Life Chain This Sunday, October 3, all over Georgia

The first Sunday in October, people all over Georgia line up in a Life Chain with signs in hand and prayers in their hearts.  The signs vary from “Choose Life” to “Adoption: The Loving Option.”  With so many young people facing the pressures to abort their unborn child, this human chain visibly supporting life makes a dramatic difference.  This event takes place in dozens of cities throughout Georgia and across the nation!

 

Plan to be part of a Life Chain near you!

 

For a list of Life Chains, see this website.

I’m Voting Yes on July 20th

By Hannah Carter, Director of Education

The year is 1906 and a young man by the name of Ota Benga, a Congolese pygmy, is put on display in a monkey house with an orangutan to show the effects of human evolution. He has no rights as a person because society views him as an animal, an extension of evolution. Subsequently, Ota Benga is sold to the highest bidder and Ota’s owner decides what he should do with “his property.” After public outcry from some clergy, Ota is removed from the zoo. He goes to live in an orphanage, but still faces taunts from others. In 1916, he becomes depressed and commits suicide. His personhood is robbed from him and so is his dignity.

One hundred years later, the situation is very similar. In 2006, Dr. Matthew Kuchinas of Sarasota, FL mistakenly aborts the wrong twin in a selective reduction procedure. Dr. Kuchinas believed that one of

Ota Benga

 the twins had Down syndrome and a possible heart defect. One week after aborting “the wrong child,” he informed the parents and they requested that the other child be aborted. The doctor later had his license revoked for killing the “wrong” unborn baby. Why was the child with Down syndrome deemed as the child undeserving of life? Was he any less human than his twin? Because of a series of genetic tests, he was deemed a non-person because he had the chance of being born with a disability.

We face a real moral tragedy in America today. Ota Benga was denied personhood because he was different; those twins were denied their personhood because they were unwanted or deemed disabled.  Defending the personhood of children in the womb, persons with disabilities, and the elderly is at the heart of the 21^st century battle for the preservation of the sanctity of life of all persons.

Can something be done?

On July 20, 2010, voters from across this state will be given the opportunity to do something by voting for the Personhood Amendment Ballot Initiative. Each voter in the counties that have been certified to have it on the ballot will have the chance to tell their representative where they stand on the life issue by answering this question: “Do you support an amendment to the Georgia state constitution so as to provide that the paramount right to life is vested in each human being from the earliest biological beginning until natural death?”

The outcome of this ballot serves as a barometer to let your elected officials know what your county believes about protecting human life. In 2008, the citizens of Forsyth County voted on a similar question that asked voters if they would support an amendment to the Georgia State Constitution that would establish the right to life for all humans from the moment of fertilization until natural death. 64% of the voters said YES! 

This number matches the last major poll that was done in this state that showed that 57% of Georgians favor overthrowing Roe v. Wade.

Through the work of the Georgia Right to Life Chapters and a former state party chairman, forty-seven Republican Chairmen and one Democratic Chairman (Butts County) have requested their local Election Board to certify the question for the July Primary.

On July 20, 2010, I will be joining the pastors that stood up for Ota Benga in saying that no one’s personhood should be denied by voting for the Personhood Amendment Ballot Initiative. Every person deserves protection of their human dignity under the law. Remember your vote is your voice, so vote your principles in this election cycle.

The following counties will have the Personhood question on your ballot on the Republican ballot on July 20, 2010:

Appling, Bacon, Banks, Bartow, Brantley, Bulloch, Burke, Butts (Republican and Democrat ballots), Carroll, Chatham, Cherokee, Clayton, Coffee, Colquitt, DeKalb, Dooly, Fannin, Fulton, Glynn, Gordon, Gwinnett, Hall, Hart, Jackson, Jasper, Jeff Davis, Jones, Lamar, Liberty, Lowndes, Murray, Muscogee, Paulding, Pickens, Pierce, Spalding, Thomas, Tift, Towns, Troup, Twigs, Union, Walker, Walton, Ware, Wilcox, and Worth.

For More Questions about the Personhood Ballot Initiative, please call 770-339-6880 or visit PersonhoodAmendmentGA.com.

GRTL PAC Issues Endorsement for Governor

For Immediate Release, June 3, 2010

Contact Dan Becker 770-667-3777

Lawrenceville, GA- The Georgia Right to Life Political Action Committee (GRTL PAC) holds political candidates in this state to a very high standard in order to receive the pro-life endorsement.  “We live in the 21^st century”, says Melanie Crozier, Political Director for Georgia Right to Life, “where new biomedical advances bring new challenges that necessitate a new pro-life paradigm. We must protect all human life.” GRTL PAC’s policy has proven to be a success for Georgia legislation that protects all innocent human life from the earliest moments of biological development to the natural end of life. Currently, Georgia is numbered eighth in the nation, by Americans United for Life, in passing pro-life laws.

 Presently, of the six leading Republican candidates for Governor, five of the six are endorsed by the GRTL PAC.  “There is one candidate though, who does not merit GRTL’s endorsement, and that is Karen Handel.” says Crozier.  “Ms. Handel proclaims herself pro-life; however, she does not meet the 21^st century demands of being pro-life.” says Dan Becker, President of GRTL.

 “For instance, Handel believes that a child may be aborted based on its manner of conception. When I asked her directly her thoughts on the value of embryos, she answered that she does not believe that an embryonic human is a child.”

 Based on Ms. Handel’s own statements, she does not meet the GRTL PAC’s criteria and will not be endorsed in this primary election or the November election, without a change in her positions.

 The PAC urges all Republicans to vote for Life in the July 20^th primary by voting for one of the five GRTL PAC-endorsed candidates: Jeff Chapman, Nathan Deal, Eric Johnson, Ray McBerry or John Oxendine. 

 All candidates that were endorsed by GRTL PAC have signed the PAC affirmation statement which says that they agree with our position on the Personhood of all human beings from fertilization to natural death and the attendant need for a Personhood Amendment to our state Constitution. 

 They also affirm that there should be no exceptions in abortion law based solely on the manner in which a child is conceived, that there should be restrictions on destructive in-vitro fertilization (IVF) practices that women should not be coerced into having an abortion, and that abortions based on race and gender should be outlawed in our state.  These five candidates are solidly behind GRTL’s pro-life agenda for legislation that restores effective, legal protection to all “persons” under Georgia’s State Constitution.

Black and Unwanted: New Billboard Campaign Launches this Week

For Immediate Release June 1, 2010

For More Information Contact Catherine Davis 770-339-6880

Lawrenceville, GA – Black and Unwanted, the new billboard campaign launched by Georgia Right to Life and the Radiance Foundation has a continuing message and goal: to increase awareness of the devastating impact of abortion on Georgia’s black community while highlighting the need for more adoptions. Over 60 billboards have been placed in Augusta, Macon, and Savannah.

Georgia is among the states that lead the country in the number of reported abortions performed on black women, 18,901 in 2008 alone.

Catherine Davis, Director of Minority Outreach for Georgia Right to Life noted, “This project is going to continue as long as women are being lied to and the killing of black children is seen as our ‘best’ way to end poverty. Women need to know all their options and expose the lies that Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers have been spreading for years.”

“Our children are our heritage, our strength and the abortion community has reduced our legacy to the status of a parasite, something to be eliminated rather than cherished,” Davis said. “Black and Unwanted is a campaign that begins the restoration of value to black children in Georgia and the nation.”

 Ryan Bomberger, creator of the billboards and co-founder of the Radiance Foundation, noted that there is a reason the emphasis of this campaign is on black Americans and abortion, “According to the CDC, African-Americans have abortions at three times the rate of white women and twice the rate of all other races combined.”

Bomberger continues, “Abortion is being used as birth control and increasingly encouraged by groups like Planned Parenthood who, in 2008, aborted 65 children for every 1 client they referred for adoption; that’s 305,310 abortions to 4,912 adoption referrals.”

In addition to the billboards, the website www.TooManyAborted.com and the Twitter account www.twitter.com/endangered7337 are being used as tools to continue the discussion.

Georgia Right to Life (www.grtl.org) promotes respect and effective legal protection for all human life from its earliest biological beginning through natural death. GRTL is one of the numbers of organizations that have adopted Personhood (www.personhood.net) as the most effective pro-life strategy for the 21st century.

Miss Right to Life Pageant July 31, 2010

by Amy Brown, Miss Right to Life Pageant Director

The second annual Miss Right to Life of Georgia pageant will be held at the John S. Burd Center in Gainesville July 31, 2010. Miss Right to Life of Georgia is the very first and only Right to Life benefit pageant in the country!

The pageant is open to young women ages up to 22 years old living in the state of Georgia. These young women not only receive the chance to serve as a reigning queen for a year, but are also encouraged to use their platform to nurture pro life values in girls their age, as well as give back to their community.

Contestants not only compete on stage, but also with a personal interview that gives light to their genuine pro life beliefs. The college aged winner will also receive a $500 college scholarship. As well as raising money for such a worthy cause, last year’s participants volunteered over one hundred hours of community service giving back to the elderly, disabled, and others in need.

It is vital for us all to realize that pro life youth are on the rise! As adults, we are responsible for providing them with opportunites to share their heart with others. These young women will surely flourish if surrounded by a sisterhood that all share one thing…. their belief in the RIGHT TO LIFE!

Registration ends July 14th. For information on registration guidelines or sponsorship opportunites, please visit our website: www.missrighttolife.com
Or contact Pageant Director, Amy Brown: 404 435 5244

Don’t Tell Me Lies!

by Hannah Carter

It seems these days that a lie is told so easily, part of the problem being that we live in a society that doesn’t verify the original sources of information.

America is not a Christian nation! Lie!

America is a Pro-Choice nation, another lie especially since the Gallup polls released last week verify again that the majority of Americans are pro-life! The Gallup poll is calling being pro-life “the new normal.”

We don’t know when life begins, Lie!

Alan Guttmacher former President of Planned Parenthood once stated, “it all seems so simple (when life begins), conception confers life.”

This next week Georgia Right to Life and the Radiance Foundation will be partnering for a second set of billboards to be released to impact Georgia. To give you a taste of what the next campaign is going to be like, we wanted to share this video with you that Ryan Bomgardner of the Radiance Foundation created. The title is “Don’t Tell Me Lies”. Watch this video and tell us what you think.

GRTL State Oratory Contest Winner Heather Benefield Advances to Nationals

Georgia Right to Life is pleased to annouce the results of the 2010 State Oratory Contest which was held on May 1, 2010, Heather Benefield, 1st place representing the Atlanta chapter and Leila Bowman, 2nd place representing the Cherokee County Chapter.

Heather Benefield lives in Senoia, GA with her adoptive parents and four brothers.  She is a homeschooled high school

Pictured Left to Right -Heather Benefield, 1st place winner, Hannah Carter, Director of Education, and Leila Bowman, 2nd Place Winner

 junior and is a member of St. Francis De Sales Catholic Church in Mableton, GA.  Her speech was in defense of the unborn.  She, her mother and 2 adopted brothers are all survivors of abortion.  Heather will now compete at the NRTL Oratory Contest on June 26th, 2010.

Heather is no beginner in placing in oratory tournaments. She has been a forensics participant in the NCFCA- National Christian Forensic Communications Association- for two years.  In 2009 she advanced to regionals in Team Policy Debate and Persuasive Speaking, placed 4th in the region and advanced to the National competition, held in Greenville, SC at Bob Jones University where she finished 12th in the Nation. Heather has recently returned from Jacksonville, FL where she competed in the NCFCA 2010 Region VIII Invitational tournament where she finished 7th in Original Oratory and qualified to the National tournament to be held in June at Regent University in Virginia Beach,VA. She also participated  in the American Legion 2010 Oratorical Contest where she advanced to the District level and received a scholarship to Girls State 2010  held in June at Georgia Southern University.

Adopted at age 12, Heather spent much of her early years in the foster care system.  She strives to use her gifts and her story to inspire hope in other children waiting for families and spread the message of LIFE in a manner that glorifies God above all else.
Please take a moment and read Heather’s inspiring speech entitled, Taking a Pro-Life Stand (TAPS).

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves”

- Proverbs 31:8 (The Holy Bible)

“Day is done…Gone the sun…”

“….18, 19, 20″

*Every 20 seconds a child dies*(www.prolife.com)

 

“From the lake, from the hill, from the sky…”

 

     Yes every 20 seconds a child dies.  Abortion is one of the most common surgical procedures in the world today, but the average person knows almost nothing of its gruesome reality.  Year after year, it lurks in the shadows, quietly destroying almost 4,000 innocent human beings a day in the U.S. and 130,000 a day worldwide. (www.abortionfacts.com)

 High schools and universities go to great lengths to graphically expose the dangers of drugs, smoking, and drunk driving, but for some reason take a pass when it comes to abortion or even a discussion on the beginning of human life.

 Dr. Watson A. Bowes from the University of Colorado clearly states, “The beginning of a single human life is, from a biological point of view, a simple and straight forward matter… the beginning is CONCEPTION.”  (www.wikipedia.org)  So, why do so many Americans  think it’s in our power to decide when life ends? Well because our government told us so! Roe vs. Wade in 1973 was the most significant case in the history of abortion in America. (www.wikipedia.org) It ruled that abortions were legal if there was a convincing reason as to why a mother should have one.   Individual states may pass laws to safeguard the “health” of the mother. However, the courts define “health” as physical, emotional, and psychological health. Therefore, any reason is valid for an abortion. (www.plannedparenthood.com)      

 Most women who are considering abortion hear the terms  fetus and fetal demise, and truly don’t realize the meaning behind them. These words are used to intentionally disconnect the mother from her baby’s life and the murder that’s about to be committed with her consent.  Someone needs to tell that mother that the word fetus is actually a Latin word that literally translates into “little one.”  (www.wikipedia.org)  Fetal demise.. death… of the little one.”

 A 12-week old unborn baby is only about 2 inches long, yet every organ of its body and every attribute of its human development is already in place.  The arms and legs, the intricately formed nose and ears, tiny finger and toes are clearly visible with today’s ultrasound technology. 

      How can people say that this is not murder? Would it honestly be any different if we used a gun? Don’t you find it ironic that  the most dangerous place to be is inside the womb? Ever wonder what happened to that appendix you had removed or those gallstones from last year? Just what is in those red trash cans that say Bio-Hazard Waste on them when you go to the doctor’s office or the hospital anyway? Most people are unaware that the tumors, cysts, bloody gauge, gloves and rags, are all wrapped in plastic, boxed up and tightly taped shut, where they are shipped to an incinerator… along with countless babies from abortion clinics all across the country.  Boxes of babies are casually thrown off of a truck into a pile to be burned.

 Are aborted babies really bio-hazardous waste? Just tissue? Like a tumor? If human life is equated with tumors and cysts, why do women hide the fact that they have had an abortion or are even considering one? Why do pro-choice people label abortion as the most gut-wrenching, emotional and difficult decision that a woman ever has to make?  Why do they call it a choice? 

 One-third of all human babies are aborted in this nation alone, which is over one million every year.  (www.prolife.com)We’re not talking about a few hundred or even a few thousand.  We’re talking about millions of people that are missing from our world today.  What if one of those missing were the next Mozart or Einstein?  What if one of those missing was the biochemist or researcher destined to discover the cure for Cancer or AIDS?    What if one of those missing was me?   

As a matter of fact,  4 out of 5 members of my immediate family can say that they are abortion survivors.  My two youngest siblings and I, are all adopted. One of my brothers , Dylan. who is now 8, was promised to my parents after his abortion date had already been set. My youngest brother Seth, was taken into foster care at birth.  He survived only because $475.00 to pay for an abortion  is a lot of money to come up with when your birth mother is addicted to drugs. I should know… that’s what I was told by the drug addicted prostitute that I was born to.  She told me repeatedly that I was a mistake and should have been aborted-

 But God had other plans for me, my two little brothers and the woman who adopted me when I was 12 years old.    That woman who I now know as my “real” mom was born in 1968 despite an attempt by her mother to abort illegally.

 Our Lord has a plan for every life. Why would anyone think that its okay to take that incredible gift away? The Bible is replete and precise in it’s teaching.  The  human life – from the beginning to its natural end – is sacred, and only God determines the length of those days.  “Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13) (The Holy Bible) That applies equally to the unborn baby as it does to the developing child, the mature adult, and the senior citizen. Genesis 1:26-27 says that “being made in the image of God gives life its sacredness.” (The Holy Bible)

 I know that abortion is a difficult topic to discuss but it’s so very important…much more important than any speech competition.  Forget about the scores and ranking for a moment and really listen.  I am asking you, pleading with you, to decide and know that regardless of the circumstance – even in the case of rape or incest that abortion is murder. It’s wrong, no matter what you say bottom line is that its just wrong. (www.abortiontv.com)  Whether you look at the beginning of human life from a medical stand point or a biblical stand point, its one in the same- the beginning of life is the moment of conception .

It doesn’t matter whether you are a Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Agnostic, or Atheist. It doesn’t matter what you believe, who you pray to or even if you pray.   No one can deny the basic human morality, we ALL know right from wrong.

“All is well…safely rest… God is nigh.”

 

Taps

 

Take A  Pro-life Stand

During the time that I have been giving my speech 22 children have been murdered.

Copyright © 2010 Georgia Right to Life & Heather Benefield. All rights reserved.