Category: Pro Life

Daring to face the giant

~ Laura ~ 2 Comments

How dare she sit there eating salad and sipping wine while nonchalantly talking about crushing babies?

I don’t know how someone could be so callous. 

She’s going to rot in hell for everything she’s done. Good. She deserves it.

These, and worse, are what I’ve heard many people say about Dr. Nucatola – Planned Parenthood’s Senior Director of Medical Services – recently pictured in a viral video. The video shows her talking over dinner about Planned Parenthood’s practice of passing body parts of aborted babies on to mediator-type organizations which then transfer them to medical research labs.

The video revealed a horrifying practice especially to those who had never heard about this before.

But it’s interesting to see how people respond.

Many people are incredulous at how an organization can do such a thing. They take their anger and disgust out on this woman. The anger and disgust is understandable, but personally attacking this woman does not help. Because guess what…

We ask how dare she do this. How dare she abort babies and crush skulls and manipulate how abortions are done to produce prime body parts?

Yes, how dare she.

But how dare we neglect to stop this. How dare we stop talking about it. How dare we go on with our daily lives as if nothing is different. How dare we avoid big topics in order to continue our comfortable lives?

Jenny’s post on this topic resonated with me because like her, this news did not surprise me. I have heard about this before. It did not emotionally jar me or make me cry. It did not break my heart.

And that disgusts me.

I am so used to hearing about attacks on human dignity and life. I am so used to people not being valued. I am so used to hearing about people being killed that it doesn’t phase me anymore. Don’t even ask me to watch a horror movie or go in a haunted house. But babies being ripped apart? Yeah, that’s happening. People being beheaded? Oh yeah, that ISIS thing has been going on for a while.

But THESE ARE HUMAN LIVES WE’RE TALKING ABOUT!

As someone who talks about the dignity of every single unrepeatable life, how do these stories not have a huge impact on me? How am I not sobbing at the thought of innocent lives being literally ripped apart?

You know, I don’t have a great answer. But I GET what Jenny said:

When I was younger I used to wonder about the German people and why nobody tried to get out ahead of Hitler, how an entire nation could have fallen under his evil spell.

Now I know. Now I see, firsthand, that none of us are immune to the horrors of our day. And that as the temperature rises, the frog slowly cooks, oblivious to his own imminent peril as the mercury creeps ever upward. And that at a certain point the human mind, when confronted with such appalling and obvious wickedness, shuts down or short circuits in cowardice or fear or apathy or, or, or …

I get it. I am so used to evil that it’s the norm.

I am the reason we still have abortion.

We all are.

Because we’re used to it and don’t fight it anymore. We accept that we’ve lost before the battle is over.

God, save us from our own blind selves. And renew in us the conviction to bring your light to a horribly fallen world. If we don’t speak up, nobody will. 

Time to buckle up, friends. We’re in this war for the long haul. There is a giant Goliath of evil looming around us. But I have good news, and a bit of a spoiler: love, life, and truth ALWAYS win.

To Life,

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A Day to Remember

~ Laura ~ 1 Comment

On that day back when I was 11, I cried in my favorite teal butterfly dress during the memorial Mass for Robert. Why I didn’t bring more tissues, I’ll never know. For a while after that day, I didn’t think back to it very often.But now I remember it every year.

When you lose a brother, I hardly imagine it’s possible to forget.

When we found out another sibling was on the way, I was ecstatic. What a happy day to be a big sister again! When we found out Robert probably had Down Syndrome, I didn’t know what to think. We looked at a brief summary in one of our biology textbooks, but I don’t think I fully understood what it meant at the time. I just knew our lives would be much different than expected once he was born. When we later found out that Robert had already been born into heaven (we can hope), it was a sad day.

Today is the anniversary of that day.

My life was changed by Robert, just not in the way I might have expected. And I appreciate that more as I get older. I didn’t get to hold him or watch him grow up. I didn’t read books with him, teach him how to play in the mud, or build a city of blocks on our living room floor. His life was so short that we didn’t have time to create those memories together. My memories from those days are a bit vague, but they are still there:

I remember Mom and Dad walking in from that doctor’s appointment and knowing instantly that something was not right.

I remember crying the hardest I had ever cried up to that point in my life.

And I remember writing this poem for my mom, which became part of the program for that memorial Mass (just don’t examine my 11-year-old theology or grammar too deeply):

Life is such a precious thing,
A thing it hurts to lose.
Life is a gift God gives to every being
The purpose and length of their life He will choose.
How short or long your life may be
is a thing you cannot know.
Be ready all you wanderers
wherever you may go.
For God will take your life
at a time He decides is right.
Some day soon or far away
He will lead you to the light.
Each life is treasured by ones who would love you
Even if they never had the chance to say coochy-coochy-coo.
For every soul that has been taken
is awaiting you in heaven

Today I am reminded of the phrase the Sisters of Life have on the back of the medals they wear (taken from this poem):

Nothing again would be casual and small

 

No life is too small or casual to make an impact on the world: your life, my life, Robert’s life. We’re all these teeny tiny people in a big world given the wildly precious gift of our lives with a purpose only we are capable of fulfilling. And some just accomplish that faster than others.

Thank you, Robert, for helping me to remember that no life is too small to matter. If your short life can impact people, all of us can. Pray for us, will you?

Please join me today in remembering families who have lost a child/sibling/relative to miscarriage in your prayers. And remember: no feet are too tiny to leave an imprint in this world. It might be a big act of heroism, the quiet witness of your life, or simply the fact that you existed that makes all the difference – even if it’s for just 18 short weeks.

To Life,

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Marching doesn’t save babies. You do.

~ Laura ~ 1 Comment

We’re back from the March for Life and different blog posts have been going through my mind for the last day. I could talk about . . .

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  • how inspiring it was to leave campus with a few hundred people who were PUMPED about being pro-life
  • how discouraging it is that far less than a quarter of those people will stay engaged in pro-life activities this semester
  • the awesomeness of ecumenism at the March
  • blatant misrepresentation of the March by the media
  • the need to be careful to not make life an issue only for religious people
  • how so many people check “pro-life” off their to-do list after marching but don’t do anything else
  • the pro-“choice” people who tried to stop the March and refused to comply with the police
  • the civil right movement parallels
  • politicians who are not practicing what they preach
  • the new brand of feminism making waves in pro-life circles
  • the ridiculous fact that people can’t agree a 20 week abortion ban makes sense

There’s so, so much to be said. I’ve been reading, looking at all the pictures and soaking it all in – trying to figure out what I want to say. And obviously from the list, you can see there are plenty of thoughts that could be developed more. But so much of them are negative. So much of my thoughts after the March are disappointing.

Because I know the march is only one day.

Marching is one day – one battle. But our victory over the culture of death depends on winning the overall war, not just a single battle each year.

Being in a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people reminds me that I am not alone in my beliefs. It also reminds me that when it does feel lonely and things get frustrating, I have to persevere. I cannot let this war happen in our world without putting on some armor and doing my part. Lives depend on it.

God has called each of us in our own way to be part of challenging the powers that be who tell us abortion and other attacks on human life are okay. We are not called to chill on our iPads or spend hours on Facebook. We are freaking meant to

CHANGE

THE

WORLD.

Maybe it’s just smiling at a stranger today, volunteering somewhere each month, or sending a note home to your momma. Maybe it’s getting back to church. Or standing up for the truth in everyday conversations. Or taking time to educate yourself. Or making a plan for how to integrate your pro-life beliefs into your job. Or just striving to be really, really good at whatever you’ve been given talent in.

Whatever it is, just do it.

Please don’t wait until next year’s march. Because guess what? If we all just rolled up our sleeves, did the dirty work, and stopped making excuses it would be amazing.

During a recent homily, a priest talked about how we try to fit God into our daily schedules. But in reality, true peace only comes when we abandon ourselves to His will. We have to ask and pursue what He made us for, because nothing else will quench our thirst.

Are you with me? Yes, it makes me slightly squeamish too. That’s part of why “abandon” is my theme of the year. I need the challenge. I need to work on asking God to use me to accomplish his plan for the world, not trying to figure out how I can fix ALL the things.

I can’t. You can’t.

This frustrates me to no end because being pro-life is simple. Every life is a gift. That’s it. That people can not or refuse to recognize that makes me sad for those who have not seen the beauty of it. Seeing life as a beautiful gift changes how I live, and knowing people have not encountered this beauty makes me want to cry. There are people making traumatic choices because they are broken and lost and hurt and we need to help them.

Please will you try to not forget about this?

Don’t forget the united power of hundreds of thousands of people.

Don’t forget that people are dying.

Don’t forget that people who don’t know better depend on us to give them the new message.

Our world is crying for lack of love and hope – the two most basic things the pro-life movement is all about. The good news is that evil has been conquered by love. Love always wins. And each of us is given the tools to be part of history by simply standing up.

So stand up.

Know what you believe.

Talk about it.

Fight for it.

Walk the walk.

Because simply moving our feet doesn’t save babies. But we can. We can touch hearts. We can be good friends to our brothers and sisters in a broken world. We can show people the beauty of life through our witness. God can use any of us to do great things. We can join together and tell our society we’ve had enough of its lies. We can give people hope. We can love people we come in contact with.

A single march isn’t going to change the world. But you can do something. You are capable of being a witness to the beauty of life. Your first step – our first steps – are just the beginning of the end of death.

So let’s start today.

To Life,

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Changing my approach

~ Laura ~ 6 Comments

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted an opinion piece for Live Action News, or much of anything of the same genre over here. It’s not because my views have changed. No, I still am serving as president of Ravens Respect Life and had an internship with a life affirming medical pregnancy center this summer.

But it’s true that my view has evolved to some degree.

Looking back on my articles, I’ve written about how some people are kind of crazy, Planned Parenthood doesn’t follow the rules, Obama problems, doing the pro-life thing wrong, and medical standard being all sorts of crazy. While it’s good to be informed, and expose lies while holding the truth high as a torch for all to see, it is not good to do this at the expense of other people.

I don’t know that my writing has ever hurt anyone. It’s something I posted about constantly in the past – and I did notice quite a few people “de-friending” me. Was it because of my beliefs? With the sensitive subject matter, I wouldn’t be surprised. And while I still don’t shy away from confrontation and would be happy to talk about these issue with you anytime, the days of Facebook debates are over. They have been for a while, actually.

If you’ve ever participated in debates (because let’s face it, they’re not usually just a “discussion”) online about sensitive life issues, you know that rush of OWNING the conversation. You know when something is just so dumb, you have the perfect comeback that will have everyone and their mother rushing to find sunglasses because the light o’ truth is just that bright.

Um, wrong. Wrong answer. Please don’t do that.

I have. And I loved it. But it is no longer my approach.

Thinking about this more, I realize that there is no place for inflammatory language in this movement. I’m not a complete hippie, but isn’t love what this is all about? We love women so much that we have to show them that we deserve better than abortion and contraception. We love guys so much that we tell them to man up and take care of us women and stop abandoning their children. We love children so much that we will fight for their lives. We love abortion clinic workers so much that we want to expose the truth of their industry, and lead them to a better life.

But did you ever love someone so much that you shut up about your agenda for a second?

Think about it.

You don’t prove much by holding a sign and posting things on social media about “the abortion holocaust”. Whoohoo. You have hands to hold a sign, and you can copy and past links. Yay you! Well, not really. Did you talk with your family member who lost a baby to miscarriage? Did you offer sincere condolences when a loved one of a friend died? Are you praying for people who hate you? Did you give that homeless person a snack? Do you try to love all the people in your life, even if they disagree with you?

Newsflash: if we can’t love people without saying “But abortion!” “But you use contraception!” then we’re doing love wrong.

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Like Mother Teresa said:

“Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.”

Yup. Even people I disagree with. Even people who are mean. Because you know? I probably have been too. So I’m starting to approach this differently, and I’m starting now. I do want to live my life being that light – the person everyone knows will stand up for the truth. That’s important. I also want to be a person who others know will take you as you are and treat you with love and respect.

So I promise to not shove my burning torch of truth in your face, honestly.

Something Maya Angelou said seems appropriate here:

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

I want you to know in the fiber of your being, no matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done, no matter what you believe, that I believe in you. I believe you are capable of incredible things, and I believe you were made for greatness. My sincere hope is to communicate this better in the way I write.

I don’t want to write about how people are bad anymore. I want to inspire you. I want to use my life to show you how epic our calling to fearlessly pursue a higher purpose is.

This is what I’m doing today to start that. Will you join me?

To Life,

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World Down Syndrome Day 2014

~ Laura ~ 1 Comment

Happy World Down Syndrome Day 🙂

Today is the day we celebrate people who are just like you and me, except that they have 3 of their #21 chromosomes instead of 2, which gives them down syndrome (3/21, get it?!). This day always makes me think of my brother Robert.

What I always hear from people who have family members who are rocking a 3rd 21st chromosome is that being part of simply loving them brings so much joy to their lives. For some reason God gave most people with down syndrome (as far as I’ve seen and heard) the ability to love others unconditionally, being totally unaware or accepting of their flaws.The rest of us? We probably have to work harder at it. It’s so beautiful to see families loving and embracing their children with down syndrome because it turns out that having down syndrome isn’t the end of the world. As you’ll see in these videos, it is a blessing to so many people.

IDSC’s 2014 Video

Dear Future Mom [of a baby with DS]

IDSC’s 2013 Video

IDSC’s 2012 Video

In America over 90% of parents who are told their unborn child has down syndrome choose abortion. Remember to always thank parents for choosing LIFE, even when it isn’t 100% what you were expecting. After all, none of our lives are really “normal” and you never know what amazing things a person – down syndrome or not – is going to with the gift of their life.