Trust Fund Also Releases New Planned Parenthood Fact Sheet

Newest Life Cycle Features Partial-Birth Abortion

By Randall K. O'Bannon, Ph.D.

Two new much-anticipated publications were released by the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund at the 27th annual NRLC Convention held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 24-26. Both the new full-color Life Cycle which addresses the scourge of partial-birth abortion and the new four-page Planned Parenthood fact sheet are now available from the Trust Fund. (For ordering information, see below.)

Developed as an educational resource, in cooperation with Wisconsin RTL, for high school students studying current social issues, this Life Cycle, like its predecessors, will be mailed to virtually every secondary school in the United States. Though this edition will not be mailed to the schools until the beginning of the academic year this fall, copies are available now from the Trust Fund to anyone wanting to learn more or help others learn more.

The partial-birth abortion issue has helped to galvanize opposition to abortion that extends beyond the pro-life community. Because of the debate over partial-birth abortion, people have discovered, and the media have finally been unable to ignore, that abortion really does take the life of a human being.

This new eight-page, full-color Life Cycle titled "What the Nurse Saw" brings home that horror and the abortion industry's coverup of the grisly truth in a visually compelling and factually rigorous way.

The new Life Cycle begins with the story of nurse Brenda Shafer and her firsthand personal account of a partial-birth abortion she witnessed in Ohio in 1993. The simple but highly effective line drawings depicting a partial-birth abortion, featured in congressional and Senate debates, are included, as is the latest evidence on when babies are developed enough to experience pain.

The center section of the Life Cycle destroys the myths that have surrounded partial-birth abortion - for example, that anesthesia kills the baby and that these abortions are rarely performed and then only for severe health reasons.

In the process of refuting these untrue myths, this article documents how, in attempting to minimize and trivialize the horror of partial-birth abortion, the abortion industry (paraphrasing Ron Fitzsimmons, executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers) "lied through its teeth."

The Life Cycle also includes a section that highlights statements by the medical profession, including C. Everett Koop, former surgeon general; the American Medical Association; and the Physicians' Ad Hoc Coalition for Truth, demonstrating that partial-birth abortion is unethical and not good medicine.

The wonder of fetal development, detailed on the back inside cover, provides a context for the inhumanity of partial-birth abortion. A beautiful picture of an unborn child taken at the stage where many partial-birth abortions are performed helps the reader go beyond the clinical facts and consider the reality.

A time line on the back cover provides reference to the history of partial-birth abortion and attempts by Congress to ban the procedure.

This exciting new Life Cycle represents the first time all this information has been collected into one bold, easily accessible, booklet-style format. Your church or chapter will find this an excellent introduction and reference guide to this critical life issue.

The Trust Fund's latest Planned Parenthood fact sheet is an attractive, effective, and solidly documented piece that can be used by pro-lifers everywhere to conclusively demonstrate Planned Parenthood's deep involvement in the American abortion holocaust.

Largely using Planned Parenthood's own documents, the fact sheet lays out statistical evidence of the extent of Planned Parenthood's abortion enterprise. It reveals how Planned Parenthood performs nearly 12% of all abortions performed annually in the U.S. and how Planned Parenthood promotes abortion through research, advertising, litigation, and political action.

The fact sheet also lays out the "money trail," illustrating how abortion is big business for Planned Parenthood. Readers will learn how American taxpayers provide nearly a third of Planned Parenthood's annual budget. Planned Parenthood's connection to the promotion of abortion overseas is also spelled out.

Some of Planned Parenthood's current policies and practices are examined in light of the organization's origins and founder Margaret Sanger's beliefs in eugenics.

Though the four-page, black and white (reproducible) fact sheet is chock full of useful information, with nearly 50 footnotes, it is reader-friendly. The fact sheet provides some encouraging information on how Planned Parenthood has been effectively challenged in states and communities across the country.

Both pieces are now available from the NRL Educational Trust Fund, which can be reached at (202) 626-8809. The Planned Parenthood fact sheet is free, unless you're asking for it to be shipped in large quantities. The full-color, glossy Partial-Birth Abortion Life Cycle is just $.25 each plus postage.

We hope you'll order and use both these publications to inform yourselves and others about these crucial issues.

Dr. O'Bannon is the NRL Educational Trust Fund's Director of Education and Research.