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Less than 12 hours after the amendment passed in the Senate subcommittee hearing, dishonest and anonymousjournalists from WHOTV decided that deception was the best tactic to scare voters away from this crucial piece of legislation.

I hope that you will JOIN Iowa Right to Life and @Iowans For Life in our OUTRAGE over this misleading headline and DEMAND that WHOTV publicly apologize to their patrons for misleading them about the
Protect Life Amendment.Original Post Jan 2020

I’ve made a choice for life and made a choice for death. The circumstances surrounding both situations were almost identical. What was the difference? What stopped me from keeping my appointment to have an abortion?

In truth? One voice.

When the world around me was shouting their version of the truth and telling me that a pregnancy would ruin my career and destroy relationships, declaring that a child would prevent me from achieving my goals, one voice spoke the truth.

It is easy to grow weary as we fight against this culture of death. We battle against ideologies that burden us with the unrealistic tasks of self-creation and self-love. We war against philosophies that tell us a woman’s life is of more value than the life she carries in her womb. We continually push back against the belief that the elderly, sick, or people with disabilities are of less worth. Sadly, we live in a culture that often only applies value to a life based on its net worth or capability, rather than the fact that each human, regardless of age or ability, is an image-bearer, fearfully, and wonderfully made. It seems as if we are involved in a never-ending high stakes game of “whack-a-mole,? reacting and trying to disprove every single lie that pops up and seems to dictate the truth of our culture. For those fighting against this current, it may seem futile. It may seem like the lies are louder than the truth. But, it is the seemingly small things, the diligent prayers, and stalwart faithfulness of those who know and speak the truth that will change lives.

I often think about how different my life would be if that one person hadn’t spoken of life when the world around me was calling for death. What if they had kept silent amid all the noise around me and allowed me to believe the lies? If they hadn’t told me about the value of my child’s life simply because he existed. When the world around me seemed like a torrent of hopelessness and fear, it was that one faithful voice sharing the truth in love that was a beacon of hope. Their actions and their words cast glorious light over my fear and stopped me in my tracks.

My child is grown now; he is married and is a first responder. When I pause for a moment and consider all the lives he has touched in both small and big ways, I can’t help but marvel at how just one person walking in faithfulness can change the lives of others for generations to come.

So, those of you who are on the front line, do not grow weary in your work. Every seemingly small act is changing this culture of death into a culture of life. It will happen, and it will happen one life at a time. I know from experience the power one voice can wield.

Please be that one voice.

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9

About the Author: Amanda Ladwig, speaks and writes about abortion, post-abortion healing, and sexual abuse recovery. Read more from Amanda at?www.amandaladwig.wordpress.com.

Original Post 10/4/2020

How long has abortion been legal in the United States?

If you know your history, you probably answered since the Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade in 1973.

But you probably didn?t know that abortion has been legal in this country much longer than it has been illegal.

Going back as early as the twelfth century, the English common law (and later, American state laws) permitted abortion ?before quickening? or before the mother could feel the baby?s movement (approximately 16-20 weeks of gestation).

In the mid-1700s and early 1800s, although rare, abortions before quickening were not unheard of. Dr. John B. Beck in 1817 heavily implied that abortions were primarily sought by unmarried women wanting to avoid the stigma of rearing an illegitimate child. Most married women, however, had no use for the practice. Families welcomed the gift of many children and the much-needed contributions they made to their community. Even so, Beck does not deny the fact that married women ?sometimes? wanted to avoid ?peculiarly severe labor pains, which they… previously suffered.?

Although abortion before quickening was technically legal regardless of whether a woman was married, it remained an infrequent and secret phenomenon. By the 1840s through the 1880s, however, abortion became not only much more mainstream but also most prevalent among middle and upper class married couples.

The growth of big business and the manufacturing industry created a need for businessmen and their wives to present themselves luxuriously in order to maintain the respected personas and positions they held. As a result, abortion and abortifacient pills became appealing alternatives to raising children and sacrificing an exciting materialistic lifestyle.

In 1868 English traveler, Barham Zinke explained why the middle class in America?s major cities tried to avoid children.

?The expenses and annoyances of house-keeping are in America very great; and young couples, except when they are rich? generally escape them by living in hotels. Hotel living is always according to tariff so much a week for each person. To a couple living in this way, and barely able to find the means for it, the cost of every additional child can be calculated to a dollar and is seriously felt. As long as they are without children, they may get on comfortably enough and go into society, and frequent places of amusement. But if encumbered with the expense of a family, they will have to live a far quieter and less gay life. They cannot give up their autumn excursion, they cannot give up balls, and dresses, and concerts, and carriages. Therefore, the husband and wife come to an understanding that they will have but one child, or that they will have no children at all.?

This pleasure-driven mindset provided good soil for the growing commercial market for abortifacients. Doctors sought ways to gain more patients in a very competitive medical field and newspapers were more than happy to advertise abortifacients in order to keep themselves afloat. For example, in 1845 the Boston Daily Times advertised five different brands of abortifacient pills in a single week. By 1871, Madame Restell–the era?s most infamous New York City abortionist–spent $60,000 a year on advertising alone. (For reference $60,000 in 1871 is the equivalent of approximately $1,200,000 in today?s money.) By that same year at Restell was one of approximately 200 full-time abortion and abortifacient providers in New York City alone and one of the countless others across the country.

It is important to note that not all of the abortifacient drugs actually worked and not all women who used them were actually pregnant. However, the openness of public conversation and the massive spending on abortifacients shows that abortion had become culturally accepted and highly demanded by everyday American women.

Despite the massive market for abortion and the pointedly self-serving reasons to avoid children, our pro-life forefathers were able to end legal abortion in this country for almost 100 years. It took them 60 years from the beginning of its cultural popularity to the end of nearly all legal abortions but they were in fact successful despite the cultural climate of their time.

As we find ourselves 47 years after Roe v. Wade in a culture that prefers self-pleasure over marriage and children, we should take comfort in our forefather?s success and continue to be a loud voice for the voiceless.

Stay tuned for our next article in the American Abortion History Series to find out how abortion became illegal by 1880.

About the Author: Gabriela Pariseau is a recent graduate of Christendom College where she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in History. She has contributed to?The Catholic Register?and?Students For Life of America?where she covered topics such as Christian dating, theology of the body and the pro-life movement. Gabriela currently lives with her family in Storm Lake, Iowa.

Original Post 10/13/2020