world, including parking her boat in international waters outside of countries like Poland to administer abortions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries shut down, and that included India, which is where she obtained mifepristone — the first drug component in the Chemical Abortion Pill regimen. Mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone, which eventually kills a preborn baby. Misoprostol, the second drug, is taken afterwards to induce labor to flush the dead preborn child out of the mother’s body. Mifepristone wasn’t available to her any more, so she trialed misoprostol-only abortions. One-pill Chemical Abortion regimens are drastically more dangerous for women as they fail almost one in four times. The failure of Chemical Abortion can lead to injury, infertility, and even maternal death.
40 Days for Life
40 Days for Life is an internationally coordinated 40-day campaign that aims to end abortion locally through prayer and fasting, community outreach, and a peaceful 24/7 vigil in front of abortion businesses. Each day, individuals, churches, families, and groups are asked to join together in prayer for a specific request so the entire Body of Christ can unite around a common focus. People of faith are also invited to fast throughout 40 Days for Life. During 40 Days for Life, the message is taken proactively to every corner of the community. A door-to-door petition and education drive reaches out to every household in the town or city. People visibly show their support for 40 Days for Life by wearing wristbands, placing signs in their yards, or displaying bumper stickers on their vehicles. Since the first coordinated 40 Days for Life campaign took place in 2007, over 1000 cities in 63 countries have been reached.
Source: https://www.40daysforlife.com/en/about-overview.aspx
Upcoming Events:
Thursday, March 9th at 7:00pm EST - We will have an Apologetics night! Last year we had Mr. Trent Horn of Catholic Answers come and give us some Apologetics training via his YouTube videos and a great question and answer session. This year, while we don't have Mr. Horn joining us "in person", we are still able to watch his awesome talk from the 2022 National Pro-Life Summit! After watching the video (which is about 25 minutes long, and incredibly informative), we'll go over what was said, address some other Apologetics talking points, and open the floor to discussion. Learning to defend your pro-life position is so important! I hope you join us for this event.
Submit Content:
This newsletter relies heavily on the contributions of group members. There are a number of items we are looking for:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.