By Joe Landrum

With the new school year, starting for most students on or before the day after Labor Day, upon us, it is time once again for educators to consider ways to incorporate the pro-life message into their curriculum. The National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund is the place to start their search.

Our newest resource is a DVD titled "A Baby's First Months -- Infinite Possibilities." This award-winning DVD takes the viewer through the major milestones of the development of the unborn child in just six minutes. The DVD teaches the humanity of the unborn child without ever getting into the abortion issue. " A Baby's First Months--Infinite Possibilities" is suitable for all audiences.

The writer, director and producer of the DVD, Pam Rucinski, indicated that she "wanted viewers to lose themselves in the breathtaking moments of their first days of life." We believe she succeeded. ($10 each, no shipping charge.) To order please got to http://www.nrlc.org/news/2009/NRL07-08/InfinitePossibilities.html.

The DVD is a perfect companion to the booklet, a baby's first months, with pictures of babies in utero at various stages. Brief descriptions tell the reader what's new at each stage, but the pictures do most of the talking. These are small booklets, and may be great additions to high school biology classes dealing with human development.

Unlike the DVD, these booklets do briefly discuss the legality of abortion on one page, noting that even the child at 20 weeks could be legally aborted. The focus is on the child, however, and the information is well footnoted for those who want to delve into a particular aspect of human development. ($.45 cents each, with quantity discounts.)

Of continuing importance are the Trust Fund's fact sheets-- one, two, or four-page descriptions of a particular topic. The most recent addition to this line-up is the very significant study, Does Legalizing Abortion Protect Women's Health? In four pages and full color it deals with the claim that legalizing abortion in countries where is it not currently legal would save women's lives. This is a joint publication of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life Global Outreach and the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund.

The fact sheet debunks this claim, pointing out that improving health care in poorer countries would save lives, not legalizing abortion. Indeed, in places where health care remains inadequate, legalizing abortions would increase the number of women who die or are harmed by abortion, as legalization would lead to an increase in the number of women aborting. (More about fact sheets below.)

The subject of stem cells remains an important and very timely pro-life topic. (See Part One of Today's News & Views.)

The Trust Fund offers a 30-minute DVD titled "Stem Cells and Cloning." This easy-to-follow introduction to the topic discusses what stem cells are, the difference between adult and embryonic stem cells, and the use of so-called "therapeutic cloning" to obtain embryonic stem cells.

The presenter, NRLC President Dr. Wanda Franz, discusses the scientific interest in stem cell research, successes with adult stem cells, and the ethical implications of destroying human embryos for some potential future benefit to others. In contrast to adult stem cell research, embryonic stem cell research requires killing human embryos, whether those embryos were originally created to bring a child to birth or were created solely for research. This can be a perfect introduction to this subject in biology classes, or in government classes dealing with current events. ($10 -- no extra shipping!)

On the subject of abortion complications, the second edition of Women's Health After Abortion: The Medical and Psychological Evidence is available on the web page of the De Veber Institute, which published this edition in 2003. See http://www.deveber.org/publications2.html. This book summarizes the results of a number of studies that have demonstrated the detrimental health effects of abortion, effects such as increased risk of breast cancer, infertility, substance abuse, and even suicide. This can really help the pro-lifer answer the oft-repeated but ridiculous claim that abortion is safer for the mother than childbirth.

One overlooked resource students, librarians and educators might wish to consider is the Research Bulletin of the Association for Interdisciplinary Research in Values and Social Change. The Bulletin provides information from top researchers in their fields on the medical, psychological and sociological aspects of abortion. Several issues are available on line at http://www.abortionresearch.us, with more to come.

The current issue is "Perceptions of Pre-abortion Counseling Inadequacy and Decision Disagreement as Predictors of Subsequent Relationship Problems and Psychological Stress in Men and Women." The authors are Catherine T. Coyle, RN, PhD, Priscilla K. Coleman, PhD, Vincent M. Rue, PhD.

The range of topics makes the Association Newsletter an excellent resource for a number of classroom discussions or essay assignments. A complete list of titles is available. (Membership in the Association: $25 annually. Single copies of back issues: $1)

We mentioned fact sheets at the beginning. We have available four fact sheets that deal with various aspects of Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States. They include PPFA's political activities, their involvement in abortion, their finances, and recent activities involved in restructuring, clinic mergers, etc.

Other topics include: Arguments Made for Abortion…And Some Answers; Abortion's Physical Complications; Abortion's Psycho-Social Consequences; Teens and Abortion: Why Parents Should Know; Abortion Statistics and Trends; The Pain of the Unborn; Deaths From RU486; Supreme Court Decisions; and Abortion's Impact on Minorities. These are great introductions to different aspects of abortion, and can really help jump start the class discussion. All these are available on our web page, at http://www.nrlc.org/factsheets/index.html. Single copies of each are free, and you are free to make copies or download from our web page.

Also on our web page you can find more than a decade's worth of NRL News at http://www.nrlc.org/news/index.html; the on-line version of Abortion: Some Medical Facts at http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/index.html; our new Communications Blog at http://nrlcomm.wordpress.com/; information about our Essay Contests (one for grades 7-9, one for grades 10-12) at http://www.nrlc.org/essaycontest/index.html; or the basics of the development of the unborn child at http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/facts/fetaldevelopment.html. Search around - you'll find plenty more.

If you are interested in obtaining any of the above materials, or for information on quantity discounts, contact the Trust Fund at education@nrlc.org; (202) 626-8829; or write to 512 10th St. NW, Washington, DC 20004. Unless otherwise noted, add $3.95 shipping for orders under $20, or 20% for orders of $20 and over.

Joe Landrum is Administrative Assistant for Public Information for the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund.