NRLC's Educational Tools Continue to Expand

By Joseph Landrum

With the new school year already in high gear, it's important to be on a first-name basis with the many educational tools NRLC has for use in the classroom. All can be purchased inexpensively. Although we will focus here on printed materials, National Right to Life has an award-winning web site -- www.nrlc.org -- from which teachers, students, and parents can obtain exceedingly helpful resources.

Among the favorites of the NRL Educational Trust Fund are a number of fact sheets, mostly one-page, two-sided sheets, that present a thoughtful, concise overview of one particular topic. (See ad, page 15.) Let me give you the highlights of these especially useful tools.

* First, we have a single-sided page, "Abortion Techniques," giving a quick description of the methods of abortion.

* For a quick primer, we offer "The Basics." This includes highlights of the milestones of fetal development, current statistics, the reasons women give for seeking abortion, and statistics on repeat abortions.

* "Abortion: Statistics and Trends" provides a yearly breakdown since 1973, along with an analysis of the overall decline in abortion numbers, rates, and ratios that has taken place in the years 1990-1997.

* For a provocative glimpse into the damage abortion has done to the American economy, we have "The Economic Impact of Abortion: What Do 40 Million Lost Lives Mean?" This fact sheet looks at the resulting shrinking labor force, the effect on future of Social Security and Medicare, and the high "cost" of tax-funded abortions.

* If the chemical abortion technique RU486 (see story, page 10) has not been on your pro-life "radar" in recent days, to refresh your memory, we have "RU486 - Risks and Dangers." This does an excellent job of helping the reader understand the real hazards this two-drug abortion technique poses to women (not to mention the lethal effects on the unborn child). There is also a lengthy "Question and Answer" section on RU486 on our web page, dealing with the history of the approval process, how the drug works, and a much more detailed discussion of side effects. See www. nrlc.org/Federal/RU486/index.html for details.

* Our most recent fact sheet covers stem cell research, discussing the moral problems that killing human embryos to obtain their stem cells present, the promising ethical alternative of using adult stem cells, and the pro-life adoption solution for dealing with the so-called "excess" embryos no longer wanted by their biological parents. (See editorial, page two.)

* Finally, we offer a more lengthy fact sheet on "Planned Parenthood: The real story behind the nation's premier "family planning" agency.

The fact sheet covers Planned Parenthood's abortion business, the enormous amount of money PPFA takes in from abortions each year, the amount it takes in from your tax dollars, various lobbying campaigns it has been involved in, and information about its founder, Margaret Sanger.

We also have materials that people order year in and year out. These include the complete text of our "Abortion: Some Medical Facts" booklet.

(See www.nrlc.org/abortion/index.html for the complete text online.)

"Abortion in America - - When You Were Formed in Secret" is a two- part booklet, providing basic information on abortion, fetal development, and crisis pregnancy center hotlines. Essays by Kay Coles James and former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop discuss the pro-death mentality in America, brought about by the corruption of law and medicine embodied by the Supreme Court decisions allowing abortion on demand.

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 teachers and 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 (we're working on getting it updated), an excellent companion is the 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."

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 roughly 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 for the mother's health, deaths from legal abortion, and adverse psychological effects of abortion.

The newsletters are well foot-noted for those wishing to pursue a particular area of research. You can request a free sample and list of back issues, or see www.nrlc.org/abortion/ facts/research.html for more detailed information.

Also, we offer a new book titled Women's Health After Abortion: The Medical and Psychological Evidence. (See Dr. Wanda Franz's column in the August 2002 NRL News.) This is a comprehensive overview of studies dealing with the toll that abortion takes on the well-being of women.

The book deals with such physical problems following abortion as increased breast cancer rates and increased rates of ectopic pregnancy and other reproductive problems, as well as emotional problems such as relationship breakups, increased rates of smoking and alcohol and drug use, and increased suicide rates. The book also includes a section on the effect of abortion on men, often overlooked in abortion discussions.

ORDERING INFORMATION

To request any of the above materials, call (202) 626-8829; fax (202) 393-0745; e-mail: education@nrlc.org; or write to NRL Educational Trust Fund, 512 10th St., NW, Washington, DC 20004. You can receive one free copy of "Abortion: Some Medical Facts" and "Abortion in America."

* "Abortion: Some Medical Facts" costs .25 per copy, dropping to .22 for 100 +, or .20 for 500 +.

* "Abortion Information for Classroom Teachers" costs $1.25 each, dropping to $1 for 20 or more.

* "What the Nurse Saw" costs .25 per copy, any quantity. * Women's Health After Abortion is $16 per copy.

* "Abortion In America - - When You Were Formed in Secret" normally starts at $1 per copy. However, until November 30, you can order these for .50 a copy, with no additional shipping charges. Order in multiples of 100, and the cost drops to $30 per 100.

Shipping for all other items 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. Single copies of all fact sheets are free, and you are free to make as many copies as you need.