March for Life

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Jeanne Mancini & Brandi Swindell Op-ed on 2020 March for Life theme

Carrying on the suffragists’ pro-life message, 100 years later

(Originally published in the Washington Examiner)

The coming election year marks the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote. It was a long-fought battle led by courageous women who saw an injustice and fought to correct it in spite of public opinion.

In addition to issues affecting women, many of these early suffragists first became advocates for the abolition of slavery and were ahead of their time condemning the violence of abortion and infanticide.

The heroic example of these women has inspired the March for Life to choose the theme “Life Empowers: Pro-Life is Pro-Woman” for the 47th annual March for Life. Throughout the year, the March for Life will highlight the pro-life views of the suffragists and the way in which the pro-life movement is the true heir of these earliest feminists. Just as the suffragists peacefully advocated for women’s equality — and made great progress — pro-life advocates peacefully advocate for equality for the unborn.

One of the most remarkable suffragists is Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Born in 1815, Stanton was one of the founders of the U.S. suffragist movement and faced immense obstacles in her struggle for equal rights. During her lifetime, the United States condoned slavery and didn’t allow half of its population to vote just because of their sex. Meanwhile, Stanton was juggling the raising of her seven children with her advocacy work, which would one day change the course of history.

Stanton, spurred on by the United Kingdom’s suffrage movement, joined with other American activists and gathered a group of like-minded women in July of 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention. Over 300 people attended and Mrs. Stanton was a star of the convention, presenting her Declaration of Sentiments, which mirrored the Declaration of Independence. Her declaration asserted what we take for granted today: that men and women are created equal. It was there she proposed the then-controversial resolution demanding voting rights for women.

The Seneca Falls Declaration passed. Stanton was subsequently asked to speak at numerous other women’s conventions, cementing her role alongside Susan B. Anthony as a leader of the American women’s suffrage movement.

The fight for women’s right to vote wasn’t the only cause Anthony and Stanton shared. Both denounced in their writings the horrors of infanticide. In the 1868 weekly suffragist periodical Revolution, Stanton makes clear she viewed abortion as infanticide. She said that abortion contributed to the oppression of women as second-class citizens — calling it “inconceivable” as well as a “crying evil.”

It is the legacy of Elizabeth Cady Stanton that has led to the creation of Idaho-based Stanton Healthcare, the purpose of which is to offer life-affirming solutions and resources to abortion-vulnerable women; to provide hope to those struggling with the pain of past abortion; and to share the message of sexual integrity in a confidential and professional environment that promotes physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness. Like the early suffragists, the founders of Stanton Healthcare believe that all life is created with intrinsic value and are motivated to uphold the dignity of women and the lives of their children.

Together, those that make up the pro-life movement strive to complete the work of the suffragists by laboring to ensure every human life is treated with dignity and, as Stanton writes, endeavoring to “end this wholesale suffering and murder of helpless children.”

Thanks to the early feminist suffragists we have put the time when women were denied the right to vote behind us. One day, we hope to put behind us this time where the most innocent and vulnerable are denied the right to live. It is time to expose abortion as a grave injustice that marginalizes and devalues women, and that steals the lives of their children.

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Planned parenthood loses government funding

 

This is big news.

Following the Administration’s recent Title X rule separating abortion from family planning, yesterday, Planned Parenthood, our nation’s largest abortion provider, withdrew from Title X programs, and in doing showed once again that abortion advocacy is more important than women’s health.

March for Life President Jeanne Mancini was interviewed on the CBS Evening News to comment on this important development. Watch >>>>

Additionally, below is a round-up of new stories in which March for Life President Jeanne Mancini is quoted on Planned Parenthood withdrawing from the Title X program:

Abortion is neither healthcare nor family planning and taxpayer dollars should not support abortion.

Leana Wen’s recent firing and Planned Parenthood’s decision on Title X continues to reveal that the organization’s mission is political abortion advocacy, not healthcare.

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‘Alive From New York’ Invites New Yorkers to See Life Clearly

 

Just a few months ago, the Governor of New York had the Empire State Building lit up with pink lights to celebrate the passage of the extreme abortion law, the Reproductive Health Act. The law permits abortion up until birth with health requirements so broad and vague that abortion is available for virtually everyone. In most states when a pregnant woman is killed the accused is charged in a double homicide, for her life and the life of her child – under the RHA these murderers will no longer face charges for taking the unborn child’s life.

>>> Read Jeanne Mancini’s op-ed in the New York Post, “Times Square rally will show the callousness of NY abortion law.”

On Saturday, there was a much different celebration taking place. Thousands of people from across the country gathered in one of the busiest crossroads in America – New York City’s Times Square – to celebrate the sights and sounds of life.

The March for Life was honored to partner with Focus on the Family for the New York City celebration appropriately titled “Alive from New York” – an event featuring powerful pro-life stories and music, and most importantly, alive 4D ultrasound imaging of the 8-month unborn child of Abby Johnson. It was a bold event that was met with opposition at every turn, from digital billboard companies refusing to lease space to show the ultrasound images, to disruptive Planned Parenthood activists before and during the program; but the truth prevailed.

Alive from New York was a powerful reminder that our culture desperately needs truth. As I wandered the crowd, I overheard conversations sparked by the event. One young man said to an Alive from New York attendee that he was pro-choice but that he thought infanticide was clearly wrong and taking things too far. The ensuing dialogue allowed the pro-life person to gently question him about the difference between a newborn baby and a baby 8 months in the womb. I didn’t hear the end of the conversation, but I hope because of this encounter the young man has reconsidered his views.

The ultimate revelation of truth came at the end of the program when 4D ultrasound imaging showed the incredible images of a baby 8 months along in the womb. From my vantage point, the entire crowd went silent as we were all mesmerized by the life we were seeing. Then the heartbeat was played and we all erupted with cheers.

How can this reaction be described? I think it boils down to this – when you truly allow your eyes to be opened to the truth, the beauty of life evokes awe, wonder, and celebration.

There’s so much more that can be said about this incredible event – be sure to follow March for Life social media to read more about all the speeches and great moments.

Alive for Life concluded with a powerful song performed by Phil King and Francesca Battestelli. This line struck me: “They are not forgotten. We celebrate your heartbeat.”

A baby’s heartbeat is a beautiful sound of life; we cannot forget that a staggering 60 million of them have been lost to our country because of abortion since 1973. We must remember those lives as motivation to make abortion unthinkable in our future. I want to work towards and live in a world where every single heartbeat is loved and celebrated.

To honor their silenced heartbeats, we must be bold and faithful in defending and promoting life. That is why we march in freezing temperatures every January at the March for Life. I invite you to march with us again this year on January 24, 2020.

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Science Has Changed Since Roe v. Wade, Now Abortion Laws Must Change

The abortion debate isn’t settled, but the underlying science certainly is.

Abortion is perhaps the single most contentious topic in national discourse. Consider any judicial confirmation hearing from the past few years — the one inflammatory constant is abortion. Pro-choice politicians fear the overturning of Roe v. Wade and will stop at nothing to dramatically draw this out during the process of confirmation. There’s something strangely anachronistic about the debate: Roe v. Wade while the “law of the land” is outdated when considering the latest advances in science and modern prenatal medicine and technology.

In 2005, columnist Richard Cohen argued, “If a Supreme Court ruling is going to affect so many people, then it ought to rest on perfectly clear logic and up-to-date science. Roe, with its reliance on trimester and viability, has a musty feel to it.” The mustiness identified by Cohen has only intensified in the 14 years since he wrote this.

Today I will join over a hundred thousand Americans in Washington to March for Life. Our theme is “Unique from Day One: Pro-Life is Pro-Science.” We march to build a culture of life, to end abortion and in protest of the court’s deeply flawed decision and its devastating effect on children and families across the country.

Overnight, Roe v. Wade allowed elective abortion throughout all nine months of a woman’s pregnancy, making the United States one of only seven countries allowing late-term abortions, alongside China and North Korea. At the time of the decision, the “right” to an abortion was balanced against the state’s interest in regulating abortion, but states could only regulate the practice after viability, the age at which a premature infant can survive outside the womb. At that time (1973) viability was estimated to be between 24 and 28 weeks gestation.

It should come as no surprise that science has made great strides in the nearly half-century since abortion was legalized in America. The medical community has developed a far greater understanding of the uniqueness of human life from Day One, what lifesaving in-utero procedures are possible, and at what point during his or her development a premature baby can survive outside the mother’s womb.

Medical developments reveal when life starts

Advancements in the medical profession, particularly ultrasonography, reveal earlier and earlier the humanity of the child and in doing so, help people to see clearly that a person’s life starts when male and female chromosomes come together. Standard human embryology textbooks such as “The Developing Human Being” teach that “human development begins at fertilization when a male gamete or sperm (spermatozoon) unites with a female gamete or oocyte (ovum) to form a single cell — a zygote. This highly specialized, totipotent cell marked the beginning of each of us as a unique individual.” Unborn children possess from the beginning the DNA that informs a person’s unique characteristics.

Not only do scientists better understand the early stages of a person’s development in the womb, more and more they are able to perform lifesaving in-utero surgeries on babies who show signs of abnormal development. A team of doctors in Cleveland recently performed heart surgery on an unborn baby during the second trimester who had a rare and often fatal heart defect. That baby is now thriving.

The baby’s mother, Heather Catanese, told People magazine, “We went from discussions about what things did we want to do with him in whatever short amount of time we may be able to spend with him to talking with the doctors about what sports he may or may not be able to play in high school.”

Scientific and medical advances mean that diagnoses once a death knell for unborn children are no longer so.

Babies born before ‘viability’ are likely to live

And babies born before 24 weeks are more likely than ever to survive thanks to modern medicine. Consider the news in 2017 of a baby girl born at just over 21 weeks who beat the odds and is “thriving,” according to CNN.

“She may be the most premature survivor known to date,” reads an American Academy of Pediatrics report. “Over time, advances in neonatal care have led to a gradual lowering in the gestational limits of survivability.”

While people of faith are often criticized for defending the unborn on purely religious grounds, science in fact reinforces the notion that the unborn, from the moment they are conceived in their mother’s womb, are unique, unrepeatable human persons deserving of our protection.

While Roe argues that the right to privacy encompasses “a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy,” what we have learned from scientific discoveries and advancements in the past 46 years is that abortion is not merely a decision between a woman and her doctor. There is another, who is most impacted by such a decision.

Science has left Roe behind, but some Americans are still beholden to the “musty” legal decision. As we march today to end abortion, let’s hope and work for hearts and minds to be changed; for public policy grounded in the most up-to-date science and technology; and for laws that protect the inherent dignity of the human person.

(Originally published in USA Today)