July 2008 Newsletter
Back to Main Newsletters PageA recent news story details the tragic case of a teenage girl from Britain, Manon Jones, who bled to death in June 2005 after taking the abortion drug RU 486. Although Manon was a Christian, she decided to have an abortion when problems arose with her boyfriend's family.
Miss Jones' father testified last month that he would have counseled his daughter against having the abortion. However, he was not notified about her pregnancy or the abortion until she had checked into the hospital with complications from the abortion drug. Manon's death marks the fourteenth known fatality caused by RU 486 among women who have taken the drug.
Meanwhile, a Planned Parenthood affiliate in Sacramento, California has recently contributed $700,000 to try to defeat a ballot initiative which would require parental notification before an abortion can be performed on a minor. Planned Parenthood has turned a blind eye to the massive devastation that has been caused by 35 years of legal abortion.
These two related news stories highlight why our work at Healing the Culture is such a vital part of the pro-life movement. Sadly, we can always expect that Planned Parenthood will distort the truth and manipulate people - especially young people - for profit.
Fortunately, we have two incredibly powerful tools to win people's hearts and minds with the truth. You know that the first, and most important, is prayer. We must never stop praying.
Yet we also must heed the words of the apostle Peter who tells us to "be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you." Our second greatest tool is education. Groups like Planned Parenthood despise pro-life education. That's why they spend so much money trying to keep parents separated from their children. But we must fight back.
As you know, our top priority is to develop a curriculum that teachers can use in the classroom to help teenagers understand and embrace pro-life ethics with their minds and hearts.
One piece in the series is a scripted dialogue in which two characters debate abortion. "Robert" is a pro-abortion college student who questions his best friend, "Emma," about her pro-life views. We have completed our first phase of testing this piece with high school students, and the responses have been overwhelming. Every single student we tested found Emma's arguments to be more persuasive than Robert's. Listen to what some of them said, in their own words...
- "This argument was very convincing."
- "It definitely made sense and I hadn't heard it before."
- "Emma's argument is fascinating and a little strange, but it definitely sounds right."
- "[Emma's] discussion was convincing to me because it was a logical argument."
- "I agree with Emma because Robert's arguments are arbitrary and she makes sense."
- "I think it makes a lot of sense what Emma said. Robert seems stumped and so am I."
Friends, we need your help to move to the next stage of our pro-life curriculum development. We will be writing several more of these scripts, along with student textbooks, teacher manuals, and classroom tools. There are many ways that you can give to support the work of Healing the Culture:
- Send a check by mail. All donations are completely tax deductible.
- Donate by credit card. You can make a donation with your debit or credit card (Visa, Mastercard, Discover). You can also choose to authorize a monthly gift which we will process on the 5th of every month. You can stop automatic monthly donations any time by writing to us.
- Donate online. You can use your credit card to make a gift on our secure website. You can also purchase a variety of pro-life products and materials online.
- Workplace Matching Gifts. Many businesses will match all or part of your gift to Healing the Culture to increase the power of your donation. To see if you can double your gift, check out our "Workplace Matching Gifts" page at: www.healingtheculture.com/support.
- Stocks and Securities. By donating stock to Healing the Culture, you can avoid paying capital gain tax on the appreciation, and still deduct the full fair market value of the stock at the time the gift was made. To make a gift of stock, follow the simple instructions on the "Stocks and Securities" page at: www.healingtheculture.com/support.
- Wills and Bequests. You can include Healing the Culture in your will. Follow the easy instructions on the "Wills and Bequests" page at: www.healingtheculture.com/support.
No matter what amount you give, the important thing to is to please give something to help us build a culture of life. It is through the small and large donations of many people, working together, that we succeed in spreading our pro-life message. Thank you so much for partnering with us, and be assured of our prayers for you.
God bless you,
Camille Pauley
President
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