WANTED: Arkansas’ Longest Married Couple

Marriage

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, November 10, 2017

LITTLE ROCK, AR – For the first time ever, Arkansas Family Council is launching a search for Arkansas’ Longest Married Couple. We want couples to share their stories of a lifetime commitment to marriage and family. When the search ends in early February 2018, Family Council will honor the longest married couple and their family. The Top Ten Longest Married Couples will also be honored by receiving an Official Statement of Recognition and they will be entered into the Family Council “Arkansas Marriage Hall of Fame.”

“Sharing these couples’ lifetime stories of commitment and faithfulness to each other encourages the next generation that ‘married happily ever after’ still exists. We are blessed and honored to be able to share these stories of forever love,” Jerry Cox, president of Family Council, said. “In today’s society we are surrounded by naysayers of marriage but the married couples we find will prove them all wrong and show that marriage can last a lifetime.”

“Marriage is a sacred covenant between a man and a woman,” Cox said. “It is not every day that you meet a couple married over 70 years, but when you do, there is truly something special about that relationship.”

Entries for couples married over 70 years can be submitted before February 2, 2018, by sending contact information and marriage date to ken@familycouncil.org. For more information, please call the Family Council office at 501-375-7000.

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Medical Science Challenges the “Viability” Rule for Abortion

Abortion, , ,

Last week the journal Pediatrics published an article about a three-year-old girl born prematurely at just 21 weeks’ and 4 days’ after conception. The girl weighed about 14.5 ounces at birth, and had to be resuscitated by medical personnel.

Today she is a healthy preschooler.

Doctors hope this points to a better future for babies born prematurely.

This story underscores a problem with the U.S. Supreme Court’s so-called “viability rule” for abortion.

According to the courts, “viability” is the point at which a baby can survive outside the womb.

In the past the court has ruled abortion can be regulated later in pregnancy — after a baby becomes “viable” and can live outside the womb. Abortion cannot be regulated as easily early in pregnancy — before the baby is “viable.”

Many argue a baby doesn’t become viable until the 22nd or 24th week of pregnancy. This journal article shows a healthy child who was born several days before that, during the 21st week of pregnancy.

Medical technology continues to push the point of “viability” earlier and earlier in pregnancy. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor acknowledged this fact 34 years ago when she wrote, “As medical science becomes better able to provide for the separate existence of the fetus [from the mother], the point of viability is moved further back toward conception.”

This latest article in Pediatrics highlights that fact.

Photo Credit: By Rafael Alcarde Palomares (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Did You Know George Washington Said This?

Thanksgiving

We’re counting down to Thanksgiving at our office. Today we continue our series tracing the history of Thanksgiving.

On October 3, 1789, President George Washington issued a proclamation calling on Americans to pray. He opened it by writing, “it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor.”

The proclamation goes on to set aside Thursday, November 26, as a day of prayer and thanksgiving.

Washington’s proclamation is significant, because it is the first call to prayer issued by a U.S. president. Before that, calls for prayer and thanksgiving were issued by Congress or by state governments.

You can read President Washington’s entire proclamation here.

If you have never donated to Family Council or the Education Alliance, now is a great time to do so. Your financial support will make Arkansas a better place to live, work, and raise a family. It will promote and strengthen home schooling. It will help fight abortion and make Arkansas a more pro-life state. Click here to send a generous, tax-deductible donation today.

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