January 2010 Newsletter
Back to Main Newsletters PageGod bless you, and Happy New Year!
First up, before diving into our exciting plans for Healing the Culture in 2010, Michael and I wanted to share the good news (in case you didn't already know), that we will be welcoming a new member into our family sometime around January 15!
Yes, that's right - I am currently sitting at my computer, feet propped up, bigger than a boat, and ready to pop at any minute. God has blessed us with a daughter, and we couldn't be more thrilled. She's an active little tyke. I feel like my insides have become her personal jungle gym. Her favorite activity seems to be rubbing her head in a rhythmic pattern every time I eat chocolate (which is often). That's my girl.
Now that I am just about full term with her, I have to say that the experience of this pregnancy has been quite an eye-opener for me and Michael. It's not that we were naïve about the way the medical establishment views babies who are conceived by women in their 40s. But it was exhausting to repeatedly instruct medical professionals that we were not interested in any talk about doing violence to our child because of a defect she may or may not have.
While some of the negative attitudes from medical workers were probably motivated by a lack of respect for the unique dignity of prenatal life, most of it seemed to come from fear. Because of the fear of lawsuits, we were literally bombarded with warnings, lectures, taped recordings, reading material, unending offers for tests, and forms to sign telling us about every defect our "pregnancy" might have, and making sure we were aware that termination was an option.
One example was the woman who scheduled my 20 week ultrasound. When she saw that my Quad Screen (a simple blood draw to test for various abnormalities) predicted a 1 in 80 chance of having a Down Syndrome baby, she said, "Oh, you'll want to plan for an hour after your ultrasound to meet with a counselor."
- "What would I need to be counseled about?" I asked.
- "Well, you're 41 years old, and your Quad was positive."
- "I thought it showed a 1 in 80 chance."
- "Yes... that's considered positive.
- "Wow. But why do I need counseling?"
- "Well... uh... so that you know all your options after they learn more from the ultrasound."
- "Like, what kind of options, for example?"
- "Well, you know... just to let you know what you might want to do depending on what they find out."
- "Okay. So, say like my husband and I love this little person regardless of whether or not she is physically or genetically perfect?"
- "OH! Well then in that case, you don't need the counseling."
I couldn't help but wonder how many women hear that word "positive" and have an abortion when their child has a 79 in 80 chance of NOT having Down Syndrome. I wondered how many women leave the "counseling" session feeling a duty to abort. I wondered how many are discouraged about the possibility of raising a child with special needs when the whole medical community seems to be on a "search and destroy" mission.
It struck me how dark and bleak and depressing the abortion movement has rendered the world of prenatal care. Happily, our pro-life Ob/Gyn stood in stark contrast to many others in the medical community that we saw. A pro-life vision of pregnancy is so filled with HOPE and TRUST.
This is the kind of vision that we at Healing the Culture are working so hard to infuse in our culture. It's a vision that comes naturally to a heart that is free to love. But hearts are only free to love when they understand that their own meaning, purpose, and happiness comes from giving themselves away.
Remember that our greatest job in the pro-life movement is to help people do just that - give themselves away. The only way we become truly human is when we give ourselves away to others.
In 2010, we have some really ambitious projects planned to help spread this vision as far and as fast as possible. For one, we are speeding up the process of completing our high school curriculum. As mentioned in my last letter, we are in the early stages of designing a massive, interactional website for teens, which will help them study the four levels of happiness and will help their teachers by providing classroom resources and teaching tools. You can check out the early version of this website at www.principlesandchoices.com.
We are also hard at work writing the next three lessons in the curriculum, which will be tested at our beta-sites this year. Lessons are being recorded as "audiobooks" for students who learn better by listening, and for easy access while traveling. We are in the "talent gathering" stage for production of an audio scripted dialogue on abortion between a young man and a young woman. We hope to complete production of this piece by the end of January. And the Four Levels of Happiness lesson is currently being tested in 7th and 8th grade classrooms for future adaptation to a younger audience.
Your continuing support of Healing the Culture allows us to move forward on this pioneering effort which will leverage the greatest amount of cultural change for the dollars invested. Thank you for your commitment to helping us implement a vision of trust, hope, and love in our culture.
Camille Pauley
President
P.S. Your gift of any size, $10, $25, $50, $100, $500, or more, is completely tax deductible, and may be offered by check or credit card. Remember that many companies offer matching grants for which Healing the Culture could qualify, as we are a 501(c)(3) organization. You can also telephone us to make gifts of stock.
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