Well, the Susan G. Komen Foundation is getting some backlash from deciding not to support abortion giant Planned Parenthood.

Please take just a moment to either call or write the Susan G. Komen foundation and thank them for removing their funding from Planned Parenthood. Let them know that this action will increase your support and good will towards their organization!

Phone: 1-877 GO KOMEN (1-877-465-6636)

Email: news@komen.org

This only takes a second and it is very important! Please call now!

Honestly, that is too many!

Every year, I go on this journey hoping that it is the last time I will have to travel to DC to protest the infamous legalization of abortion in the United States.

Next year, I want to go to DC to celebrate the fall of Roe v Wade!

How likely is that?

Not very…

Unfortunately, it seems that we are still a ways off from the fall of Roe. But, that being said, we have made great strides in the last 6 years. Legally, socially and culturally, we are better off than where we were when I made my first steps down the National Mall towards the Supreme Court.

We are getting closer.

We are not getting closer because of the March for Life, per se. We are getting closer because of people like you who after the March, come home and take action.

Lives are saved because people like you are getting involved. Volunteering, praying, organizing, donating, conversing with friends and supporting the youth.

Today, there are many more young people here marching with me than there are ‘adults.’

The youth are the future.

No, in fact, the youth are the present hope of our movement!

The youth are the key to the end of abortion.

If you are a young person, it’s time to get involved!

If you are an ‘adult,’ it’s time to support the pro-life generation!

Sign-up below to join the movement!

The last post in this series asked the question: “When you go into a conversation about abortion what are your goals?”

Thanks to everyone who posted your goals!

Your Goals

There ended up being 36 goals posted by people like you on the last article. Overall, these were very good. Thanks for your input!

I’d love to go through each of them, but I can’t really do all of your responses justice.  However, most of the responses fell into three categories.

1 – Quick Understanding – Give them all the truth, science, logic, philosophy now and hope they change their minds.
2 – Gradual Understanding – Through either listening or smaller goals bring people to acceptance of the truth, science, logic… over many conversations.
3 – Seeds of Understanding – This is similar to the other two, but it is more of a reliance on planting a seed of truth and hoping that it grows at a later date.

These are all good goals. They are all very similar to each other in that they seek to increase understanding of the issue in a different way.

These are not my goals.

You see, my main goal does not focus directly on increasing understanding.

Understanding the Truth

Understanding the truth about abortion is an important element in becoming pro-life. This truth is really very simple, rational and straight forward. However, if you have ever had a conversation about abortion then you probably identify with this quote:

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.” – Sir Winston Churchill

Depending on how your conversations went, this quote may make you laugh or cry! Either way, I’m sure you recognize the fact that many people seem to be immune to rational understanding of abortion.

If that is truly the case, which it certainly has been in my experience, then why do we focus almost entirely on rational understanding as our end for an abortion conversation?

But isn’t this what we normally do? Logic, logic, logic!

Science seems to back up my experience. Looking at psychology and even neuroscience, it appears that we (humans in general) tend to be much less rational than we think we are.

It turns out that most people make many decisions first through emotion and then they justify it with their reason (rationalize). They usually do this without even realizing it.

This is very important to know when talking with someone about abortion.

My Goal

So, given the above discussion, what are my goals?

If people tend to make decisions emotionally and then rationalize them, then it is important to find what emotions are keeping them from being open to the truth. Otherwise, the truth falls on deaf ears no matter how good your arguments are.

Therefore, my main goal is to determine the emotional roadblocks that the other person has through calmly asking questions.

It may shock you, but this has very little to do with the truth about abortion or educating people on the facts. (that comes later) It’s important to be able to determine what emotions guide someone in being pro-choice before you start throwing facts, stats or clever arguments at them.

Don’t get me wrong, the truth is very important. You need to know your stuff. It’s just that emotional roadblocks must first be removed before someone is open to the truth.

I find that these roadblocks tend to come in a few general categories. I will talk about these categories and how to address them in the next post.

Your thoughts?

For now, what are some emotional roadblocks that you have encountered in your conversations about abortion? Please leave a comment below!

This post is from a series entitled “Talk About It.” This series is about how to spread the pro-life message through your personal relationships. 

Sign-up HERE to get articles in this series delivered to your inbox.

This is great news! This closure was my birthday wish and it looks like I got it!

I hope you will join me in celebrating by clicking here to share this on facebook!

From the story:

“The clinic’s director confirmed today that the clinic’s owners have decided to close the clinic’s doors for good after being closed by the state for three months.

The clinic’s decision is based on a lack of support from the community, the political climate surrounding the abortion issue both locally and nationally and the challenge the clinic would face in rebuilding staff, the director said.”

The director claims that it is because of falling community support, but this abortion facility was never supported by the community in Rockford. So, personally, I think there is a deeper reason that isn’t coming out.

I posted about the original health and safety violations here and the fake-out that had everyone thinking that they would re-open here.

Don’t forget to click here to share the good news on facebook!

The Rockford abortion center can now reopen after they struck a deal with the state. As usual, this deal doesn’t feel right to me.

It appears that they are getting off with a reduced fine after some pretty serious violations.

From the story in the Tribune:

An Illinois abortion clinic that’s been closed since September because of health and safety violations can pay a $9,750 fine to reopen under a settlement the state Department of Public Health approved Wednesday.

Dr. Kenneth Soyemi, the health department’s acting director, signed the agreement, said agency spokeswoman Melaney Arnold. The deal includes a provision that would allow the state to immediately revoke the license of the Northern Illinois Women’s Center in Rockford, without holding a hearing, if any serious violations are repeated.

The clinic could decide to remain closed and give up its license with a reduced fine of $1,000, Arnold said.

I’ve gotten a lot of great birthday presents and love, but this news was definitely not happy!

However, I think we should stay focused on the positive and move forward with saving lives!

[P.S. Thanks to all the Rockford pro-lifers who do so much there to save lives from this horrible clinic!]

Theresa (right) at last year's March for Life

I’d like to introduce you to a student who is making amazing headway on her campus!

You’re about to hear a story of what happens when a student’s passion and dedication to saving lives meets the expert guidance of SFLI’s campus mentor, Kevin Grillot.

When I heard about the amazing things that this student was doing, I asked Kevin to write about her for the blog.

Here’s what he had to say:

Theresa Weber joined Loyola Students for Life (LSFL) less than one year ago after going on the March for Life. Wanting to make a bigger change on her campus, she came to me early this semester.

I had no idea just how big of change she was going to make.

She sought to improve the attendance and organization of the March for Life trip. After learning effective ways to organize and recruit from SFLI, she took off implementing them!

Theresa organized tabling for the trip and had 7 other members present at the table. As a result, the group got over 30 interested students’ contact information.

To reach the most students, she informed every member of LSFL about the trip. Her enthusiasm encouraged members to talk to their friends. Reminding the Loyola community, she distributed concise and attractive fliers.

Then Theresa followed up personally with each student who expressed interest.

When the overwhelming response started coming in, LSFL did not have enough money to keep the costs down for everyone to attend.

Yet, that was not about to stop Theresa. Committed to wanting to make the trip accessible for every student, Theresa strived forward.

She learned how to fundraise, taught others how to do so, and provided them with ways to reach out to friends and family. Going above and beyond, yet again, she contacted her home parish, relatives, and businesses for financial support.

Because of her passionate and relationship based efforts, Theresa has produced amazing results. She has increased the participants on the trip from last year by about four times!

Through her leadership, LSFL has fundraised over $3,000, so every student can stand up for life.

Through her initiative, she has not only set the record for LSFL’s largest March for Life trip, she has grown the membership of LSFL in ways that will continue to break new ground in building a culture of life.

Without a doubt, Theresa’s passion for changing hearts and saving lives is an inspiration to all.

 - Kevin Grillot, SFLI Campus Mentor

Kevin didn’t give the exact numbers, but Theresa actually increased attendance for her school’s March for Life trip from 8 people last year to 39 people this year. That’s a 387.5% increase!

What Kevin also didn’t mention is that Theresa credits Kevin and SFLI with a lot of her success.

Here’s what she said:

“Without you, we would not have grown this much. We have changed so much since last year just as a group. The energy has been incredible and it’s crazy to think about. I feel like we are at a point where we can make a really big change.” – Theresa

This is what happens when a student’s passion and dedication to saving lives meets the expert guidance of SFLI’s campus mentor, Kevin Grillot.

To be honest, I really want this to happen more often on more campuses!

Don’t you?

Will you help me and Kevin to guide more passionate pro-life students towards success?

Click here to help us!

It has to do with an opportunity for you to help me reach more students with the pro-life message!

Needless to say, I’m pretty excited about it. So, for now, I’m going to put the ‘Talk About it’ post series on hold until after Christmas.

This has been a very popular series and we’re only two posts in! However, with Christmas coming and the announcement that I will be making next week, I don’t want to overwhelm you with emails!

(SOME people are studying for finals, after-all…)

So, please keep an eye out for next week’s announcement. I’m going to need your help with something very important!

Have a great weekend!

This is good news and bad news. The good news is that it will stay closed for now. The bad news is that it may still re-open.

Today, I found out that the next hearing in this case will be on January 4th.

I was born in January and I can’t think of a better birthday present than to have that January 4th hearing end with the permanent closure of this dangerous abortion center.

From WREX.com:

The Illinois Department of Public Health indefinitely suspended the license for the Northern Illinois Women’s Center on Broadway in Rockford because of four major safety violations. The violations include the lack of a registered nurse in the operating room for all invasive or operative procedures and to supervise and direct nursing personnel in the care of patients.

Do you think I will get my birthday wish?

“Begin with the End in Mind”
- Stephen Covey, Habit #2 of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

What is the end goal when you talk about abortion with someone?

Last week, I wrote about how important it is to talk about abortion in your everyday life. This week I would like to talk about the end goals of talking about abortion with people.

What are we actually trying to accomplish?

I suspect that we all have some idea of what the end should be. I also suspect that it varies a lot from person to person.

If we know exactly what we are trying to achieve then we be able achieve it much more effectively, right?

Right.

What are your goals?

When you go into a conversation about abortion what are your goals?

I want to learn from your wisdom.

Even if you haven’t had much experience talking about abortion, I’d love to hear your opinion on what the end goal is!

Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think the best goal is! 

My next post will draw from all the comments left here and from my experiences to come up with the best end goal(s).

This post is from a series entitled “Talk About It.” This series is about how to spread the pro-life message through your personal relationships. Sign-up HERE to get future articles in this series delivered to your inbox.

Here at SFLI, we are big proponents of utilizing your personal contacts to spread the pro-life message.

It can be easy to get caught up in wanting to reach ‘the masses.’ In fact, talking about abortion in a blog post, letter to the editor, sidewalk chalking or by posting fliers is usually the default and sometimes the easiest.

However, the fact remains that your personal sphere of influence is where you can have the most impact. Seriously though, when was the last time a flier really moved you to action?

Let’s think about it for a moment.

What got you involved in the pro-life movement?

Was it a flier?

Was it a blog post or facebook status?

Was it sidewalk chalk?

Probably not…

So, what got you involved in the pro-life movement?

The first answer I usually get to this is something like… “I believe life begins at conception and I think it’s important need to protect innocent life” This is a nice answer, but it doesn’t really anser the question that I’m asking.

I’m not asking what made you ‘think pro-life things’ but rather, what made you ‘do pro-life things.’

For most people, the answer ultimately comes back to a person. For most people, it usually comes back to a person who invited them to do more. That person is usually someone they already have a relationship with.

I’m guessing this was the case for you. It sure was for me (and most people I talk to).

Recognizing this is very powerful.

Talk About It

So, what does this tell you?

It tells me that the simple act of talking about abortion more can have a profound impact. It tells me that just talking about it can have a bigger impact than most of us ever expected.

The great thing about this is that just talking about it doesn’t require a ton of time. It doesn’t require huge efforts. It doesn’t require a big change in your life.

You just have to do it.

Work it into your daily life.

You talk to people normally, right?

Right.

But How?

How do you talk about it?

How do you bring it up?

How do you make sure you know what you’re talking about?

These are all things that I’m going to cover in this series.

Sign up here to be notified of future posts in this series.

What do you want to know?

Is there anything in particular that you would like me to cover in this series? Please leave a comment below and let me know!