Kevin Cullen’s column “O’Malley’s reasoning on BC graduation boycott is flawed” is ironically titled because it is in fact Cullen’s reasoning that is flawed, riddled with omissions and down right falsehoods regarding abortion in Ireland.

As Cullen notes, Prime Minister Enda Kenny is the democratically elected leader of Ireland, but Cullen conveniently fails to mention that Kenny and his party Fine Gael were elected on a promise not to change abortion laws. This is an essential fact for understanding the controversy. Even a simple Google search on the issue will bring up scores of photos of Irish pro-lifers carrying signs saying, “Enda Kenny/Fine Gael, Keep Your Pro-Life Promise.” The Prime Minister is poised to betray the very people who duly elected him.

Contrary to what Cullen writes, Ireland already allows abortion when a woman’s life is at risk. The issue at hand is that Kenny’s legislation would allow for exceptions for women claiming they will commit suicide if they don’t get an abortion. Not only does his legislation go against research that abortion does not benefit mental health of the mother but rather harms it, his legislation will also end up  allowing abortion on demand for any woman willing to make the threat of suicide. Because there is no gestational age limit included in the measure, the bill will essentially allow abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.

Cullen acts as if Kenny has a duty to follow Ireland’s Supreme Court ruling, as if the decision were handed down during Kenny’s term or even in the recent past. In fact, the case in question, commonly referred to as the “X Case,” was decided in 1992. The court’s decision 20 years ago had no power to change the laws, and the justices could only ask politicians to modify them to fit their ruling.

The piece further fails to mention that the people of Ireland passed an amendment in 1983 that enshrined a right to life for the unborn in its constitution. Ireland is a pro-life nation, it is embedded in its highest laws, and it has always banned abortion with exceptions for cases in which the mother’s pregnancy puts her physical life at stake. (In the latter case, respect for life is still honored when the physician induces delivery and attempts to save the lives of both patients – the premature baby and the mother.  They do not simply give up on or purposefully end the life of the child altogether, snipping the neck of the babies or sucking out their brains, as happens here in the United States.)

If Kenny were to truly “adhere to the Irish Constitution and the Irish people who embody that Constitution,” as Cullen says, he would be forced drop his abortion legislation.

Cullen cites an inquest “last year” that found Savita Halappanavar would “most likely be alive” if she had been given an abortion earlier. The inquest finding of “medical misadventure” was actually released last month and said she had died 4 days after her child from septic shock and E coli. This was a case of sepsis mismanagement, which was said to be the worst case the hospital had ever seen. It is shameful that pro-abortion forces are using her untimely death to advance such a deadly agenda.

All of these points are reason enough to oppose Prime Minister Enda Kenny anywhere, but the fact that he is to be honored at a Catholic school is beyond the pale. Abortion is the greatest human rights battle happening in Ireland right now, and Kenny is the face of the pro-abortion movement in the country. Giving him such a prestigious platform at such a prominent time conveys the message that Boston College supports his stance, one that is in direct violation of Catholic Church doctrine.

Irrespective of any opinions Kevin Cullen has in regards to past words or actions by Kenny, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, or the Catholic Church in general on other issues, this is an inappropriate event for the school as they are honoring a man who will be ushering in the genocide of millions of unborn babies in just a few months. The Cardinal made the correct and obvious decision to condemn Prime Minister Kenny and remove himself from the event, we call on Boston College to do the same and remove Kenny.

Students for Life of America has launched a website http://NotAtBC.com where citizens can email BC President Rev. William Leahy demanding he rescind Kenny’s invitation to speak, and send messages to Cardinal O’Malley thanking him for standing for life by boycotting the commencement. We will also will be holding an open prayer vigil and public witness at BC’s graduation, outside Alumni Stadium, beginning at 8am on Monday, May 20th to stand up for women, show the value and worth of all children in the womb, and voice our support for keeping Ireland abortion-free – something BC should have done itself.

The post Boston Globe’s Reasoning on BC Graduation Flawed appeared first on Students for Life.

(Boston, MA) – On Monday, May 20th, Students for Life of America (SFLA) and other local and national pro-life organizations will host a Prayer Vigil and Public Witness outside the Boston College graduation ceremony to protest Ireland’s 1st pro-abortion Prime Minister, Enda Kenny, giving the commencement address and receiving an honorary Doctor of Laws degree at the Catholic institution. SFLA will gather together in prayer and to be a public witness in standing up for women, showing the value and worth of all children in the womb, and voicing support for keeping Ireland abortion-free.

When: Monday, May 20th
8am – Prayer Vigil and Public Witness
9am – Press Conference

Where: Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA – By the corner of Beacon Street and Reservoir Avenue, on the public sidewalk at the entrance driveway to Visitor Parking outside Alumni Stadium

“The fact that Boston College is honoring the man who is pushing an abortion bill that will lead to the mass death of preborn Irish children and the harm of countless women and families is unconscionable,” said Kristan Hawkins, President of Students for Life of America. “Thousands of people from across the globe have taken action on our website NotAtBC.com to voice their outrage over the decision and send messages of support to Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who has been under attack by pro-abortion forces for boycotting the event. It is shameful that BC’s President, Rev. William Leahy, has not rescinded the school’s invitation to Prime Minister Kenny, despite the outcry from the public and its Catholic leaders. If Boston College won’t stand for the preborn at its graduation ceremonies, we will.”

Prime Minister Enda Kenny and his governing party Fine Gael have gone against their election promises and introduced abortion legislation that would legalize abortion in Ireland under the guise of preventing the suicide of pregnant women. As there is no gestational age limit to the measure, it would mean abortion on demand, by threat of suicide, through all nine months of pregnancy. In addition, Catholic hospitals would be forced to comply with the proposed law as it does not contain conscience clause protections for physicians, nurses, and other health care workers.

The Catholic Church in Ireland has denounced the measure and called upon the Irish people to lobby their elected representatives to oppose it. Cardinal Sean Brady, the Primate of Ireland, said the bill, if approved, would “make the direct and intentional killing of unborn children lawful in Ireland.”  In addition, Kenny has threatened to expel pro-life Catholic TDs (members of parliament) from his Fine Gael parliamentary party if they refuse to vote for the measure.

NotAtBC.com is an action website sponsored by a coalition of the nation’s leading pro-life organizations.

Students for Life of America (SFLA) is the nation’s largest youth pro-life organization and the only national pro-life organization dedicated to training and equipping college, high school, medical, and law school students. Since 2006, SFLA has helped to establish and build over 700 student pro-life organizations and has trained tens of thousands of students nationwide. The Students for Life of America National Conference is the largest pro-life youth event in the world.

The post Students for Life to Protest Boston College’s Pro-Abortion Commencement Speaker appeared first on Students for Life.

Our office is buzzing this week as our team is rushing to respond to a developing story out of Boston College. Our pro-life values are under attack – and at a Catholic school no less!

Our Students for Life group on campus, the Boston College Pro-Life Club, is sounding the alarm that Ireland’s first pro-abortion Prime Minister, Enda Kenny, will be the school’s commencement speaker and will be honored with a Doctor of Laws degree.

This is an outrage!

Under no circumstance should a Catholic university allow Prime Minister Kenny to speak, as his push for legal abortion in Ireland will be responsible for taking the lives of millions of women and children and the destruction of families, in direct violation of Church teaching. He’s trying to deny it in the press, but make no mistake about it: Prime Minister Kenny is single-handedly pushing for legalizing abortion on-demand in Ireland.

RIGHT NOW, please go to the website NotAtBC.com and take a couple of minutes to assist on our 3 key Action Items:

1. Email BC President Rev. William Leahy expressing your outrage about Prime Minister Enda Kenny representing the school at graduation.
2. Thank Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the Archbishop of Boston, for standing strong and boycotting the Irish Prime Minister’s commencement address.
3. Join and invite your friends and family in the area to our Prayer Vigil and Public Witness outside the Boston College graduation on Monday, May 20th.

Let me give you a brief history of what has been happening on the Emerald Isle:

In 1992, Ireland’s Supreme Court decided, in what is commonly referred to as the “X Case,” that an Irish woman was guaranteed the right to abortion when her life was in danger, including the threat of suicide. However, the Irish had already enacted a constitutional ban on abortion in 1983. When the “X Case” was decided, the court’s decision had no power to change the laws, and the justices could only ask politicians to modify them to fit their ruling. For the past two decades, the lives of Irish children have been defended by politicians from across the religious and political spectrum, and any attempt to allow for abortion has been knocked down.

Until now.

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny originally promised – along with his Fine Gael party – to not legislate for abortion. But like many politicians, his backbone has broken easily, and rather than stand up to the disgusting attempts by the international pro-abortion movement to co-opt the death of Savita Halappanavar to advance their own radical agenda and legalize abortion, he has bowed to their demands and broken his promise with the introduction of legislation with the Orwellian title “The Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013.”

A better title for the bill would be “The Destruction of Life during Pregnancy.”

Kenny’s bill would legalize abortion in Ireland for the first time by allowing exceptions for abortion for women who threaten suicide. But you and I know that abortion is not a medical, or moral, treatment for mental illness and suicidal thoughts. And what’s to prevent a woman who simply decides at 9 months of pregnancy she doesn’t want a baby to falsely claim she’s going to kill herself if she doesn’t get an abortion? Nothing! There is no gestational age limit in the law. This is literally abortion on “demand.”

We have seen this happen in America. This is the same tactic that our own Supreme Court used in Roe v. Wade’s companion case Doe v. Bolton that allowed abortion exceptions for the “health” – including mental health – of the mother, which has been twisted and abused to mean abortion for any reason, up until birth. We know the pain of legal abortion, we have seen the devastating effects in our country with the deaths of over 55 million preborn baby girls and boys, the victimization of millions of women, and the crumbling of countless families.

The Catholic Church in Ireland has rightfully denounced the measure and called upon the Irish people to lobby their elected representatives to oppose it. In response, Kenny has threatened to expel pro-life Catholic TDs (members of parliament) from his Fine Gael parliamentary party if they refuse to vote for the measure. Cardinal Sean Brady, the Primate of Ireland, said the bill, if approved, would “make the direct and intentional killing of unborn children lawful in Ireland.”

After all of this, how can Boston College even consider honoring Prime Minister Kenny? For any college, but particularly a Catholic one, to honor the man who would usher in the mass death of Irish preborn children, it’s simply unconscionable! Boston College President William Leahy must immediately rescind this invitation!

Word is spreading on this injustice, though. Just 3 days after Students for Life released our NotAtBC.com website last week, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the Archbishop of Boston, announced he would not attend the BC graduation because “Mr. Kenny is aggressively promoting abortion legislation.” But now Cardinal O’Malley is under attack from pro-abortion forces for his stance and needs our support.

We must oppose Prime Minister Kenny and demand he stop promoting the grave moral evil of abortion in Ireland. On BC’s graduation day, Students for Life team members and I will gather together in prayer to be a public witness to the value and worth of all children in the womb and voice our support for keeping Ireland abortion free.

We have the chance to stop another Roe v. Wade moment from happening.

It has taken us more than 40 years to start turning our nation back around after our Roe v. Wade, but now we have the chance to put international pressure on Kenny to stop another Roe v. Wade before it happens in Ireland. As Catholics, Christians, and pro-lifers of all faiths, the time is now to stand in solidarity with pro-lifers in Ireland as they courageously defend the pre-born.

I hope you will join us in speaking out through our action page on NotAtBC.com.

The post Help Stop Ireland’s Roe v. Wade appeared first on Students for Life.

Shortly after the Kermit Gosnell verdict came out on Monday afternoon, Planned Parenthood was trying to distance themselves from the convicted murderer, tweeting:

A just verdict. The jury has rightly convicted #Gosnell for his appalling crimes, ensuring no woman is victimized by him ever again.

— Planned Parenthood (@PPact) May 13, 2013

Abortion itself is the appalling victimization of women. But what did Planned Parenthood do to make sure no woman was victimized by Gosnell when they had the chance? Absolutely nothing.

Dayle Steinberg, Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania’s president and chief executive, admitted that they knew about the terrible conditions at Gosnell’s abortion business. As Philly.com reports:

Steinberg said that when Gosnell was in practice, women would sometimes come to Planned Parenthood for services after first visiting Gosnell’s West Philadelphia clinic, and would complain to staff about the conditions there.

“We would always encourage them to report it to the Department of Health,” Steinberg said as she sat with Steinem before Tuesday’s events.

They knew. They knew and they did nothing. Planned Parenthood took their money, then left these victimized women to deal with the problem on their own. They left more women to be victimized by Gosnell – for decades.

It is because of pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood’s opposition to abortion facility regulations that Gosnell’s house of horrors went without inspection for 17 years. They told women to report Gosnell to the Department of Health but, as the Grand Jury report said,

Instead, the Pennsylvania Department of Health abruptly decided, for political reasons, to stop inspecting abortion clinics at all. The politics in question were not anti-abortion, but pro. With the change of administration from Governor Casey to Governor Ridge, officials concluded that inspections would be “putting a barrier up to women” seeking abortions.

This is the fox guarding the hen house. And now Planned Parenthood is using the very same “barrier” arguments today to oppose any new safety regulations, even though that’s what allowed Gosnell to continue to operate.  They complain about “onerous” regulations like widening hallways in the new Virginia regulations, but the grand jury reports hallway regulations could have saved Gosnell victim Karnamaya Mongar and made it difficult to help other patients:

T]here might have been some slim hope of reviving Mrs. Mongar. The paramedics were able to generate a weak pulse. But, because of the cluttered hallways and the padlocked emergency door, it took them over twenty minutes just to find a way to get her out of the building.

…They discovered they could not maneuver stretchers through the building’s narrow hallways to reach the patients (just as emergency personnel had been obstructed from reaching Mrs. Mongar).

If Planned Parenthood thinks Gosnell’s crimes are “appalling,” what do they call their own facilities’ dangerous, unsanitary conditions, and practices of infanticide?  What do they call the fact that they kill 915 preborn (and maybe sometimes born) children every day?

Planned Parenthood and Gosnell share an appalling disrespect for the lives and health of women and children, the only difference is that Planned Parenthood spends millions on marketing and PR:

• Last weekend, an ambulance was called to Planned Parenthood’s Margaret Sanger Center in New York City and photos show emergency officials hurriedly placing a young girl in an ambulance. And you know something has gone seriously wrong when an abortion facility allows an ambulance to park out front with its lights flashing, instead of asking emergency personnel to keep their sirens off and pull up in the back alley – wouldn’t want other patients to see that you’ve botched another abortion, that’s just bad for business.

• In April, a Planned Parenthood in Delaware had to stop doing surgical abortions because of unsafe and unsanitary conditions similar to the ones found at Gosnell’s abortion facility. One nurse said of the operating room, “It’s not washed down; it’s not even cleaned off. It has bloody drainage on it.” She also said patients “could be at risk of getting hepatitis, even AIDS.” The abortion business had sent 5 women to the emergency room since January. Nurses said, “It was just unsafe. I couldn’t tell you how ridiculously unsafe it was,” and quit over concerns that they could be held liable when the next patient was harmed. Delaware is the first state since Roe v. Wade to have zero surgical abortion facilities – because 4 clinics in recent years have had to shut down due to health violations, including two Planned Parenthoods.

• In March, a Planned Parenthood official from Florida testified that a baby born alive during an abortion should be allowed to be killed, saying, “We believe that any decision that’s made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician.” Gosnell routinely killed babies born alive after an abortion – often by cutting their spinal cords. Apparently that’s a “decision” Planned Parenthood supports being left up to “physicians” like Gosnell.

• Last July, a Planned Parenthood in Chicago botched the abortion of Tonya Reaves and failed to seek emergency medical assistance for her for 5 1/2 hours, which ultimately led to her death. Similarly, Gosnell delayed calling 911 for his non-responsive patient, Karnamaya Mongar, who died as a result of her abortion and lack of medical treatment when things went wrong.

• In 2008, a federally-funded New Jersey Planned Parenthood nurse told Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins that the only abortion procedure they do after 22 weeks involves inducing delivery. When she asked what happens if the baby is born alive, she was stunned when she replied simply, “It does happen, where it’s still alive…but it wouldn’t be able to survive on its own, so eventually the baby does die.” This is outright infanticide and proves it is still being practiced routinely in our nation and not just by “rogue” abortionists, as Planned Parenthood would lead you to believe.

The bottom-line is this: Kermit Gosnell is not unique. He is not the exception, he is the rule. He represents “business as usual” for Planned Parenthood and Big Abortion. Thankfully, he will never victimize another woman again, but Planned Parenthood continues on with the same appalling practices and conditions – and half a billion dollars of your tax money.

Learn more about Planned Parenthood’s dirty and corrupt practices at PlannedParenthoodProject.com

The post The Planned Parenthood-Gosnell Connection appeared first on Students for Life.

Statement from Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins on Kermit Gosnell found guilty of 1st degree murder for 3 of 4 babies and guilty of a majority of 250+ total charges.

“There are no victories here and this is far from over. The women and children Kermit Gosnell killed are still dead. The families he destroyed with his lies are still suffering. Abortion is still legal in America and is being perpetrated in the same corrupt and dirty ways Gosnell did it for 40 years. Our generation has only just begun our quest to obtain justice for the 55+ million baby girls and baby boys who have killed by legal abortion and to save untold millions more from the same fate.

“Gosnell’s filthy practices are simply business as usual for the abortion industry and its Goliath, Planned Parenthood. We know there are other Gosnells out there. It’s time to expose these front alley butchers.”

Previous posts on Gosnell:

 What I Saw at the Gosnell Trial

Gosnell’s ‘House of Horrors’ is Business as Usual for Planned Parenthood

All American Horror Story: Top 10 Gosnell Trial Revelations

The Planned Parenthood Project

The post Gosnell Trial Verdict: We Have Only Just Begun appeared first on Students for Life.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston, just announced that he will no longer be attending the Boston College graduation ceremony because of the school’s refusal to rescind their invitation to the pro-abortion Irish Prime Minister, Enda Kenny.

SFLA President Kristan Hawkins said, “Cardinal O’Malley’s announcement further reinforces the importance of our action site www.NotatBC.com. We urge pro-life and Catholic activists to contact Boston College President Rev. William Leahy immediately and ask him to rescind his invitation to Prime Minster Kenny. Cardinal O’Malley boycotting the event puts the heat on BC, and we must keep up the pressure until they denounce the Irish Prime Minister who the Cardinal said is ‘aggressively promoting abortion legislation.’

“After our painful experience for the past 40 years in America, we know the destruction that legal abortion will bring to Ireland. Legalized abortion here in the U.S. has led to the deaths of over 55 million preborn baby girls and boys, the victimization of millions of women, and the crumbling of countless families. Those concerned about the millions of innocent preborn babies set to die because of pro-abortion policies like his should go to www.NotatBC.com and contact Boston College personally to tell them to stand for Life.”

The Boston College Pro-Life Club today also called on the university to rescind the honor and commencement invitation extended to Prime Minister Kenny.

BC Pro-Life Club co-president Lauren Cody said in a statement:

“The Boston College Pro Life Club is extremely disappointed in the university’s decision to honor a man who is dedicated to legalizing abortion on-demand in pro-life Ireland. If we wish to educate our students as ‘men and women for others’, we should choose to celebrate people who embody that statement, regardless of their political standing. Social justice begins in the womb. Prime Minister Kenny’s actions are not in keeping with the values and Catholic mission of Boston College, and should not be commended. We are calling on BC students, and all people of good conscience, to ask the school through NotatBC.com to rescind this invitation.”

The post Word is getting out! Cardinal O’Malley Now Not Attending BC Graduation appeared first on Students for Life.

For any college to honor the man who would usher in the mass death of Irish preborn children is simply unconscionable!

We are calling on all pro-lifers to send a personal message on the new website NotAtBC.com to Boston College President, Rev. William Leahy, expressing outrage about Prime Minister Enda Kenny representing the school at graduation and demanding the invitation be rescinded.

Tell Rev. Leahy that Enda Kenny’s work should not be honored and certainly NOT AT BC!

Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins explains why it is so important for people to speak out:

“I find it incomprehensible that Boston College, a Catholic university, will honor Prime Minister Kenny while knowing he is advocating for legal abortion in Ireland. Legalized abortion here in America has led to the deaths of over 55 million preborn baby girls and boys, the victimization of millions of women, and the crumbling of families. After our painful experience for the past 40 years, we know what legal abortion will do to Ireland.

“As Catholics, Christians, and pro-lifers of all faiths, the time is now to stand in solidarity with the innocent pre-born, oppose Prime Minister Kenny, and demand he stop promoting the grave moral evil of abortion in Ireland. Boston College must hold true to its Catholic mission and immediately revoke their invitation to Prime Minister Kenny to speak at their commencement ceremony. Now is the time to send the message that abortion will not be tolerated by the Boston College family, the Catholic Church, and millions of Americans nationwide.

Go to NotAtBC.com right now!”

The post Not At BC: Pro-abortion Irish Prime Minister Should Not Be Honored appeared first on Students for Life.

Even as we near the end of the school year, our student groups continue to wholeheartedly pursue their missions to educate their peers and support young women and men in their communities. This April, so many groups impressed us with their courage to present the truth about abortion and their persistence in defending life in all cases! Among the many passionate groups, we would like to congratulate 3 groups for their great efforts this April.

Cretin-Derham Hall Respect Life Team
Bama Students for Life
Gonzaga Students for Life

Thank you for your continued hard work to change lives at your school and in your community!

Cretin-Derham Hall (St. Paul, MN)
CDH Respect Life Team

Staffers at Students for Life of America are impressed and encouraged by Cretin-Derham Respect Life Team and their efforts to serve families in the local community and around the world! These students recognize that being pro-life is most effectively expressed in action. In addition to participating in the 2013 National March for Life, Cretin-Derham Respect Life Team has made real efforts to support families near and far.

This Spring, CDH Respect Life Team held its second annual baby shower. With the help of their peers, this group was very successful in supporting Highland Life Care Center. The Team collected over 600 diapers, 2700 wipes, over 175 baby outfits, and more! On April 17, the Cretin-Derham Respect Life Team hit the road for “Respect Life Service Day.” Twenty students put their pro-life passion into action by serving at Feed My Starving Children and Avoca. (Feed My Starving Children is an organization that packs food for children and families in third-world countries. Advoca supports expectant and new mothers through “practical material support.”)

Thank you, Cretin-Derham Respect Life Team, for spreading the message of life and for taking action to change lives!

• Check out pictures of CDH Respect Life Team here: http://www.cretin-derhamhall.org/respectlife.aspx

Gonzaga University (Spokane, WA)

Gonzaga Students for Life

Out on the West Coast, we have an awesome group of pro-life students at Gonzaga University!  In their mission, Gonzaga Students for Life defines their group as “the pro-life organization on Gonzaga’s campus committed to advocating a consistent life ethic,” and they certainly fulfilled this mission in their Life Week this April. Throughout the week, they educated their peers by bringing speaker Victoria Thorpe to discuss the death penalty and by chalking thousands of hearts to increase abortion awareness. These students put a face to the pro-life movement with their photo booth, and a bake sale added a sweet note to the week.

Additionally, eight members of the group travelled to Seattle to attend the SFLA Northwest Regional Conference. They have been active all term, and they are doing a great job fighting back against opposition from their school paper. With new t-shirts and a great attitude, this group is ending the year with Bella, community service at the Ronald McDonald House, Mass on the Grass, and an End of the Year Fiesta!

Thank you, Gonzaga Students for Life, for courageously defending the vulnerable and educating your peers on important life issues!

• Check out what the Gonzaga Students for Life group is up to: https://www.facebook.com/groups/GonzagaStudentsforLife/

Last but certainly not least….

University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa, AL)

Bama Students for Life

Bama Students for Life are unstoppable. They are active, passionate, and fearless in their defense of life and their support of women in their community. Throughout this year, Bama Students for Life has made impressive efforts to network with and unite the local pro-life community in Tuscaloosa. This crew regularly sidewalk helps at their local abortion clinic, and they are active on their campus.

This semester, Bama SFL committed to the Pregnant on Campus Initiative. In addition to partnering with Sav-a-Life for community efforts, they have made great strides in improving pregnant and parenting resources on campus. The group has completed a pregnant and parenting resources guide, and they passed out over 100 pregnancy tests to their peers.

This April, Bama SFL hosted Genocide Awareness Project, displayed a “When Does Life Begin Display,” and created a Cemetery of the Innocents display. Moreover, they supported the SFLA Planned Parenthood Project at University of Alabama (Birmingham). Throughout the semester, members of Bama SFL have made appearances on the local news and radio stations, and their events have stirred up debate in The Crimson White.

Bama Students for Life are raising the bar for college pro-life groups. Way to go!

• “LIKE” Bama SFL on Facebook and support their events: https://www.facebook.com/BamaStudentsForLife
• Learn more about Bama SFL on their website: http://bamastudentsforlife.weebly.com/
• “Follow” Bama SFL on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Pro_Life_Bama
• Check out Bama’s Pregnant and Parenting Resource Guide: http://bamastudentsforlife.weebly.com/pregnant-on-campus-initiative.html

The post April Groups of the Month appeared first on Students for Life.

This week Live Action put out a new undercover video exposing America’s inhuman late-term abortion industry.  This latest one has DC abortionist Cesare Santangelo on tape saying of a baby born alive during an abortion, “We would not help it.”

The sad truth is that these undercover videos from Live Action are simply showing business as usual for the abortion industry and their Goliath, Planned Parenthood. Cesare Santangelo, along with his ally, Kermit Gosnell, both murder children for profit. They have both been proven to violate the law.

For 92% of 18-24 year olds, these videos are shocking and go against our beliefs that abortion should never be legal in the 3rd trimester. This isn’t mainstream. This isn’t choice. This is murder and exploitation.

The videos that have come out are personal to me. In 2008, when I was pregnant with my first son, I had a nurse at a federally-funded New Jersey Planned Parenthood tell me that my son could be aborted at 22 weeks by simply birthing him and letting him die. She told me on tape that “It does happen, where it’s still alive…but it wouldn’t be able to survive on its own, so eventually the baby does die.”

This is illegal. Birthing babies and refusing to give them medical attention that they would receive at the hospital just down the street – it’s barbaric. How can we allow this to happen in our civilized nation?

Today, I call on the Washington, D.C. Attorney General, Irvin Nathan, the U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Ronald Machen, the D.C. Department of Health, and City Council to see to it that Dr. Santangelo and his Washington Surgi-Clinic’s licenses are revoked and are duly investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

What happens inside this facility every day is illegal. It’s murder, it’s exploitation of women, it’s inhuman. The overwhelming majority of Americans do not support this. It’s time to protect women and babies from predators like Dr. Santangelo and Kermit Gosnell.

It’s time to stop the killing.

Kristan speaking at the Live Action “Stop the Killing Rally“

The post Inhuman: It’s Time to Stop the Killing appeared first on Students for Life.

I was not able to hear all of the closing arguments yesterday at the murder trial of Kermit Gosnell as I had to slip out for the press conference and prayer vigil, however, there was one thing in particular about being in the courtroom that had me in tears.

I was standing at the partition behind the counsels’ tables where Kermit Gosnell’s abortion facility had been recreated for the jury – the court would not allow the jury to go and visit his clinic, so the prosecution took the contents of one of his exam/surgery rooms and set it up on the floor in front of the jury.  Most of it had been disassembled but the exam table and the recliner from the recovery room remained on the floor.

The horror of what had happened on that exam table hit me hard – the thousands of children whose lives had been brutally ended right there, without concern or hesitation from Gosnell or his staff.  I continued to look at these two pieces of furniture; they were ripped, dirty, and stained and I thought, “What was going on in a woman’s heart and mind that she would willingly get up on that table for anything?”  And then I started to cry because I realized that they got up on that table because this is all that they believed they were worth.

Gosnell operated in an impoverished part of town, selling his services to some of the most demoralized and vulnerable women.  He was not helping them exercise their “choice” or “reproductive rights,” he was giving them what he believed they deserved…a dirty and unsanitary place to get rid of their problem and then get out the door. As Gosnell’s defense attorney argued, he provided desperate young girls with what he thought was “relief, a solution to their problem.” We know that abortion is not a solution, it is only a temporary fix that masks the real problems a woman is facing. Gosnell did not care about these women, he only cared about making a quick buck.

I have had the privilege of working with Rachel’s Vineyard and attended a retreat with a nurse who had helped commit thousands of abortions.  She told us over the course of the weekend that she hated the women who came in for abortions because they were the reason she had to do this work – if they were just able to stop getting themselves in trouble, then she wouldn’t have to assist with killing their children.

I think this is part of what was happening at Gosnell’s clinic – he hated these women and therefore provided them with the care that he felt they deserved. These women believed that they were not worthy of anything good and so they accepted the conditions at his clinic as appropriate for their circumstances. It slays my heart that anyone would be so hurting that they would believe themselves only worth of a dirty exam table, unsterilized tools, and the clear scorn Dr. Gosnell had for his patients.

I shared these thoughts with Cheryl Sullenger from Operation Rescue and she began to show me images on her cell phone from other clinics that are under investigation. Clinics with ceiling tiles that are missing or falling apart, wiring that is exposed, dirty exam tables, garbage piled up, baby body parts in the refrigerator next to the staff lunches, and more. Operation Rescue has done an excellent job of documenting how Gosnell’s facility is just business as usual for the abortion industry.

There is something wrong in our nation when a woman willingly accepts these conditions as her best option for help in her crisis; when she feels that abortion is her best or only choice and that an unclean, unsafe, bloody exam table is all that she is worthy of.

Pray for the jury in Gosnell’s murder trial, that God would grant them wisdom, and that justice would be had for all of Gosnell’s victims. This verdict will set a precedent for our nation and in the closing of other abortion mills like Gosnell’s. But most of all, pray for the desperate women who are contemplating laying their bodies down for the next Gosnell. That they will realize they deserve better than abortion, and recognize their own inherent worth and that of the preborn child growing in their womb.

The post What I Saw at the Gosnell Trial appeared first on Students for Life.