February, 2011

40 Days for Life vigils a mix of deep sorrow and deep joy

  • February 28, 2011
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After 38 years of decriminalized abortion, Christians are well versed in the stats. In fact, many of us can cite the numbers from memory. More than 53 million children dead. Three thousand every day. One out of every four babies.

The statistics, however, don’t tell the whole story. A number like 53 million is nearly incomprehensible. It’s so large that it rightfully shocks people, but it can’t quite express the horror of killing even one innocent baby.

In any genocide, there’s one group of people that can fully grasp the scope of the misery: those who were there.

Photo, above: Pro-Life Wisconsin’s Virginia Zignego; Dan Miller, coordinator of 40 Days for Life Milwaukee; and Pro-Life Wisconsin’s Peggy Hamill, sidewalk counseling during this past fall’s 40 Days for Life campaign. They are wearing “Parenthood Volunteer” vests, which are a pro-life spin on the vests that the abortion facility workers wear.

The witnesses present at the atrocity understand perfectly the terror — and the necessity of ending the slaughter at once.

In particular, many PLW families have taken the lead in volunteering for and orchestrating a number of 40 Days for Life vigils. For years, Pro-Life Wisconsin families have come forward to offer a peaceful and prayerful witness at abortion facilities all over the state.

If you’re not familiar, 40 Days for Life consists of 40 straight days of on-site prayer and fasting at abortion mills, and it takes place each spring and fall. Tens of thousands of people in hundreds of cities across the world participate with powerful results. This spring’s campaign runs March 9 to April 17.

Our witness has led many women to choose life. At the same time, other participants tell of more difficult experiences like watching wounded women limp out of the abortion facility. Every vigil is a mix of both deep joy and deep sorrow.

Pro-Life Wisconsin is privileged to be working hand-in-hand with pro-lifers in Juneau County and Sheboygan County this spring to start two new 40 Days campaigns. These vigils will bring forth hundreds of new witnesses petitioning the Lord with a united voice to end the violence.

These two vigils will also inject youth into the movement. In fact, the Sheboygan campaign is being organized by a small group of pro-life teens. Other than some help getting started from Pro-Life Wisconsin and the oversight of a mother, the Sheboygan teens are taking ownership for every aspect of the vigil. That means scheduling participants for every hour of the vigil, conducting outreach and managing communications to participants.

In Juneau County, we’ve found great inspiration in an even younger Pro-Life Wisconsinite. At just ten years old, Alex recently suffered an unexplained stroke. While he’s bouncing back, Alex’s future remains uncertain. But in spite of everything, Alex’s mother called the Pro-Life Wisconsin office to tell us Alex promised to dedicate his recovery to prayer for 40 Days for Life.

These young people recognize that they are survivors. With a quarter of their classmates wiped out by abortion, they aren’t content to sit back and wait for Roe vs. Wade to be overturned. They’re standing up in peaceful witness to take their country back — one changed heart at a time.

It’s my prayer that wherever you are, you’ll consider joining them. 40 Days for Life will be observed in the Wisconsin area in Green Bay, Milwaukee, Sheboygan, Mauston, Wausau and Rockford, Ill. In addition, a perpetual prayer presence is maintained at the Planned Parenthood abortuary in Madison. To get involved, contact our office or go to 40daysforlife.com.

As a testimony to how international 40 Days for Life is, vigils will be held in 10 cities in Spain, two cities in England, Armenia, and so on. Prayer can and will change the world!

New pro-life billboard posting in Milwaukee

  • February 28, 2011
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As we continue to offer pro-life, healthy, family-oriented alternatives to abortion, we are once again running pro-life billboards in the city of Milwaukee. The billboards (above) connect women to a 24-hour crisis pregnancy counseling hotline.

In March, the billboard will be located at the intersection of North Avenue & 8th Street, facing west.

All billboards are intentionally placed near Planned Parenthood facilities. There are SIX Planned Parenthood facilities in a four-mile radius of this billboard (click here to view map).

An online review on Google Maps of the West Wisconsin Avenue Planned Parenthood (click here to view):

How’s THAT for pro-woman, pro-health?

During the month of February, the billboards were located at the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue & 27th Street and the intersection of North Avenue & 17th Street. The billboards are at a different spot every month.

UW-Madison to host euthanasia symposium

  • February 24, 2011
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UW-Madison’s list of pro-life offenses is certainly not on the short side. UW-Madison receives $5 million in taxpayer funds annually to engage in embryonic stem cell research, proposes using aborted baby parts for research, attempts to partner with Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin to provide late-term abortions, and as an upcoming event indicates, is now pushing physician-assisted suicide on the state of Wisconsin. All of this on the taxpayer’s dime, mind you.

Review the list of speakers and topics (click here to view the event on UW’s website.) You will notice the discussion is no longer, “Is euthanasia morally wrong?” but is instead, “Helping Patients Die Who Are Not Terminally Ill.”

The Hippocratic Oath flew the coop a long time ago, when the reference to abortion was removed, but how can doctors who euthanize patients promise to keep them alive?

Wisconsin has a law which specifically prohibits assisted suicide — Wis. Stat. §940.12. In addition, euthanasia is prohibited in Wisconsin under the general homicide laws. In 2001, a woman caregiver was found guilty under Wisconsin’s law prohibiting assisted suicide for smothering her patient. The ruling was upheld by a state court of appeals. State v. Trautman,  2003 WI 100 (click here for court files).

Why Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin is on the run

  • February 23, 2011
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Background: On Dec. 28, MTV aired a half-hour special, “No Easy Decision,” telling the stories of teenagers who had abortions. Watching the show, you can see how abortion continues to affect these women. Read an article by Jill Stanek about her observations here. You can watch the show here on MTV’s website if you haven’t seen it yet.

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin is hosting screenings of the MTV abortion special, “No Easy Decision,” throughout the state. One of the women featured on No Easy Decision, Natalia, is from Milwaukee. PPWI promoted the screenings with the message that Natalia would be in attendance to discuss the MTV show and her decision to have an abortion. PPWI held a screening on the UW-Milwaukee campus on Wednesday, February 16, and this week Wednesday, February 23 on the UW-Madison campus. Read an article from the UW-Milwaukee Post on the screening here.

Pro-Life Wisconsin attended the Madison screening. There were 30 other people in attendance, including the PPWI staff, several UW-Madison staff members, and approximately 20 students.

So how did it go?

To kick things off, PPWI gave a short presentation about how wonderful they are, and reaffirmed how important providing abortion is (at $750 for a first-trimester abortion, no wonder abortion is one of their core services.) Natalia, the woman from Milwaukee on the MTV show, complained about MTV’s editing; essentially, she claimed the editing made the show not pro-abortion enough. Ostensibly for privacy reasons, PPWI stated that audio or video recording or photography was not permitted (on taxpayer funded university grounds.) If, as PPWI claimed throughout the event, abortion is “no big deal” and “nothing to be ashamed of,” who cares?

After the No Easy Decision screening, PPWI realized Pro-Life Wisconsin was in attendance (reading a newspaper in the back) and kicked the person out (again, note this was in a public university, where a taxpayer has as much rights as an organization pushing its agenda on college kids).

What is fascinating about this exchange?

PPWI has millions and millions more money than Pro-Life Wisconsin. You will never see a newspaper editorial board wish Pro-Life Wisconsin a “Happy 75th Birthday,” as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel did this past summer. And yet, PPWI is so threatened, and unsure of its footing, that it cannot stand to have a pro-lifer sitting in a discussion about abortion with 20 college students. Obviously, PPWI is not going to reveal top-secret, board-room level information to a group of wide-eyed college kids eating popcorn and candy. This discussion did not even incorporate the true sense of choice.

Jill Stanek has written on the Paranoia at Planned Parenthood of California, and it appears this is a nationwide trend. Who knew Wisconsin pro-lifers’ names were on a hit list, complete with photos? But when your $12 million in yearly state taxpayer funding is in peril, perhaps nothing is too overboard…

How Wisconsin’s elected representatives voted on defunding Planned Parenthood

  • February 20, 2011
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Photo, above: From a Planned Parenthood email sent Friday bemoaning the vote to defund the organization. They sure don’t look happy about standing with Planned Parenthood.

On Friday, February 20, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on an amendment offered by pro-life Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN) to deny all federal funds, through September 30, to Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its 102 affiliates. The amendment passed and will be taken up by the Senate soon. As Jill Stanek and others have noted, the U.S. Senate is lacking on pro-lifers and is still controlled by Democrats, so it remains to be seen if the Pence Amendment will make it through the Senate. To see the roll call vote, click here.

In the House, Wisconsin is represented by:
Representative Paul Ryan (R – 01), Representative Tammy Baldwin (D – 02), Representative Ron Kind (D – 03), Representative Gwen Moore (D – 04), Representative F. James (Jim) Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R – 05), Representative Tom Petri (R – 06), Representative Sean P. Duffy (R – 07) and Representative Reid J. Ribble (R – 08).

The following Representatives voted to defund Planned Parenthood: Ryan, Sensenbrenner, Petri, Duffy and Ribble.

The following Representatives voted NOT to defund Planned Parenthood: Baldwin, Kind and Moore. All three Representatives consistently receive 100% approval ratings from Planned Parenthood of America’s federal PAC.

Rep. Gwen Moore’s remarked, during the debate about the amendment the night before, that abortion is better for a poor baby than eating Ramen noodles. Thanks to the Internet, that remark will live on in infamy, as it has already earned her quite the dubious reputation.

In the Senate, Wisconsin is represented by Ron Johnson (R) and Herb Kohl (D). As with Wisconsin’s three Democrats in the House of Representatives, Kohl also receives a 100% approval rating from Planned Parenthood.

Gwen Moore: Abortion better for a baby than Ramen noodles

  • February 18, 2011
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Last night, Wisconsin Rep. Gwen Moore made a dubious name for herself during the U.S. House of Representatives’ debate on taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood.

During the debate, Moore stated that abortion was better for unplanned babies than a life “eating Ramen noodles” or “mayonnaise sandwiches.” Michelle Malkin has video and more.

Moore has the distinction of receiving a 100% pro-abortion rating from Planned Parenthood of America’s federal PAC. Moore is in favor of military abortions, taxpayer-funded abortions, “international access to contraceptives” [translated: the US pushing their views on countries where abortion is still illegal] and so on.

Moore, who is black, must not be aware of how abortion is affecting her own community. In Wisconsin, 6.2% of the population is black yet 24% of all state abortions are on African-Americans, which is 4x the representation. Read more here.

Statistics show that nationwide, the black community is succumbing to slow motion genocide:
• 20 million aborted black babies nationwide since 1973
• The number of aborted blacks, according to the Centers for Disease Control, outnumbers the next leading seven causes of death among blacks combined.
• Blacks are down to 12.3% of the U.S. population in 2010, from 14.8% in 2000.

NARAL New York director misappropriated funds; reminiscent of NARAL Wisconsin in 2002

  • February 17, 2011
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News reports in the last 2 days have alleged financial wrongdoing by the former director of NARAL New York.

From LifeSiteNews:

A forensic audit conducted for NARAL Pro-Choice New York that shows Kelli Conlin appropriated hundreds of thousands of the organization’s dollars – since at least 2008 – for what appear to be personal purposes… The audit shows Conlin used NARAL’s credit cards to purchase over $5000 in clothing from retailers like Giorgio Armani, a $17,000 summer rental in the Hamptons in 2009, and $22,000 in meals. The purchases on the company dime also included a $100,000 car service to drop off her children at school in Manhattan’s posh Upper West Side.

Sound familiar? It should, to those in Wisconsin. In 2002, the then-director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin was convicted of felony theft in a remarkably similar situation:

Using her NARAL checkbook, Katherine Venskus siphoned off $12,939 from the organization over the next several months, according to the criminal complaint. She was charged with felony theft and forgery in April 2002 in Dane County Circuit Court and pleaded no contest to the theft charge in August of that year, with prosecutors dropping the forgery charge. Read the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article here.

How can you say… systematic problems of an identical nature?

Why all the pro-abortion editorial statements?

  • February 15, 2011
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Once upon a time, newspaper editorial boards contented themselves with expressing their pro-abortion sentiments on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

In under a week’s time, both the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Capital Times have printed pro-abortion statements from lead editors at their respective papers. Read the MJS editorial here and the Cap Times editorial here. To be fair, the MJS did print our rebuttal, which you can read here.

So, why the sudden onslaught of support for Planned Parenthood and taxpayer-funded birth control programs?

Much can be gleaned from the tone of the editorials. The MJS borders on hysteria, calling out cafeteria Catholics to be more vocal in supporting abortion and birth control (can you blame these so-called “cafeteria Catholics” for attempting to remain unnoticed in the pews?). The Cap Times editorial shows how out-of-touch the average editorial board is with the rest of society (could this be why newspapers are failing?). The title of the Cap Times editorial — “Pro-lifers seem to care more about life before birth than after” — tries to resurrect a fallacy that’s been around for 30 years. If that were true, why aren’t pro-aborts involved in crisis pregnancy centers? If that were true, why do pro-aborts fund “grant programs” to pay for poor womens’ abortions?

While it can be disheartening for pro-lifers to read these public expressions of abortion support (and then realize why newspapers never write on pro-life rallies, fundraisers, crisis pregnancy baby showers, and so on), realize that Planned Parenthood is on the run, and they’re pulling out all the stops and calling in all the favors. Including those in very high places — Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin lists the Capital Times Kids Fund (the irony!) as one of its major benefactors. Wouldn’t you do that if $20 million of your budget was on the line? Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin receives $20 million in state and federal taxpayer funding every year.

Support your favorite Killer Doctor

  • February 10, 2011
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Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, a pro-abortion advocacy group, sent the below email today, urging people to show their love for their favorite Killer Doctor:

PRCH Board Chair is Doug Laube, who was instrumental in the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine’s move to train ob/gyn medical residents in abortion procedures at Planned Parenthood in Madison. Laube is the past chair of the Ob/Gyn Dept. at UW-Madison and in 2006, was the President of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (no bias in THAT organization!)

Here’s a tip, guys — women DON’T want doctors who are trained in procedures that rip life from their womb. And for those who are post-abortion and healing, a mug (or other knick-knacks, for that matter) is trivializing.

Rachel’s Vineyard ministry now in Stevens Point

  • February 10, 2011
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Wisconsin has a NEW Rachel’s Vineyard site, located in Stevens Point.

Rachel’s Vineyard seeks to facilitate healing for those suffering from the loss of abortion.  The primary outreach is through weekend retreats, 1-2 times per year.  The process is designed to help the individual to find, and accept, the forgiveness of Christ — to reconcile with Him and receive healing.

Rachel’s Vineyard of Stevens Point needs:
- Volunteers
- Donations
- Most of all, PRAYER

For more information, or to get involved, please contact Lisa at (715) 204-9561, or rvstevenspoint@gmail.com. Or, find us on Facebook. Click here for the national Rachel’s Vineyard site, where you can find retreats around the country and other resources.

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