See the true story that will give you a new understanding and appreciation for the gift of life.  Whether you are a believer or a skeptic in our ability to affect the course of events in our society today, see the movie that is doing just that!

Abby Johnson was a young college student who wanted to make a difference in the world.  She wanted to make life better for young women and be the person providing them with opportunities to achieve their dreams.  She believed that was happening as she rose in leadership at the Planned Parenthood facility in College Station Texas.  The true story of how that desire was transformed to a much deeper level of understanding can also be the catalyst that transforms your life.

Make a point of seeing Unplanned at 7pm on Wednesday September 11 or Thursday September 12 in the Holy Family Room of the Infant Jesus of Prague Parish Business Office located at 1120 Douglas in Flossmoor.  Arrive early for coffee and treats and stay for fellowship.  You will learn of opportunities to make life better for young women and help them achieve their dreams for a better life!  Movie begins promptly at 7pm.

Can’t make it either evening but would like to see the movie?

Contact Dr. Rich Mantoan at (708) 557-0011 or email him HERE.

We have NINE pro-life bridges coming up in the Chicagoland area this Friday and Saturday!  We need you at one or more of these events to make them a success!

On Friday, June 28 and Saturday, June 29 the Pro-Life Action League is hosting the second annual National Pro-Life Bridge Day in cities from coast to coast. Pro-lifers will display banners on highway overpasses containing the message “Abortion Takes a Human Life.” We estimate that we will reach over a million commuters and start countless conversations about abortion.  Here are the pro-life bridge locations in Illinois.

Markham Pro-life Bridge

DATE: Friday, June 28th

TIME: 6:00 am to 9:00 am

ADDRESS: 15600 Clifton Park Ave, Markham, IL

FACEBOOK EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/1244173542419156/

Lombard Pro-life Bridge

DATE: Friday, June 28

TIME: 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm

ADDRESS: 500 Grove Lane, Lombard, IL

(Pleasant Lane over I-355)

FACEBOOK EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/2052579318385279/

Naperville Pro-life Bridge

DATE: Friday, June 28

TIME: 7:00 am to 9:00 am

ADDRESS: 1640 N Mill Street, Naperville, IL

(Mill Street over I-88, park at the sports complex at the corner of Mill and Diehl and walk up to the bridge)

Naperville Pro-life Bridge II

DATE: Friday, June 28

TIME: 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm

ADDRESS: 1640 N Mill Street, Naperville, IL

(Mill Street over I-88, park at the sports complex at the corner of Mill and Diehl and walk up to the bridge)

Chicago Pro-life Bridge

DATE: Friday, June 28

TIME: 10:00 am to 1:00 pm

ADDRESS: 659 W Washington Blvd, Chicago, IL

(Washington Blvd over I-90, pay for parking in lot across the street)

FACEBOOK EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/685970001836639/

Northfield Pro-life Bridge

DATE: Saturday, June 29

TIME: 10:00 am to 12:00 pm

ADDRESS: 1550 Winnetka Rd, Northfield, IL

FACEBOOK EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/636368866832729/

Lombard Pro-life Bridge

DATE: Saturday, June 29

TIME: 11:00 am to 2:00 pm

ADDRESS: 500 Grove Lane, Lombard, IL

(Pleasant Lane over I-355)

Southland Chicago Pro-life Bridge

DATE: Saturday, June 29th

TIME: 10:00 am to 1:00 pm

ADDRESS: 44 W 93rd St, Chicago, IL

FACEBOOK EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/626877677831915/

Chicago Pro-life Bridge

DATE: Saturday, June 29

TIME: 10:00 am to 1:00 pm

ADDRESS: 6069 W Balmoral Ave, Chicago, IL

(Pedestrian bridge just north of Foster Avenue over I-90)

FACEBOOK EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/497555824319849/

More great pro-life opportunities:

Face the Truth Tour

The Pro-life Action League will lead pro-life participants at sites throughout the Chicago area as they display large pictures of beautiful unborn babies along with signs showing the victims of abortion.

WHEN: Friday, July 12 – Saturday, July 20 (no events on Sunday, July 14)

WHERE: 24 locations around the Chicago area

WEBSITE: https://prolifeaction.org/event/ftt2019/

March for Life Chicago 2020

Mark your calendars! March for Life Chicago 2020 will take place on Saturday, January 11, 2020.

Positive Pregnancy Resource Center Yelp Reviews:

Anti-life activists have been writing fake online reviews via Yelp, Yahoo and Google pages to sway women away from receiving free assistance at our pro-life pregnancy resouce centers.

The best way to respond to these negative reviews is with positive reviews!  Consider leaving legitimate 5 star reviews. Keep in mind the women reading your reviews are abortion-vulnerable.  Do not use any names of staff, and be sincere and respectful.

Leave a review on one these websites:

• Aid for Women Downtown Chicago Yelp Page
• Aid for Women Des Plaines Yelp Page
• The Women’s Center Cicero Ave. Office Yelp Page
• Cicero Ave. Google Page – search “The Women’s Center, Cicero Ave.”
• The Women’s Center Evergreen Park Office Yelp Page
• Evergreen Park Google Page – search “The Womens Center, Evergreen Park”
• The Women’s Center Des Plaines Office Yelp Page
• Des Plaines Office Google Page – search “The Women’s Center, Des Plaines”

DONATE: Pro-life Billboards

During the last few years, we’ve reached over half of the adult residents in Cook County with the bold message that abortion takes a human life.  Let’s reach the public with this powerful message over and over again! Help reach thousands of people with your donation here: https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/fundraiser/support-pro-life-billboard-campaign/

Find Illinois Pro-life Opportunities, Resources, and News here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RV9G7PzcN3x8Ps5iLnh9GD67qCvlMOM6

Please forward this message to all your pro-life friends!

In a “Voice of the People” letter appearing in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune, JoAnn Lee Frank of Clearwater, Florida says the following:

The bill passed in Alabama banning nearly all abortions smacks of contempt and misogynistic views toward women. Why else would so many white Republican male legislators willfully rule that women carry a fetus to full term in cases of rape and incest? Even if it is their religious belief, it has no business influencing the law. The attitude of the lawmakers is not only cruel and unjust, it’s also sick and destructive. This stunning decision violates the constitutional protections guaranteed by Roe v. Wade.

How does opposition to human slaughter—including the slaughter of about 440,000 female humans annually—constitute “contempt and misogynistic views toward women”? And are the 36% of women who oppose abortion in “all or most cases” as revealed in a Pew Forum poll guilty of contempt for women and misogyny?

Frank asked why “so many white Republican male legislators willfully rule that women carry a fetus to full term in cases of rape or incest.” That’s an easy-peasy question to answer.

First, the voters in Alabama—including female voters—elected “so many white Republican male legislators.” Perhaps Alabama voters don’t discriminate based on race, skin color, or sex as Frank and so many other “progressives” do. Perhaps they judge candidates for public office by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin or their unchosen biological sex. One presumes that these white Republican male legislators are carrying out the will of their constituents, including their diversely hued female constituents.

Second, the white Republican male legislators—like humans of other colors and humans of the only other sex in our sexually dimorphic species—evidently understand the scientific fact that the product of conception between two humans is a human and that more-developed humans have no moral right to exterminate less-developed humans based on the evil actions of the biological fathers of those less-developed humans.

The decision of those lawmakers to protect the lives of humans in the womb is neither cruel, unjust, sick, nor destructive. It is the attitudes of people like Frank who have no regard for the dignity, worth, and rights of incipient human lives and who perversely call the slaughter of humans in the womb “health care” that are cruel, unjust, sick, and destructive—attitudes that result in the literal destruction of a human life.

Word to Frank: The Constitution says not one word about abortion. The Declaration of Independence does, however, say this: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Another word to Frank: The right to have our religious beliefs influence political decisions and the law is guaranteed by the First Amendment. The First Amendment prohibits the establishment of a state religion. It does not prohibit citizens of faith from having their religious beliefs inform political decisions. (I would add that no “progressive” ever tells homosexuals who attend heretical churches that it is constitutionally impermissible for their religious beliefs about homosexuality to influence law or public policy.)

Perhaps Frank doesn’t know that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said this in his Letter from Birmingham Jail:

How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God.

To “progressives,” the idea of a separation of church and state no longer points to the importance of protecting religious freedom from the intrusive power of the state but instead refers to coercively eradicating religious expression from the public square. Only secular worldviews, which are shaped by myopic, dogmatic, unproved assumptions, will be tolerated—you know, the kind of assumptions that secularists argue religious worldviews represent.

Such a distortion of the idea of a separation of church and state poses a danger not just to people of faith but to the welfare of the nation. Can anyone look honestly at the state of the culture and reasonably argue that American society has benefited from six decades of divestment of religious influence from the culture?

People from diverse faith traditions and no faith could all arrive at the same position on a particular public policy. For example, although Orthodox Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Baptists, and atheists may all oppose abortion because they value human life, the reasons for that valuation of life differ.

If there is a secular purpose for the law (e.g., to protect incipient human life), then voting for it does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The source of the various parties’ desires to protect incipient life is no business of the government. It would be not only absurd but also unethical for the government to try to ascertain the motives and beliefs behind anyone’s opposition to abortion and equally unethical for the government to assert that only those who have no religious faith may vote to oppose abortion. Such an assertion would most assuredly violate the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.

Moreover, lawmaking absent an understanding that there exist moral truths that are objective and universal would represent an illegitimate and hubristic arrogation of power. Acknowledging that there is objective truth regarding what is right and wrong and that it is universal and knowable is essential to democratic institutions. What sense does outrage at human rights violations make if we assert there are no universal, transcendent, eternal, objective truths? And if we agree that these truths exist, that they transcend the subjective opinions of any particular individual, then what is their source other than a supernatural, eternal, transcendent being?

I guess JoAnn Lee Frank believes the exercise of raw governmental power and control over the lives of its citizens absent any acknowledgment of objective moral truth is a good thing. Others tremble at such an idea.

Like Leftists around the country, Leftists in Springfield are apoplectic that pro-life Americans are finally making some real progress in protecting babies in the womb. Rumors are circulating that anti-life lawmakers in Springfield are gearing up to push their bills very soon. Please speak out now against their efforts to make human slaughter even easier in Illinois.

Take ACTION:  Click HERE to send a message to your state senator, state representative, and to Gov. Pritzker. Urge them to stop targeting innocent pre-born children and vulnerable women in Illinois. Ask your state senator, state representative, and Gov. Pritzker to oppose all anti-life legislation.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Letter-Exposes-Bigoted-Anti-Liberty-and-Anti-Life-Attitudes-of-Leftists_audio.mp3

In a “Voice of the People” letter appearing in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune, JoAnn Lee Frank of Clearwater, Florida says the following:

The bill passed in Alabama banning nearly all abortions smacks of contempt and misogynistic views toward women. Why else would so many white Republican male legislators willfully rule that women carry a fetus to full term in cases of rape and incest? Even if it is their religious belief, it has no business influencing the law. The attitude of the lawmakers is not only cruel and unjust, it’s also sick and destructive. This stunning decision violates the constitutional protections guaranteed by Roe v. Wade.

How does opposition to human slaughter—including the slaughter of about 440,000 female humans annually—constitute “contempt and misogynistic views toward women”? And are the 36% of women who oppose abortion in “all or most cases” as revealed in a Pew Forum poll guilty of contempt for women and misogyny?

Read more…

Hoosiers know that our own Mike Pence is one of the best orators in Washington, DC. It was no surprise to hear the positive reviews the Vice President received from his commencement speech at Liberty University on Saturday. If you have not read about this, you can watch his outstanding address HERE.

The Vice President warned the graduates of America’s largest Christian university that if they live out their faith in a Biblically consistent manner, persecution is to be expected. This is a truth every discerning Christian should understand today. As Christ said in John 15:20, “A servant is not greater than his master.  If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.”

Here is one of Pence’s comments:

“Some of the loudest voices for tolerance today have little tolerance for traditional Christian beliefs.  So, as you go about your daily life, just be ready.  Because you’re going to be asked not just to tolerate things that violate your faith; you’re going to be asked to endorse them.  You’re going to be asked to bow down to the idols of the popular culture. . .”

His words are prophetic.   This week, the U.S. House is expected to vote on H.R. 5, the misnamed “Equality Act.”

The American Family Association has warned, “The deceptive “Equality Act” is a religious liberty wrecking ball.”

It would be hard to imagine a more anti-freedom bill than this one. This legislation would allow the government to discriminate against people of faith, bypassing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and forcing people to violate their consciences or face the full weight of state punishment.  I have often said that LGBT stands for “Let’s Get Behind Tyranny.”   H.R. 5 is proof of where the sexual anarchy agenda is going.

Here are just a few of the many problems H.R. 5 could cause if enacted:

• H.R. 5 would force Christian schools, ministries and churches to change their employment policies that are aligned with traditional teachings on sex, gender, and human sexuality.

• H.R. 5 would force many faith-based organizations to pay for abortion in their health care plans by creating a right to demand abortion coverage from health care providers.

• H.R. 5 would harm faith-based charities, such as adoption agencies, that believe in natural marriage and strive to place foster or adoptive children with a mother and father.

• H.R. 5 would embolden those in Indiana who have been attempting to destroy our school voucher system by undermining the teachings of Christian schools on sexual behavior that have employment policies consistent with those beliefs.

• H.R. 5 threatens the privacy and safety of women and children by forcing genderless bathrooms and showers upon sporting facilities, parks, rest areas and other public amenities.   

Your US Representative needs to hear from you today.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send a message to your U.S. Representative to ask him/her to oppose the federal Equality Act (H.R. 5) which seeks to amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include protections for an individuals perceived sex, sexual orientation and gender identity. If you know the name of your local official, you can also call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask the operator to connect you with his/her office to leave a message.

This article was originally published by AFA of Indiana.

As expected, pundits on the left are in an uproar at the president’s claims that a doctor conspires with parents as to whether to execute their newborn baby. In Trump’s words (spoken at a recent rally in Green Bay), “The baby is born, the mother meets with the doctor, they take care of the baby, they wrap the baby beautifully. Then the doctor and mother determine whether or not they will execute the baby.”

In response, Rolling Stone senior writer Jamil Smith tweeted, “President Trump keeps telling the same lie about abortion doctors murdering healthy fetuses after delivery. This doesn’t happen. Yet he said it again last night. This is precisely the kind of hysteria that inspires people who murder doctors and patients.”

Julia Pulver, a former neonatal nurse, said this: “When a baby dies in the hospital, it is a very sad thing but it is not something that is ever chosen. It is a horrible situation thrust upon parents who want their baby, who have prepared for the baby, who have framed sonograms sitting on their desks.”

According to Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, “What Trump asserted, for the second time, is false, illegal, and simply not happening — nor would it happen.” She claimed that, “The president “not only straight-up lied but also vilified women, families, and doctors facing situations every single one of us prays we never encounter.”

And Huffington Post adds this: “The recent focus on the alleged horrors of late-term abortions is especially fact-free. Only 1.3 percent of abortions take place after 21 weeks, and experts say these involve pregnancies that endanger the mother (and by extension the baby) or severe fetal anomalies that are incompatible with life.”

Let’s address these claims one at a time.

First, President Trump said nothing about the baby being healthy (contra the tweet of Smith). Instead, he spoke about the very real situation in which a baby survives an abortion (or, presumably, is born with a life-threatening defect) and is allowed to die. That’s why Congress keeps trying to pass the Born Alive Protection Act.

In its current form, the bill reads, “To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit a health care practitioner from failing to exercise the proper degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or attempted abortion.”

This is a real bill designed to address real, life and death situations.

Not only so, but it was Virginia governor Ralph Northam who provided Trump with his main talking points about infanticide.

As Northam infamously said during a radio interview, “If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired. And then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother. So I think this was really blown out of proportion.”

Yet the left rails on Trump for calling this out rather than on Northam for saying it.

To repeat: These things are really happening.

An official government document dated September 23, 2016, notes that, “In 2002, Congress responded by passing the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which was signed by President George W. Bush and is current federal law. This law recognized a child who is born alive after a failed abortion attempt, as a legal person under the laws of the United States. The legal definition of live birth includes any sign of life, such as breath, heartbeat, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles.

“Unfortunately, incidents involving born alive children being killed after an attempted abortion have continued after this law was passed. Infanticide is unacceptable in a civilized society, regardless of what one may think about abortion itself. It should be uncontroversial for the federal government to supplement current law with enforcement protections for born-alive children after attempted abortions. That is why Congress must pass the proposed legislation known as the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act (H.R. 3504/S. 2066).”

Trump is not lying. These things are happening. They may happen just as he described (with the baby being wrapped in a blanket) or they may not (perhaps the baby is left naked and crying on a table). But they are happening, nonetheless.

Yet, to repeat, there’s no outcry from the left about these horrors. The outcry is about the president drawing attention to the horrors.

As noted by Tony Perkins, “Liberals certainly thought infanticide was real enough in 2002, when protecting infants was so uncontroversial that it passed without a single Democratic opponent. Since then, the CDC’s data only confirms these atrocities — as do mountains of eyewitness testimony, grand jury reports, survivors’ own stories, and admissions by doctors like Northam himself!”

Second, what point is made by saying, “Only 1.3 percent of abortions take place after 21 weeks”? What if the sentence read, “Only 1.3 percent of abortions take place after birth”? Would that lessen the severity of the crime? We only kill a tiny percentage of babies once they’re born!

Let’s also put this in real-life numbers.

According to a just-released CDC report, in New York City in 2015, “the number of abortions at or after 21 weeks was 1,485 while the number of homicide victims was 352.”

Shall we celebrate the fact that this (allegedly) represents “only” 1.3 percent of abortions?

These, in short, are the facts: States like New York have passed laws allowing for abortions right up to the time of delivery. Infanticide is taking place. And in countries like the Netherlands, “650 babies a year [are] euthanized so that their parents don’t have to witness them struggle with disability or disease.”

In light of all this, I’m glad that President Trump continues to speak up. He is addressing something terribly evil, and it behooves every person of conscience to stand with him in standing for the rights of “the least of these.”

This article was originally published at AskDrBrown.org.

Written by Abigal Ruth

The love of a parent for a child is the most natural love there is. Most people find it easier to love their children than any other people on the planet and would sacrifice their very lives for their children if necessary. I don’t think it’s overstating it to say that our love for our children is probably the purest and least self-serving love of which we are capable as fallen human beings in a broken world.

So how is it that killing our children has become not only epidemic in practice but morally acceptable in the minds of so many Americans? I am of course talking about abortion. The most obvious answer is that we are sinners and everything about us is corrupt in one way or another—even our love for our children. God makes that fact crystal clear in the Bible which whitewashes nothing. References to children being sacrificed to pagan gods pepper the pages of the Old Testament. The well documented practice of ancient Romans abandoning their unwanted infants at garbage dumps to die of exposure, neglect and/or animal attack, surely indicates that a lack of respect for human life is normal for human beings who don’t have the enlightenment of God’s law. But still, how have so many mothers become the mortal enemies of their own unborn children?

I would suggest to you that there is another principle at work here. It can be found in Paul’s letter to the Galatians (3:24) which says, “the Law has become our tutor…(AMP)” Paul was, of course talking about God’s laws which He gave to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. The central point of this verse is not the point I am about to make, but nevertheless true: For better or worse, all laws teach people about right and wrong—especially non-religious people who do not have an independent moral code. They figure if it’s legal it must not be that bad…

In their excellent book, Legislating Morality, Dr. Norman Geisler and Frank Turek say it this way,

“Even though laws don’t change hearts overnight, they often help change attitudes over the long term…Today, apart from the tiny fraction of racist extremists in this country, everybody believes that slavery is morally wrong. Did hearts and attitudes change overnight because we outlawed slavery? No. Behavior changed because slave owners didn’t want to go to jail, but the law did help change pro-slavery attitudes over the long term…Before the Civil War, slave owners could rationalize the obvious immorality of slavery under the cover of “it’s legal.” Afterward, the law didn’t proved that convenient excuse and attitudes slowly changed.”

The same has been true of abortion. Abortion on demand was illegal for the first 200 years of our existence as a nation. All fifty states had laws against it. Even in New York it was limited to cases of rape, incest and saving the mother’s life. Before Roe v. Wade the vast majority of Americans believed that abortion was immoral. The laws in all fifty states protecting the unborn confirms this. The legalization of abortion did not come about as a result of the American people clamoring for it. The change in attitude toward abortion came after seven unelected U.S. Supreme Court justices arbitrarily reversed the will of the majority as expressed through their legislators to protect the unborn. Legalizing abortion helped to remove the stigma of immorality and taught millions of Americans the lie that abortion is morally acceptable. We have seen the same change in attitude happen in a stunningly short period time with regard to homosexual behavior and same-sex marriage.

We need not criminalize every behavior that God calls sin. That would be both unworkable and foolish. However, our civil laws should never contradict God’s laws because God’s laws accurately reflect what is truly right and wrong.

I can foresee a day in which infanticide, prostitution and even pedophilia will not only be legalized but will become morally acceptable in the minds of many Americans. Unless more people learn to fear God and turn to His law as the primary source of moral wisdom, the escalation of evil is inevitable. The consequences will be catastrophic–especially for children. Pastors, it’s time to quit pulling your punches. Teach God’s law as well as His grace. If your congregations don’t learn right and wrong from God they WILL learn it elsewhere…

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?
And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
~Romans 10:14~

In the past several weeks, we’ve seen a hard progressive push toward more radical legalizations to abortion.  The state of New York recently passed a law that would permit abortions up to the moments of birth.  There have been discussions to allow the ability to have an “abortion” even moments after birth.  (Process that with me for a moment).  As a Christian husband, father and a Pastor, I am terribly saddened, disgusted and broken over the moral DNA of our culture and most of our officials in Washington.

So, what are we to do?  How can we respond?

Here are 5 ways to properly respond to the Pro-Choice Movement:

Pray

In the book of Esther, we read how the Jewish people were on the verge of annihilation by a horrific plan by Haman.  Queen Esther had a plan to stop it, but before she did anything, she called for 3 days of prayer and fasting.  This is a not battle that could be won through the means of flesh and blood.  This is a spiritual battle and we need to put on our armor.  F.B. Meyer once said, “The greatest tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer.” Let’s be sure to pray!

Speak up and engage

Everyone has on opinion on the matter of Abortion.  However, there is only one opinion that truly matters and that is God’s.  He has called us to be the carriers of His message of truth.  Proverbs 31:8-9 says, “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.” We need to speak up and engage in conversations with our friends, family and those around the water cooler and be a voice for the voiceless. Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

Volunteer/Support Crisis-Pregnancy Centers

We are thankful for those who are on the frontlines in our community for the Pro-Life Movement.  Crisis pregnancy centers work to educate, love, and counsel pregnant women against having an abortion.  These are organizations that work with limited resources and depend on those who financially support and volunteer.  Let’s support those who are on the frontlines.

Vote

I don’t ever tell anyone who to vote for.  However, let me bring some commonsense here.  If you want to stop abortion, stop voting for those who are for abortion.  It’s that simple.  (The next election is April 2nd!)

Respond with the Gospel

Look at any study, and you will find that women with a history of abortion have higher rates of anxiety, depression, alcohol use, marijuana use, and suicidal behavior, compared to those who have not had an abortion. Despite what you see on social media, brokenness is wrapped around the one who has had an abortion.  And the best way to respond to that brokenness is with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 says, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” 

No one is too dirty that Jesus can’t clean him. No one is too far for Jesus to save. Let’s choose to respond with the gospel of grace.  The Apostle Paul once said of the Gospel, “…for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”

God is the author of life.  He values life and so should we.  Let’s choose to be His hands, feet and voice in our culture today.

Join us for the annual SpeakOut Illinois pro-life conference on Saturday, March 9th!

It wasn’t so long ago that such a thing would be unthinkable: a standing ovation for abortion in the New York State Senate chamber with the passage of legislation permitting abortion for any reason up until the moment of birth. Already in New York City, one in three babies are aborted. The bill goes so far as to drop the requirement that doctors perform abortions and decriminalizes acts of violence that result in the deaths of unborn babies. In other words, if an unborn baby dies in the commission of an act of violence against his or her mother, the perpetrator will no longer be held criminally liable for the baby’s death.

So much for “safe, legal and rare.” With this patently facetious mantra, it took Democratic president Bill Clinton only two days into his presidency to reverse policies restricting abortion instituted by his Republican predecessors Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

Virtually all Democratic candidates in recent memory, from candidates for president on down, have campaigned on their commitment to preserving the legal right to kill the unborn. It wasn’t always this way. In 1937, in response to doctors performing abortions during the Great Depression, the National Federation of Catholic Physician’s Guild issued a statement condemning abortion. In those days the opponents of abortion were more likely to be Democratic than Republican. President Roosevelt’s New Deal drew considerable support from the Catholic Church’s desire to protect and nurture all life–including the unborn.

Some of the first vocal proponents of abortion were, surprisingly, Republicans. Moderate Republican governor Nelson Rockefeller shepherded through his state’s abortion reform law in 1970. In 1967 in California, that icon of conservatives, a then “moderate” Ronald Reagan, signed a similar bill loosening restrictions on abortion. But the issue was gaining steam, and by the 1970’s conservative Republicans, campaigning on opposition to abortion after the disastrous Roe vs. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1973, were able to wrest control of the GOP.

The battle lines were drawn in 1976 when the first presidential election since Roe vs. Wade brought the issue to the forefront. Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter, despite his Evangelical Christian bona fides, walked a tightrope trying to appeal to both sides. From then until the present, Democratic politicians have declared, despite massive evidence to the contrary, that they only wish to have abortion “safe, legal, and rare.” In 1976, the outrage against such duplicitous arguments produced a successful effort to end Medicaid funding for abortion with the Hyde Amendment, the first significant legislative victory for anti-abortion activists after Roe vs. Wade.

While abortion activists argue for unrestricted access to abortion throughout pregnancy, polls show that support for late-term abortions continues to decline, with a paltry 13 percent of Americans supporting abortion during the third trimester. The enthusiastic crowds at the annual March for Life are further evidence of the widespread desire to protect innocent human life in the womb. The most recent March for Life saw an unprecedented show of political firepower, with addresses by the president, vice-president and House speaker, all heralding the gains that the movement has made under the presidency of Donald Trump, who stated: “Under my administration, we will always defend the very first right in the Declaration of Independence, and that is the right to life.”

The new Democratic mantra: “While personally opposed to abortion, the U.S. Supreme Court is the law of the land, and thus I must respect Roe vs. Wade” is beginning to wear thin. As we lament the 45^th anniversary of that calamitous legal decision, the effect of this assertion wanes and the abortion issue is becoming an even more highly charged issue.

Democratic leaders have used the 45th anniversary of Roe v. Wade to reiterate their support for legal abortion and launch new onerous legislation in Illinois and other states–hoping to expand so-called “reproductive rights” and access at the expense of innocent human lives. Now is the time for people of faith–Democrats and Republicans alike–to raise their voices in defense of the most vulnerable among us: the unborn.

“Official statistics show that almost half of embryos used to help a woman conceive through in vitro fertilization were thrown away during or after the process. The embryos are created from female eggs and male sperm during the IVF process, with some introduced into the womb, put into storage, discarded as unwanted, or used in scientific experiments.” ~Andrew Hough, The Telegraph

Translation: “60 000 RM is what this person suffering from hereditary illness costs the community in his lifetime. Fellow citizen, that is your money too. Read Neues Volk. The monthly magazine of the Office of Racial Policy of the NSDAP.”

A Perfect Race of Humans

But history is no stranger to this evil concept. During Hitler’s reign, Nazi eugenics deemed certain people “unworthy of life.” This included prisoners, dissidents, and “unclean” races, but it also included those with learning disabilities, mental illnesses, physical deformities, and those with handicaps.

Nazis didn’t kill only Jews and rebellious foreigners, they killed their own “flawed” countrymen! Today, we have our own eugenics (meaning “well born”) philosophies going on. And, for many, it involves their own children!

I have a shocking revelation for you. Are you ready? Today’s leaders who support the bloody atrocity of abortion on demand, even to the point of promoting the cold-blooded whim-killing of a perfectly healthy infant moments before birth, go beyond what even Hitler promoted! Yes, today’s abortion practices are even worse than those of the Nazis!

While Hitler would have preferred me dead (and possibly required it), he would have condemned the abortion of babies he viewed as physically and mentally fit. His insane obsession with a pure and unblemished race indeed led him to the killing of innocents, but his murder spree was limited to his own warped perception of the worthy vs. the unworthy (“unclean races,” “deformed children,” “physically disabled,” and “feeble-minded”).

“The exposure of the sick, weak, deformed children, in short, their destruction, was more decent and in truth a thousand times more humane than the wretched insanity of our day which preserves the most pathological subject, and indeed at any price, and yet takes the life of a hundred thousand healthy children in consequence of birth control or through abortions, in order subsequently to breed a race of degenerates burdened with illnesses.” ~Adolf Hitler (Social Darwinism in European and American Thought by Mike Hawkins)

“In view of the large families of the Slav native population, it could only suit us if girls and women there had as many abortions as possible. We are not interested in seeing the non-German population multiply…We must use every means to instill in the population the idea that it is harmful to have several children, the expenses that they cause and the dangerous effect on woman’s health… It will be necessary to open special institutions for abortions and doctors must be able to help out there in case there is any question of this being a breach of their professional ethics.”

“For by a single offering
He has perfected for all time
those who are being sanctified.”
~Hebrews 10:14

As President Trump gazed out over his audience in the U.S. House of Representatives chamber during his State of the Union address, he had to have noticed the prominent block of female Democratic lawmakers seated front and center, dressed in white to symbolize their growing power in the halls of government.  Their presence was a painful reminder to the President that in the 2018 Congressional races female voters preferred Democratic candidates by 19 points, sending a record 106 women to Congress.

As he begins the third year of his presidency, Trump is in the doghouse with the fairer sex who, according to the polls, disapprove of him by almost a 2-to-1 margin. Quite a turnaround from 2016, when Trump won the election with record support of women – notably white women.

Accordingly, the President spent much of his speech touting women’s gains during his administration, which sent the Democratic contingent to their feet in enthusiastic applause.  In addition to job creation and electoral successes for women, Trump noted that paid family leave –a key women’s issue – was included in his budget.  One senses the standing ovations when certain issues were raised were not in praise of Trump, but rather defiant, as in: “Your days are numbered.”

Undeterred by his ambivalent audience, Trump launched into his signature issue of immigration, pointing out that many female illegal immigrants are sexually assaulted on their long journey to the US southern border.  He even highlighted the presence in the chamber of an ICE agent who rescues women from sex traffickers.  The contingent dressed in white sat stone-faced and muted in lock-step with their leadership, which has announced its opposition to a border wall despite the dangers posed to female illegal immigrants

Turning his attention to a central issue for social conservatives, the President boldly announced his opposition to what he termed “chilling” legislation recently introduced in New York and Virginia that would loosen abortion restrictions: “Lawmakers in New York cheered with delight upon the passage of legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from the mother’s womb moments before birth. These are living, feeling, beautiful babies who will never get the chance to share their love and dreams with the world … Let us work together to build a culture that cherishes innocent life,” he pleaded to vigorous applause from Republicans.

The abortion issue is gaining steam nationwide in the buildup to the 2020 national elections.  Worldometers.info, a site that tracks global statistics in real time, reports that abortions are the leading cause of death worldwide.  The 43 million abortions in 2018 exceeded deaths from all other causes, including cancer and heart ailments.  With a President who unabashedly addressed the issue in his SOTU speech, we can hope and pray that his words will encourage a great movement to overturn Roe vs. Wade and finally put an end to abortion, led by masses of those who concur with his words: “Let us reaffirm a fundamental truth: all children — born and unborn — are made in the holy image of God.”

Christian Life in Exile
On February 22^nd, IFI is hosting a special forum with Dr. Erwin Lutzer as he teaches from his latest book, “The Church in Babylon,” answering the question, “How do we live faithfully in a culture that perceives our light as darkness?” This event is free and open to the public, and will be held at Jubilee Church in Medinah, Illinois.

Click HERE for more info…

Nothing screams “nasty woman” quite like Virginia lawmaker Kathy Tran’s cold-blooded and thankfully defeated bill that would have legalized de facto infanticide. When asked prior to the vote if her bill would allow the slaughter of a full-term baby during labor, she was forced to publicly admit that it would.

If it had passed, full-term healthy babies could have been slaughtered for any reason that a murderous doctor deemed a threat to a mother’s “mental health.” Just wondering, shouldn’t this be a hate crime? Wikipedia defines a hate crime as one in which a “perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her membership in a certain social group.” Doesn’t the premeditated, direct killing of humans based on their age fit that definition?

Tran’s morally transgressive and repugnant bill removed the requirement that abortion is permitted if “continuation of the pregnancy is likely to substantially and irremediably impair the mental… health of the woman.” She removed the words “substantially and irremediably.” This means that a mother could have her full-term child aborted if she says it would only insubstantially and remediably “impair” her “mental health.” And y’all know what that means. It means that Virginia would have followed Alaska, Colorado, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, and Vermont—where women can have their full-term babies killed for no reason—in legalizing de facto infanticide.

As I wrote several days ago, 24 other states permit the active, intentional killing of full-term babies for “mental health” reasons, which include “emotional, psychological, and familial” considerations. In other words, for any reason. What Tran’s removal of the words “substantially and irremediably” did was make it glaringly obvious that “mental health” is a deceitful rhetorical pretext to conceal that abortion of full-term, healthy humans is legal.

When asked about this barbaric law, Democratic governor and pediatric neurologist Dr. Ralph Northam employed some tricksy rhetoric to try to persuade listeners that de facto infanticide of full-term babies is justified if they are defective:

When we talk about third-trimester abortions…. it’s done in cases where there may be severe deformities, there may be a fetus which is non-viable. So… if the mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if this is what the mother and the family desired. And then a discussion would ensue between the physician and the mother.

First, who calls a full-term baby a “fetus”? Interestingly, in the next sentence, he inadvertently acknowledged the truth that the full-term “fetus” is actually an infant.

Second, would an infant that may or may not be resuscitated be a dead infant—one whose breathing or heart has stopped? If so, this raises some questions. How did this fetus/infant in Northam’s sanitized hypothetical come to be dead? Was Northam alluding to the natural death of an infant born with a condition incompatible with life, or was he referring to an infant whose death was caused during labor by a Dr. Mengele-wannabe? If full-term babies can be killed because of severe deformities or terminal conditions one day prior to their birth day, why shouldn’t full-term babies with severe deformities or terminal conditions be killed post birth—also known euphemistically as “after-birth abortion.”

Tran and Northam seek to implement legislatively what philosopher Michael Tooley, Princeton University “bioethicist” Peter Singer, and eugenicists everywhere advocate. They advocate for the legal right of some humans—let’s call them Superhumans—to decide which humans have a right to live and which—because of their defects—have no such right. Let’s call the latter group the Expendables.

Tooley wrote this in 1972 in an article titled “Abortion and Infanticide”:

An organism possesses a serious right to life only if it possesses the concept of a self as a continuing subject of experiences and other mental states, and believes that it is itself such a continuing entity…. If this view of the matter is roughly correct, there are two worries one is left with at the level of practical moral decisions, one of which may turn out to be deeply disturbing. The lesser worry is where the line is to be drawn in the case of infanticide…. The practical moral problem can thus be satisfactorily handled by choosing some period of time, such as a week after birth, as the interval during which infanticide will be permitted. This interval could then be modified once psychologists have established the point at which a human organism comes to believe that it is a continuing subject of experiences and other mental states.

Through some tortured reasoning about the ethics of torturing kittens, Tooley concludes that it is not membership in the species “homo sapiens” that determines the right to life but rather self-conceptualization as a “continuing subject of experiences and other mental states” and a belief that one is “such a continuing entity” that confers on humans a right to live. Therefore, neither newborns nor humans in the womb—or as Tooley calls them, “parasites”—enjoy that right.

As I have written, Peter Singer wants to extend killing “rights” 30 days post-natally to allow parents to ascertain the health status of their conditionally wanted children. After all, some imperfect humans may have escaped all the currently available tests for determining human perfection and, therefore, “wantedness.”

The infamous Singer himself acknowledges in his book Practical Ethics that we have already started down the unctuous slope:

I do not deny that if one accepts abortion on the grounds provided in Chapter 6, the case for killing other human beings, in certain circumstances, is strong. As I shall try to show… this is not something to be regarded with horror…. [O]nce we abandon those doctrines about the sanctity of human life that… collapse as soon as they are questioned, it is the refusal to accept killing that, in some cases, is horrific.

More recently, in 2011, two philosophers at the University of Melbourne, Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva, published a paper in which they advocated for “after-birth abortion”:

[W]e argue that, when circumstances occur after birth such that they would have justified abortion, what we call after-birth abortion should be permissible.

In the “social justice” paradigm that divides society into oppressors and oppressed, who are the oppressors: the Superhumans or the Expendables?

We are fast returning to paganism, from pagan sexuality to child sacrifice. Is there a moral difference between sacrificing babies to imaginary gods and sacrificing babies to the god of self?

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Virginia-Lawmaker-Wants-to-Make-Child-Sacrifice-Even-Easier_01.mp3

On February 22^nd, IFI is hosting a special forum with Dr. Erwin Lutzer as he teaches from his latest book, “The Church in Babylon,” answering the question, “How do we live faithfully in a culture that perceives our light as darkness?” This event is free and open to the public, and will be held at Jubilee Church in Medinah, Illinois.

Click HERE for more info…

This article has been updated to correct errors and add additional information.

Full-Term, Preborn Babies Can Be Killed For Virtually Any Reason

Why, I kept asking myself last week, are so many Americans so livid about Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) signing into law a bill passed jubilantly by the state legislature that makes it possible for women to abort full-term babies. Sure, the bill is morally repugnant and the jubilant applause by the legislature was grotesque, but 19 other states—including Illinois—allow full-term babies to be killed and for the same reasons. Seven other states and the District of Columbia allow full-term babies to be killed for any or no reason. Two other states allow full-term, healthy babies to be aborted if they were conceived during rape or through incest.

Toward the end of last week, just as outraged pro-life voices were dying down, it came to light that a new bill was proposed in Vermont which many mistakenly believe would legalize unrestricted abortion throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy. They were mistaken in that unrestricted access to abortion through the entire nine months of pregnancy has been legal in Vermont since 2014. The bill proposed in Vermont merely enshrines in state law the existing legal right as a “fundamental right.” Pro-baby-killing advocates are preparing for the day Roe v. Wade is overturned.

Late-term abortions are banned in 20 states except if the mother’s “health” is deemed at risk by allowing the baby to grow to term. But here’s the catch: “health” includes any physical, emotional, psychological, or familial factors that affect “well-being.” With that ambiguous and wildly broad definition, virtually any woman can have her baby killed at any point in her pregnancy.

Two states allow healthy babies to be killed in the womb in the 9th month if they were conceived in rape or through incest (AR, UT). Killing full-term babies is no less barbaric because they were created via criminal acts of someone else’s doing.

Seven states allow full-term babies to be killed if the babies have “lethal” abnormalities, which is de facto infanticide.

Take a gander at the chart provided by the Kaiser Family Foundation which lists the 20 states that allow late-term abortions for “health” reasons and the 7 that allow it for any or no other reason.

Also, take note of Alaska, Colorado, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and the District of Columbia. Those places are virtual killing fields. They don’t even require the pretense of a “health” reason for women to abort their full-term babies. In those 7 states, there are no bans on abortion at any stage. It’s open season on babies who, through no fault of their own, have the misfortune of being conceived in the wrong womb.

Since all 50 states and D.C. allow late-term abortions that threaten a mother’s life—as distinct from her “health”—it’s important to understand the inconvenient truth “progressives” don’t want Americans to think about: There is no life-threatening condition that would ever necessitate the direct, intentional, active killing of a baby in the womb. There are relatively rare occasions in which continuing a pregnancy threatens a woman’s life, but ending a pregnancy does not require the direct, intentional, active killing of a baby.

Doctors can induce delivery or perform a C-section to save a woman’s life in a life-threatening or emergency situation without dismembering, crushing, burning, or chemically inducing cardiac arrest in a baby. In some induced deliveries or C-sections, babies will not survive, but that is wholly different from intentionally killing them. Obstetrician-gynecologist and former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino explains:

Let me illustrate with a real-life case that I managed while at the Albany Medical Center. A patient arrived one night at 28 weeks gestation with severe pre-eclampsia or toxemia. Her blood pressure on admission was 220/160. A normal blood pressure is approximately 120/80. This patient’s pregnancy was a threat to her life and the life of her unborn child. She could very well be minutes or hours away from a major stroke.

This case was managed successfully by rapidly stabilizing the patient’s blood pressure and “terminating” her pregnancy by Cesarean section. She and her baby did well.

This is a typical case in the world of high-risk obstetrics. In most such cases, any attempt to perform an abortion “to save the mother’s life” would entail undue and dangerous delay in providing appropriate, truly life-saving care. During my time at Albany Medical Center I managed hundreds of such cases by “terminating” pregnancies to save mother’s lives. In all those cases, the number of unborn children that I had to deliberately kill was zero.

GET WOKE, AMERICANS! Full-term babies can be legally exterminated in the womb for virtually any reason or no reason in most states in the U.S. Take your righteous anger at this barbarism and do something useful.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Cuomo-Re-Recording-3.mp3

A bold voice for pro-family values in Illinois! 

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There are two dates on my mind today. The first is January 22, 1973, the day the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade, opening the door for virtually unlimited abortion on demand. Since that day, over 61 million Americans have perished at the hands of medical practitioners who shun the Hippocratic Oath. Let that number sink in for a minute. 61,000,000. That equates to about the total populations of California and Texas combined!

There have been so many deaths from abortion that many Americans are becoming desensitized to the issue. I remember the initial response to Roe v. Wade. There were grief-stricken people of faith across the nation standing in peaceful protest and turning out for marches, walks, and human life chains so long they passed through cities. But today, the silenced innocents are all but forgotten. To most, they are nameless, faceless, soulless numbers. But God remembers.

Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you.” (Isaiah 49:15)

Medical science has revealed that these babies were far more than numbers. Even though they were doomed never to take their first breath, they had beating hearts, working organs, functioning brains, and souls that cried to the Lord for justice. We didn’t hear their screams. But God heard.

Imagine the horror of seeing such things done to the bodies of our living children. God doesn’t have to imagine. He sees.

You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. (Psalm 56:8)

But these realities are not stopping “progressive” politicians from doing what they can to facilitate more deaths. On the 46^th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade, Illinois’ new governor, J.B. Pritzker, while signing an executive order supporting taxpayer-funded abortions, declared that Illinois “will be the most progressive state in the nation when it comes to guaranteeing women’s reproductive rights.”

Equally damning, the majority of elected state lawmakers in New York erupted in applause at the passing of the Reproductive Health Act, a measure which legalizes the death of babies, even up through the ninth month of gestation. The bill was quickly and joyfully signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo. New York, the state with the highest percentage of abortions per capita, will see even more innocent babies executed—legally. These forsaken children will have no memorial, outside of those detailed in Planned Parenthood’s annual report.

Ironically, there is one famous public memorial that urges New Yorkers to remember and to validate the lives of New Yorkers—an eerie reminder that human life is precious—all human life. Regardless of sex, race, creed, color, or age, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. In this place, there is a statement affirming the value of the unborn.

That is the memorial to those lost on September 11, 2001, the second date on my mind. A day of great tragedy and heartache—one that still haunts America to this day. Almost 3,000 innocent people died that day. The victims of the tragedy could not protect themselves. The decision to terminate their lives was made by others.

Yet, we remember and honor these precious lives. A solemn monument was erected in downtown New York City called the 911 Memorial. At this sacred site, the names of all those who perished are forever chiseled into the American psyche—inscribed in gray granite for future generations to see and remember.

Ten of those listed include unborn children. The unborn who perished inside their mothers are listed for the world to see and mourn! They are not callously called “fetuses.” They are not referred to as a “biological mass.” They are called what they are: children!

The names of each individual are there to remind us about the horror of deaths of innocent people caused by the decisions and actions of others. This memorial is in the center of New York City, ironically a place where the lives of many other babies are extinguished daily.

And, we are not to forget—unless you happen to be a “progressive” politician with an agenda.

“DEANNA LYNN GALANTE AND HER UNBORN CHILD.”

“LAUREN CATUZZI GRANDCOLAS AND HER UNBORN CHILD”

“JENNIFER L. HOWLEY AND HER UNBORN CHILD”

“HELEN CROSSIN KITTLE AND HER UNBORN CHILD.”

“VANESSA LANG AND HER UNBORN CHILD”

‘PATRICIA ANN CIMAROLI MASSARI AND HER UNBORN CHILD”

‘RENEE A. MAY AND HER UNBORN CHILD”

“SYLVIA SAN PIO RESTA AND HER UNBORN CHILD.”

“RAHMA SALIE AND HER UNBORN CHILD”

“DIANNE SINGER AND HER UNBORN CHILD”

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