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Pregnancy Resource Centers Offer Arkansans Alternatives to Abortion

Sep 18, 2019Jerry CoxAbortionAbortion, Life, Pregnancy Resource Centers, Pro-life, Sanctity of Human Life

Recently, stories have appeared that highlight the good work of Arkansas’ pregnancy resource centers.

For example, Mary Kay Palmer, Marla Moore, and other Christians connected with First Baptist Church in Sheridan, Arkansas, opened The Blessings House Pregnancy Support Center.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette writes,

Moore and Palmer, along with a few other volunteers, recently opened the facility at 28 Gates Drive, directly behind First Baptist Church [in Sheridan]. The Blessings House has baby clothes, wipes and diapers, formula and baby food, and also has parenting classes and Bible study lessons and assistance with WIC and GED Registration. It is designed to help new and soon-to-be parents.
“The drive behind it, personally for me, is the feeling that there were mothers out there that were in an unplanned pregnancy and they might not know that they have an option other than abortion,” Palmer said. “And going down that road, exploring those options and seeing what we could do as the hands and feet of Christ.”

Further south in Camden and Magnolia, Hannah Pregnancy Resource Center has begun offering sonograms to abortion-vulnerable women thanks to a donation from the Psalm 139 Project.

Baptist Press reports,

Hannah Pregnancy Resource Center (PRC) celebrated Aug. 17 the placement of a portable ultrasound machine that will be used at its satellite locations in Camden and Magnolia, both about 40 minutes from the center in El Dorado. The machine and the training that accompanies it were made possible by gifts to the Psalm 139 Project, the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s (ERLC) ministry to help place sonogram technology in pro-life pregnancy centers across the country. . . .
The center’s past use of sonogram technology has made a dramatic difference with its clients. More than 96 percent of abortion-minded and abortion-vulnerable women at their centers choose life after viewing an ultrasound image of their child, according to the center.

And back in August we reported that a pregnancy resource center in Morrilton had saved at least three unborn children from abortion so far this year.

Stories like these underscore the good work that Arkansas’ pregnancy resource centers do.

These centers give women real options besides abortion.

Many of them provide everything from ultrasounds and pregnancy tests to maternity clothes and adoption referrals — typically free of charge. They often operate on very tight budgets and rely heavily on volunteers and donations.

Pregnancy resource centers play a vital role in making abortion unthinkable in Arkansas.

Police Find Over 2,200 Aborted Babies at Late Abortionist’s Home

Sep 16, 2019Jerry CoxAbortionAbortion, Life, Pro-life, Sanctity of Human Life

Last week law enforcement in Illinois reportedly found the remains of some 2,246 aborted babies at the home of abortionist Dr. Ulrich Klopfer.

Klopfer, who passed away earlier this month, lived in Illinois, but operated abortion facilities in neighboring Indiana.

LifeNews reports,

Now, four Indiana legislators are seeking an investigation to determine what happened and whether the aborted babies were illegally transported across state lines from Klopfer’s Indiana-based abortion facility to his Illinois home.
“State Rep. Ron Bacon and three fellow Republican lawmakers issued a statement Sunday saying the Indiana attorney general’s office should investigate the abortion clinics in Allen, Lake and St. Joseph’s counties where Dr. Ulrich Klopfer worked,” AP reported. “The attorney general’s office hasn’t responded to a request for comment Monday.”

The story is reminiscent of Philadelphia abortionist Dr. Kermit Gosnell, who was convicted in 2013 of murdering babies born alive following botched abortion procedures. Prior to Gosnell’s arrest and conviction, law enforcement found the remains of some 45 aborted babies stored at Gosnell’s surgical abortion facility.

Stories like these are one reason Family Council has pushed for stronger regulations and oversight when it comes to abortion.

In 2017 we supported H.B. 1566 at the Arkansas Legislature. This good law prohibits research on aborted babies, and it requires aborted babies to be respectfully buried or cremated.

Laws like these may not seem like much, but ultimately they help prevent unborn children from being sold to labs for scientific research or thrown away like medical waste.

Politicians Still Attacking the Pro-Life Hyde Amendment

Sep 16, 2019Jerry CoxAbortionAbortion, Life, Pro-life, Sanctity of Human Life

One issue we have discussed repeatedly in recent years is the strange attack against the federal Hyde Amendment from some candidates and politicians.

The Hyde Amendment is a bipartisan budget provision that’s been on the books for more than four decades. It prevents Americans from being forced to subsidize abortions with their tax dollars, except in cases of rape or incest or when the mother’s life or physical health are in jeopardy.

For years the Hyde Amendment was seen as a reasonable compromise between pro-life and pro-abortion politicians. But since 2016, organizations like Planned Parenthood and NARAL and their allies in Washington have stepped up efforts to abolish the Hyde Amendment.

In 2016 the Democratic Party approved a platform that says,

We will continue to stand up to Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood health centers, which provide critical health services to millions of people. We will continue to oppose—and seek to overturn—federal and state laws and policies that impede a woman’s access to abortion, including by repealing the Hyde Amendment.

Last June presidential hopeful Joe Biden reversed course after supporting the Hyde Amendment throughout most of his political career.

And at a recent town hall meeting sponsored by NARAL, presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg said,

“[W]e will eliminate the Hyde Amendment and restore funding for abortion care for Medicaid patients and other federal help programs.

It’s worth noting that taxpayer-funded abortion is not very popular among Americans — especially in Arkansas, where a large number of people believe abortion ought to be either completely illegal or legal only under certain circumstances.

The increased attacks on the federal Hyde Amendment just go to show we’ve come a long way since the days when people like President Bill Clinton said abortion ought to be “safe, legal, and rare.”