Seven ways life is winning in America this summer
Discover more from America After Dobbs
Seven ways life is winning in America this summer
These stories defy the media's doom-and-gloom narrative
Just over a year after Dobbs, life has momentum in America. Half the country (25 states) has strong protections for children in the womb. Pro-life states are stepping up with concrete help for women and babies.
According to the pro-abortion media, times have never been worse. But here are seven examples of pro-life Americans working hard to make our communities and our country a better place and defying the doom-and-gloom narrative:
1. House GOP rebukes Biden on abortion in the VA
On Thursday the House passed a military spending bill that would stop the Biden administration’s illegal policy of turning Veterans Affairs hospitals into taxpayer-funded abortion facilities. Despite Democrats and the media portraying pro-life Republicans as culture-war aggressors, the bill passed 219-211. Congress is now in recess for six weeks.
2. Republicans propose comprehensive support plan for moms and babies
U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson (R-IA) has reintroduced the Providing for Life Act. Among other provisions, this bill expands the child tax credit as well as child support to include babies in the womb. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) reintroduced the Senate version of the bill earlier. SBA thanks them for their leadership and is proud to support the bill once again. This should be an easy vote even for congressional Democrats.
3. Safe Haven Baby Boxes are life-changing
Another healthy baby has been surrendered in Bowling Green [Kentucky], making it the second surrender since the city introduced a Safe Haven Baby Box.
Last week a two-day-old baby girl was safely surrendered in Kokomo, Indiana along with a note from her mother expressing her love and hopes for her daughter. Fox reports:
The purpose behind the Safe Haven Baby Box is to provide a safe outlet for people wanting to anonymously surrender their baby in hopes of combating abandonment…"Although these are hard choices to make, we applaud the mother for giving her daughter the chance at life through an anonymous, safe and legal option," SHBB founder Monica Kelsey told the outlet.
Learn more about the organization here.
4. Even the New York Times recognizes that pregnancy centers help women
Despite Marist’s recent poll finding that 91% of Americans support pregnancy centers, the centers are facing extreme violence from abortion radicals.
A recent NYT article featured a pregnancy center in North Carolina that continues to serve women after suffering a vandal attack last year:
OVERNIGHT ON JUNE 7, 2022 — after a version of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling was leaked but before it was finalized — the center’s front walk in Asheville, N.C., was painted with the message: “If abortions aren’t safe, neither are you!” An abortion rights group called Jane’s Revenge took credit.
Employees at the center were disturbed, said Jeff Porter, the assistant director. But he said they were not deterred from providing alternatives to abortion through counseling, parenting classes and material support for local women — most of whom are unmarried and without obstetric care. Two-thirds of them live on an average of $29,000 or less per year.
…
Michelle Fenton, a 35-year-old event coordinator, discovered the center’s satellite office in Waynesville, N.C., earlier this year. As someone who had struggled with fertility issues, she was thrilled to be pregnant. But when an early ultrasound indicated the possibility of Down syndrome, she began contemplating abortion. She called the center for emotional support.
“I told them I didn’t have a good experience, is there any way I can get in there soon to have an ultrasound, just to make me feel better about the situation?” Ms. Fenton recalled through tears. Within three days, she received an ultrasound at the center, where women on staff prayed for her and her baby. “They made me feel better about everything,” she said.
A few weeks later, blood test results indicated that the risk of Down syndrome was extremely low.
(Common screenings for Down syndrome have high rates of false positives, explains Charlotte Lozier Institute’s Tara Sander Lee.)
Though Ms. Fenton, who is expecting a boy in September, continues receiving prenatal care at a local medical practice, she has taken free parenting classes at Mountain Area Pregnancy Services to learn more about pregnancy and infant care, earning credits along the way. Those credits are exchangeable for supplies like a portable crib, bottles and a nursing pillow.
The center offers free supplies to women undergoing other types of counseling, too. Among them: a stuffed animal containing an audio recording of the fetus’s heartbeat for pregnancies likely to end in a very brief life or stillbirth.
The story contains a jaw-dropping admission from the head of a group that raises funds for abortions: abortion advocates “need to transition to full-spectrum services” including prenatal support, baby supplies, and help with childcare and medical expenses…“We don’t want people terminating pregnancies they want simply because they can’t afford it.”
This is consistent with research showing that competition from pregnancy centers affects services offered, wait times and prices overall. It’s also the opposite of trends at Planned Parenthood.
Our response: What took you so long?
5. Thousands of lives saved; media discover grateful moms
Acts of balanced journalism are – slowly – starting to show up more often. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Georgia’s heartbeat protections saved thousands of lives in the months after Dobbs (of course, they can’t quite bring themselves to describe it that way). Via Live Action:
“The effects of the state law have been immediate and powerful in Georgia. Abortions have dropped by nearly half, according to data from the Georgia Department of Public Health. And abortions after six weeks of pregnancy have all but ended."
This is consistent with multiple studies showing the Texas Heartbeat Act has resulted in about a thousand babies born each month. Michael New, an Ivy League-trained statistician and Charlotte Lozier Institute senior associate scholar, writes:
A New York Times article in The Upshot on March 6, 2022, argued that most of the in-state abortion decline in Texas was offset by women seeking abortions in other states and by women obtaining chemical abortion pills through the mail…analyzing the impact of the Texas Heartbeat Act on the Texas birthrate is methodologically a much stronger way to gauge its impact.”
The AJC also highlighted a mother who has no regrets about choosing life for her child:
The AJC also interviewed a woman who described going in for an abortion appointment but was turned away because she was too far along in her pregnancy. Though she planned to travel out of state for the abortion, her family convinced her to keep the child. She married the baby’s father and now has a two-month-old son. She is grateful that she didn’t choose abortion.
“It made me realize how selfish I was in that moment,” she said. “Then I was relieved I wasn’t going to have to have an abortion. … And I was happier with myself because I knew I wasn’t going to do something that was going to traumatize me and hurt the people I love.”
AJC reports further on the state’s efforts to couple protections for unborn babies with support for mothers:
When the U.S. Supreme Court paved the way for Georgia to restrict abortion last year, anti-abortion activists heralded the victory, and then doubled down on their other goal: further expanding benefits for new moms and children…
This new policy builds on what anti-abortion activists say they see as part of a “pro-life” agenda, including increased tax credits for adopting a child from foster care, implementing paid parental leave for state workers, and expanding Medicaid coverage for new moms.
Pro-lifers – you just never know what we will think up next!
6. Kansas support for moms kicks into gear after override of Dem governor’s veto
Life-affirming nonprofits in Kansas are gearing up to carry out the state’s Alternatives to Abortion program, Catholic News Agency reports. Democrat Governor Laura Kelly vetoed legislation to form the program, but the Republican majority overrode the veto. The state-funded program will “offer a full range of services, including pregnancy support centers, adoption assistance, and maternity homes.”
7. Massachusetts city drops “unenforceable” anti-pregnancy center ordinance
Pregnancy centers in Worcester got a win, a year after being targeted by pro-abortion vandals (via Live Action News).
