Taking the Pro-Life Message Back to School

By Joseph Landrum

With the new school year upon us, it is time once again for educators to consider ways to incorporate the pro-life message into their curriculum. To many teachers that they may do so will come as a shock.

Abortion may be an obvious and frequent topic of discussion in religious education classes at private schools and in the home-schooling environment, they might respond, but may even public school teachers incorporate sound information on abortion into their classroom activities and discussions?

The answer is yes, according to NRLC General Counsel James Bopp, Jr. He explained that most pro-life educators and parents probably don't know that the Supreme Court's 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision made this inclusion possible.

Bopp quoted from Casey, "...the State may take measures to ensure that the woman's choice is informed. Measures designed to advance this interest should not be invalidated if their purpose is to persuade the woman to choose childbirth over abortion."

Schools, as state agencies, could play an important role in making sure that teens have access to the information they need in order to make an informed decision, he said. Teachers could incorporate abortion information in classes on government or American history, psychology, philosophy, biology, and health, to name a few.

"Schools are free to offer aggressive pro-life curricula at all grade levels," Bopp added. "Unfortunately, most educators - - and even most pro-lifers - - don't know this."

Make no mistake about it, one way or another, students will learn about abortion. Will they learn only what the "mainstream media" tells them? Or will parents and educators exercise their rightful role in shaping the message young people are hearing?

What to do? Decisions regarding implementing a pro-life curriculum in public schools are made at the local level.

Parents and teachers might consider asking their local school boards what policy, if any, regarding abortion education is currently in place. If there is none, they should ask the school board to consider implementing a pro-life curriculum.

National Right to Life has many educational tools available for instructors and students. First, we have an award winning web page, www.nrlc.org.

Students can be directed there for information on a variety of abortion- and euthanasia-related topics. Start there if you are looking for ideas.

The complete texts of both "Abortion Some Medical Facts" and "When Does Life Begin," two helpful booklets available for purchase, are available on-line. "When Does Life Begin" is an excellent resource for biology and health classes on human growth and development.

Teachers may also be interested in an excellent, comprehensive overview called Abortion Information for Classroom Teachers. This 35-page book gives pertinent information for teachers on fetal development, methods of abortion, physical and psychological complications of abortion, legal and historical aspects of abortion, and the decision-making process for teens regarding sexuality and abortion.

Each section is well footnoted for those teachers or students, who wish to do further research into any one aspect of the abortion issue. Sample research assignments and questions for classroom discussion on all aspects covered make this an excellent tool for teachers in many disciplines.

Since the current version of the text was copyrighted in 1992, an excellent companion is the new Life Cycle publication, What the Nurse Saw. This eight-page, full-color booklet deals at length with partial-birth abortion, not covered in Abortion Information for Classroom Teachers. Data on abortion statistics are widely available, and Trust Fund updates its fact sheets whenever new information becomes available. Copies of fact sheets are available on request. See how to order at the end of this article.

As with abortion in general, partial-birth abortion lends itself to discussion in various academic fields. For health and biology classes, What the Nurse Saw includes a discussion of fetal development and fetal pain, as well as information from the medical community on possible adverse effects.

For psychology classes, the pain experienced by both the nurse and one of the women she "helped" though her partial-birth abortion provides useful discussion material on post-abortion syndrome.

For history and government classes, the time line provides useful references to key moments in the legislative battle to end the procedure.

For more advanced high school or college studies in post-abortion research, the Association for Interdisciplinary Research in Values and Social Change publishes a newsletter every other month dealing with the negative aftermath of abortion, both physical and psychological. Recent issues have dealt with the long-term protective effects of childbirth as opposed to abortion for the mother's health, deaths from legal abortion, and adverse psychological effects of abortion. The newsletters are well footnoted for those wishing to pursue a particular area of research.

Of course most of you have also seen When Does Life Begin, a full sized, eight-page full-color booklet with excellent photos of children in the womb, and a description of what is going on at various stages of development. Another popular item is Abortion Some Medical Facts, a pocket-sized, 32-page booklet with a detailed description of various abortion procedures and complications. These are our most popular items, both for student research and particularly for pregnancy counseling centers.

For instructors who may prefer an expert to address a particular area of the abortion issue, pregnancy counseling centers may have a speaker who deals with post-abortion syndrome; local chapters of NRLC may be able to provide an expert on current legislative issues; associations of pro-life medical personnel may have an expert on fetal development and abortion complications. Check with your state affiliate if you don't know where to begin your search for local experts.

Many schools have a community service requirement for their students. Many of the organizations mentioned above would benefit from student volunteers helping to sort baby clothes or hold community "baby showers" for pregnancy resource centers; hold walkathons or various fundraisers to help such a center pay the rent or purchase an ultrasound machine; or simply stuff envelopes for the constant mailings that are such a necessary part of the pro-life effort.

And don't forget that National Right to Life sponsors a yearly oratory contest, with each state represented at the National Right to Life Convention each year. Contact your state affiliate for the details on your state contest. Individual classes or entire schools could host their own oratory contest.

Use your creativity! There are many ways to get the pro-life message out. The Educational Trust Fund stands ready to assist you in pro-life educational efforts.

Our goal is to make knowledge of fetal development and abortion available to all, as it is our firm belief that education is one of the keys to helping save unborn babies. But only you can see to it that pro-life educational materials are available in your schools, homes, churches, and synagogues.

ORDERING INFO

If you wish to order any of the above materials, call (202) 626-8809; e-mail nrletf@juno.com; or write to NRL Educational Trust Fund, 419 7th St., NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20004. You can receive one free copy of Abortion: Some Medical Facts and When Does Life Begin. Abortion: Some Medical Facts costs 25 cents per copy. When Does Life Begin costs 30 cents per copy. Abortion Information for Classroom Teachers costs $1.25 each. Prices for these items drop for orders over 100, so call first to check if you are ordering large quantities. What the Nurse Saw costs 25 cents per copy, any quantity. Shipping is $3.95 for orders under $20, and 20% of the total for orders of $20 and over. A one-year subscription to the association newsletter costs $25, payable to the Horatio Storer Foundation, at the same address as above. Back issues are available for $1 per copy.

Joseph Landrum is the administrative assistant for public information in the NRL Educational Trust Fund.