• Board-certified family practitioner and surgeon, Sister Deirdre Byrne, M.D.
• Retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson (past Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Childrens Center
• Dr. Mildred Jefferson, first African American woman accepted at Harvard Medical School and first female surgeon at the Boston University Medical Center
• Dr. Anthony Levatino, Board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist

Also appearing below:

- A link to an informative article by Dr. David Prentice, Ph.D and Tara Sander Lee, Ph.D, courtesy of the Knights of Columbus

- A video of the development of a baby in the womb 

- Studies revealing when an unborn baby first feels pain

- Medical findings confirming that the "Roe vs. Wade" supreme court decision needs to be revisited - courtesy of the Knights of Columbus

The 4 minutes' 08/25/2020 speech (linked below) by Sister Deirdre Byrne, MD, board-certified family practitioner and surgeon is informative and enlightening.  (A photo of Sister Deirde with one of her patients appears to the right.)

Sister Deirdre served 29 years in the US Army and retired with the rank of colonel in 2009. Sister Deirdre is now the superior of the D.C. Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts house, where the sisters run a pro-bono physical therapy clinic and diabetic eye clinic, as well as a pre-school for underserved children. Sister Deirde’s other charitable medical/surgical service includes hands-on ministry in the rubble of the twin towers following the terrorist attack on 9-11, and annual medical missions in Kenya, Haiti and Sudan. She currently acts as the clinic director of the Spanish Catholic Center, serving the uninsured in the Washington Diocese. She is also a general surgeon who works through the clinic to serve those in need.  

Acquire priceless knowledge watching Sister Deirdre's 4-minute speech of August 25, 2020 - on YouTube:  Sister Deirdre Byrne speech

In an interview by Penny Nance, president of Concerned Women for America, Dr. Carson was asked if babies in the womb can feel pain. Dr. Carson answered:
“I can guarantee you they can feel,” Dr. Carson said. “They can react.”
“You have to give them anesthesia if you’re going to cut them, believe me,” Dr. Carson said. “But they can also respond to comfort and to warmth.”

“And for somebody to say that’s a meaningless bunch of cells, honestly, is just totally ignorant,” Dr. Carson continued.

"God has orchestrated an incredible situation where the egg and sperm come together, and within a matter of ten to 12 weeks, you can see the little fingers and the little toes, the little nose, and the face.”
“The heart has started to beat,” Dr. Carson said. “It’s absolutely amazing.”
Dr. Carson also shared graphic details of how an abortion happens, causing many in the audience to groan. He spoke about late-term abortion and its implications.
“You have a baby who could live outside of the womb,” Dr. Carson said. “But some people feel that it’s okay to murder that baby.”
“And the level of barbarism that requires — I, quite frankly, don’t know how people can do it,” Carson said.
He also said he believes the mother — even if shielded from the realities of abortion at the time the procedure is performed — is also a victim.
“They talk about they’re doing this for the health of the mother,” Dr. Carson said. “What about the mother’s mental health that she has to endure for the rest of her life?”

Starr, Penny. “Ben Carson on Abortion: Some Think It Is Okay to Murder Babies.” Breitbart, 1 Mar. 2019, Ben Carson on Abortion

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Abortion was particularly distressing to her as a African American woman. Given that women of color aborted at higher rates than white women, she saw racist motives in the push to publicly fund abortion, which she called a "class war against the poor and genocide against blacks."

Jefferson personified the diversity of the pro-life movement and was quick to correct anyone who tried to portray it as being led largely by men. "The pro-life movement is the people's movement," she said. "We come from rich and poor, proud and plain, religious and agnostic, politically committed and independent. We can only agree on our respect for life and our determination to defend the right to life."

Dr. Jefferson had a profound influence on Ronald Reagan before his presidency. He wrote a letter to her, stating, "Several years ago I was faced with the issue of whether to sign a California abortion bill...I must confess to never having given the matter of abortion any serious thought until that time. No other issue since I have been in office has caused me to do so much study and soul-searching...I wish I could have heard your views before our legislation was passed. You made it irrefutably clear that an abortion is the taking of a human life. I'm grateful to you." - Ronald Reagan, Governor of California

The content and photos above and below are excerpted from the Knights of Columbus monthly publication, Columbia, January 2020: “A Passionate Pioneer Remembered” by Mary Hallan FioRito - A Passionate Pioneer Remembered - by Mary Hallan FioRito

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“I became a physician in order to save lives, not to destroy them,” Jefferson said in a 1978 interview. “I will not accept the proposition that the doctor should relinquish the role of healer to become the new social executioner.”

The content and photo above are excerpted from the Knights of Columbus monthly publication, Columbia, January 2020: “A Passionate Pioneer Remembered” by Mary Hallan FioRito. For the entire article on the Knights of Columbus website, use the link above.

Watch this two minutes’ video of the House Judiciary Committee hearing’s testimony of “Dr. Anthony Levatino" , Board Certified Obstetrician/Gynecologist and Associate Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Learn why Dr. Levatino stopped performing abortions in spite of the highly lucrative nature of this business. This 2015 hearing was part of the 2015 House of Representative’s investigation into Planned Parenthood’s medical procedures.

Link to C-Span video: Dr. Levatino

Source: TFP Student Action, John Ritchie – 9/18/18

When does an unborn child's heartbeat starts? 

Organs develop in a baby in the womb at just 21 days after fertilization, which is when the heartbeat of a baby starts! LiveAction has a great article showing the wonderful stages of life development. Click here to read more: (LiveAction)

What are the developmental stages within the womb? 

Click on the picture below to see the beautiful development of life in the womb!

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When does an unborn baby first feels pain?

There is real scientific evidence that babies can feel pain at the gestational age of 20 weeks Link under repair: Check back later. and some studies indicate pain at an earlier gestational age, as early as 8 weeks. (Nerves) At 12 weeks’ gestation, a baby is fully developed with all its organs and extremities intact. This is a reason why doctors use general anesthesia during “open” fetal surgeries. (Anesthesia) So…when states allow abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, we are painfully killing children who have a right to live!

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A comprehensive review of the scientific literature¹ including neural development, psychology of pain sensation, and moral implications of fetal pain, concludes that unborn babies may experience pain as early as 12 weeks.  The review notes that neural connections from periphery to brain are functionally complete after 18 weeks.  “Nevertheless, we no longer view fetal pain (as a core, immediate, sensation) in a gestational window of 12-24 weeks as impossible based on the neuroscience.”

The review points out that a fetus may not experience pain in the same way as an adult, but does indeed experience pain as a real sensation, and that this pain experience has moral implications.

This unbiased review of the scientific evidence and agreement on existence of fetal pain, as early as 12 weeks and certainly after 18 weeks, comes from two highly credentialed doctors, one pro-choice.

“The two authors came together to write this paper through a shared sense that the neuroscientific data, especially more recent data, could not support a categorical rejection of fetal pain.” – Charlotte Lozier Institute: (CLI)

¹ Derbyshire SWG and Bockmann JC, Reconsidering fetal pain, J Med Ethics 46, 3-6, 20

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First, listen to this informative 5-minute speech by Abby Johnson, former director of the Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas: 

Abby Johnson speech - 08-25-2020

Abby Johnson's life was changed when she was asked to assist in performing an abortion and saw, for the first time (after 8 years with Planned Parenthood), on an ultrasound screen,  what actually happens inside a woman's womb during an abortion. She saw the baby struggling to escape from the suction machine. This deeply disturbing experience led her to resign from Planned Parenthood and she now  leads an organization helping women.

The photos to the right are of Abby Johnson and her family and the cover of her highly recommended book, UNPLANNED*, now an excellent movie.**

Link here to visit Abby Johnson's website, Abby Johnson Org, to learn about her current work helping women: "My mission - and my team's mission - is simple: We're in the fight for life because we're pro-love. We see that every life, from the child in the womb, to the elderly - and in between, including the abortion clinic worker's life, have incredible value and worth. We believe that abortion strips women of their dignity. We believe that motherhood is empowering. We believe that not conforming and giving into societal pressures when it comes to femininity is empowering. We believe that justice applies to every single human being on this earth. We believe in redefining the pro-life movement to include everyone, every age, race, gender, religion and every job." - Abby Johnson (from the home page of her website)

* Unplanned, published by Ignatius Press, can be purchased on the Ignatius Press website here: Ignatius Press

** View the UNPLANNED movie trailer on YouTube here: UNPLANNED Movie Trailer

The painting on the right, by Canadian artist, William Kurelek, is entitled "Behind Etobicoke General Hospital". Depicting dozens of mutilated corpses of aborted babies behind this hospital in the suburbs of Toronto, it graphically shows the gruesome horror that is abortion. It could also be entitled:

“Women’s Reproductive Health  Care” (the term used in the Democratic Party Platform and on Planned Parenthood's website)

Of the 20,000 babies killed every week in abortion facilities and hospitals across the U.S.A., about half are killed on Saturday, when their mothers are off work.

This painting illustrates the grim reality of what abortion really is, a reality that is kept hidden by abortion corporations like Planned Parenthood, by pro-abortion candidates,  and, largely, by the media. The reality is that a baby is being killed in a gruesome and painful way, by the tearing off of his or her arms and legs and the crushing of his or her skull.

It has been documented that Planned Parenthood hides these facts from its customers, the women who come to Planned Parenthood seeking a solution to their unplanned pregnancy.

Planned Parenthood fights against State laws requiring that women be given the option to view their baby by means of ultrasound before they make a decision. To hear from happy women who selected this option; saw their babies; gave birth; and found true love, link here to Loving Alternatives to Abortion., a heart-warming article in COLUMBIA, the magazine of the Knights of Columbus.

In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court reached a decision (known as “Roe v. Wade”) that changed the course of American history and resulted in the deaths of over 61 million babies. This decision was controversial at the time and, with the advances of scientific knowledge , controversy has increased to the point where the reexamination of this decision cannot be avoided.

Clarke D. Forsythe’s article, “Unsettled Law”, in the January 2019 Knights of Columbus periodical, “Columbia”, analyzes the 1973 decision, finding:

ROE V. WADE REMAINS WRONGLY DECIDED, DEEPLY FLAWED AND UNWORKABLE 

- Columbia, the Knights of Columbus monthly publication. Here are a few key points made in this recent article (linked below):

1. The justices ignored our legal heritage of protecting the lives of developing human beings to the extent allowed by medical knowledge. As one of the original Supreme Court justices, James Wilson, wrote in the 1790s: “With consistency, beautiful and undeviating, human life, from its commencement to its close, is protected by the common law. … By the law, life is protected not only from immediate destruction, but from every degree of actual violence, and, in some cases, from every degree of danger.”
2. The justices overlooked the growing science of fetology that was underway. Well-documented briefs were filed showing the growing medical data on fetal development. Dorothy Beasley, the attorney representing Georgia in Doe v. Bolton, told the justices in December 1971 that “the State has a greater obligation to protect that fetal life” than ever before. “There are more methods now that can be used to protect it,” she added, “including blood transfusions and surgery while it’s still in the womb.”
3. Roe had no foundation in precedent, as numerous legal scholars have recognized. In fact, Justice Blackmun fairly admitted this in his opinion. He declared that a series of “privacy” cases was broad enough to encompass abortion, but a few pages later he conceded that the woman “carries an embryo and, later, a fetus,” making abortion “inherently different” from all those earlier privacy cases.
4. The justices relied on falsehoods about the relative safety of abortion. Anxious for anything that would support their decision, they cited unreliable data about abortion safety from Soviet Bloc countries dating back to the 1950s. Despite the lack of evidence, the justices adopted a mantra -“ that abortion was safer than childbirth -“ and that premise shaped major planks of Roe and Doe, including broad deference to abortion providers.
5. The justices ignored a critical distinction about personhood: Whether or not he or she was recognized as a constitutional “person” and specifically protected against the states by the Fourteenth Amendment, the unborn child was recognized as a human being and increasingly protected against.

How dependable is HBC in preventing pregnancy?

Two studies show that there is a 25-35% chance that the use of HBC will not prevent the release of the female egg during a woman’s cycle.^1,2 In other words, a woman “on the pill” and engaging in intercourse during her ovulation timeframe can become pregnant 25% to 35% of the time.

What’s are the risks in using HBC?

In 21 out of 24 studies (i.e., over 90%), it was found that women who use HBC before their first pregnancy experience an increased risk for premenopausal breast cancer,³ with a 52% increase in the risk of breast cancer if HBC is used for four years or more before the first pregnancy.⁴

Using HBC increases the risk for cardiovascular disease and venous thrombosis and potentially increases the risk for diabetes mellitus.⁵

The use of HBC has also been linked to:

• bone deterioration 
• migraine headaches 
• weight increase
• moodiness
• loss of libido.⁶

Sources:

1. Chowdhury, V., Joshi, U. M., Gopalkrishna, K., Betrabet, S., Mehta, S., & Saxena, B. N. (1980). ‘Escape’ ovulation in women due to the missing of low dose combination oral contraceptive pills. Contraception, 22(3), 241-247. doi:S0010-7824(80)80003-5 [pii]
2. Baerwald AR, et al. Effects of oral contraceptives administered at defined stages of ovarian follicular development. Fertil Steril. 2006 Jul; 86(1): 27-35. Epub 2006 Jun 9.
3. Kahlenborn, C., Modugno, F., Potter, D. M., & Severs, W. B. (2006). Oral contraceptive use as a risk factor for premenopausal breast cancer: A meta-analysis.Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 81(10), 1290-1302. doi:S0025-6196(11)61152-X [pii]
4. Kahlenborn C. Breast Cancer, Its Link to Abortion and the Birth Control Pill. 2000.
5. Piltonen, T., Puurunen, J., Hedberg, P., Ruokonen, A., Mutt, S. J., Herzig, K. H.,…Tapanainen, J. S. (2012). Oral, transdermal and vaginal combined contraceptives induce an increase in markers of chronic inflammation and impair insulin sensitivity in young healthy normal-weight women: A randomized study. Human Reproduction (Oxford, England), 27(10), 3046-3056.
6. Wooltorton, E. (2005). Medroxyprogesterone acetate (depo-provera) and bone mineral density loss.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association Journal = Journal De l’Association Medicale Canadienne, 172(6), 746. doi:cmaj.050158 [pii]

Links: Learn more from the websites of Onemoresoul.com HBC and emedicinehealth.com emedicinehealth.com

New Study Shows Abortions Increase Risk of Premature Birth in Future Pregnancies

New research indicates that abortions can negatively affect more than just the mother and her unborn child.  Studies linking abortions to an increased risk of future pre-term births and low birth weights mean future children also can be harmed. 

 A new study from the Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica in Finland confirmed previous studies showing that abortions can lead to an increased risk of pre-term birth, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

 According to the study, women who had abortions after 12 weeks had a 228% higher risk of extremely premature birth than women who aborted their unborn babies earlier in their pregnancies.

Source:  Obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com - 3.3.20