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NRL News
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NRLC’s web page at
www.nrlc.org On page 22, I outlined a number of resources the Trust Fund has available that may be ordered. But I want also to reemphasize an underused research tool, our web page—www.nrlc.org—from which you can download many materials free of charge. Of course our web page’s Legislative Action Center has the very latest information for students about bills in Congress that NRLC supports and those it opposes. There is a great deal of material here for students learning how grassroots citizens’ groups can participate in the legislative process. Also, another excellent resource currently available only on the web is Abortion: Some Medical Facts. See www.nrlc.org/abortion/index.html for the complete text. Some Medical Facts describes the various abortion techniques, and physical and psychological risks associated with abortion. The information is well documented with over 100 footnotes referencing the textbooks and medical journals from which the information is drawn. But perhaps most overlooked on our web page are the past issues of NRL News going back to December 1997. Students researching, say, the connection between abortion and breast cancer or the controversial topic of embryonic stem cell research can search the indexes of NRL News going back nearly a decade and find many, many articles dealing with these topics. See http://www.nrlc.org/news/index.html for the current issue, and scroll down for the indices for each year. One resource that is now out of print, The Choice I Made, originally appeared as an insert in the December 2003 issue of NRL News. However, it is still available online at www.nrlc.org/news/2003/nrl12/index.html. Click on the articles under “Special Supplement.” This is a particularly useful collection. Many women having abortions are not celebrating their “freedom of choice,” but are aborting because they do not believe that they have realistic alternatives. One valuable resource, The Choice I Made, which orginally appeared as an insert in the December 2003 edition of NRL News, dispels some of the misconceptions they may have about abortion, motherhood, and adoption. Public school classes examining social/cultural movements or studying psychology could make use of the information it contains. Private religious schools and home-schoolers can obviously also make use of such a resource. The set of articles features the searing first-person accounts of three young, single teens who faced unplanned pregnancies. One kept her baby, one had an abortion, and one chose adoption. The Choice I Made helps the reader understand the thinking that led to the decision each made, and the consequences that followed. “Candi,” a 16-year-old who kept her baby, tells of her baby’s narrow escape. Candi was literally up on the operating table before finally screaming out, “I can’t do this!” She talks candidly about the challenges of single motherhood, but relates how she’s grown up and overcome many obstacles. Candi speaks joyfully about her daughter “Kinsey.” “I love being a mother,” she writes. “I could not imagine my life without her!” “Gemma” was raped at a party at a friend’s house. Afraid to tell anyone, feeling like she had no real options, she had an abortion at three months. Now, she admits that the abortion solved nothing and only made things worse. “Rape is an awful thing for any woman to go through, but instead of salvaging the one good thing, the beautiful, innocent son, that came out of my awful experience, I added one tragedy on top of another,” Gemma writes. “Now I deal with both the rape and the abortion.” Annie H. was a pre-med student and a cross-country runner in college when she found out she was pregnant. She chose adoption. Annie recognized it could be emotionally difficult, but knew “there was no way I was going to violently kill my baby for my personal temporary comfort.” The collection features a powerful essay by Trust Fund researcher Laura Antkowiak Hussey, titled “I Can Do It.” She addresses the ways society has made the abortion “option” into a virtual obligation and denied the positive and empowering experience of motherhood. An extended article on pregnancy care centers details the support and services offered by over 3,000 centers across the United States. Here women have real choices, a complete contrast with abortion clinics, whose only “option” is death. The collection also contains helpful short articles that address common fears and misconceptions pregnant teens may have, the different types of adoption, medical risks associated with abortion, and basic facts about the baby’s development in the first trimester. There are 10 toll- free numbers where a pregnant teen can call for help if she ever finds herself pregnant and in need of support and guidance. In addition, there is information about a web site where she can find information on centers in her area or send in queries by e-mail. She can expect a quick, confidential reply. The reader will also learn about a web site where she can read stories of other girls and women who have also faced a crisis pregnancy. As always, we’re here to help if we can. Let us know what we can do to help you write that pro-life paper or get your presentation ready. Joe Landrum is administrative assistant for public information for the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund. |