Vermont Right to Life has launched the largest pro-life outreach project to date. A 4-page, color flyer has been developed and printed for insertion in newspapers around Vermont during the month of January. To date, 185,000 flyers have been shipped to 21 daily, weekly and college newspapers. While a few newspapers inserted the flyer over the past weekend, the bulk of the flyers will appear in papers on Thursday, January 22, 2015, which is the 42nd anniversary of the Roe v Wade and Doe v Bolton US Supreme Court decisions that legalized abortion throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy for any reason. The flyer itself can be downloaded as a pdf or viewed below:
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Life In Vermont
What SCIENCE tells us about the preborn:
At just 24 days, an unborn baby’s heart begins to beat regularly!
At CONCEPTION, the union of egg and sperm, DNA and sex is determined, cellular development begins.
1 WEEK
Implantation, the new life is composed of hundreds of cells.
3-4 WEEKS
The heart is beating.
6 WEEKS
Electrical brain wave patterns can be recorded.
7 WEEKS
The unborn baby has complete fingers, toes and ears.
8 WEEKS
All his organs are functioning.
11-12 WEEKS
The baby can suck her thumb, moves her arms and legs, has fingernails.
18 WEEKS
The baby can cry, the vocal chords are working.
20 WEEKS
The baby is 7-10 inches long, weighing 1 pound, can feel pain and has hair.
“This is biology: At no point in a human life are we not a human life–that started from the time you were a one-cell embryo and has continued uninterrupted until the moment you read these words.”
Wesley Smith, Bioethicist with Discovery Institute
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“I Didn’t Know I Would Feel This Way…”
It was nearly 8 years after having an abortion at age 19 that I finally was able to talk about it ….I didn’t want to be pregnant but I wasn’t offered alternatives….no one suggested that I could have the baby and still finish my college education….…no one told me I would experience such grief….every year on the anniversary of what would have been my due date, I think of my unborn baby. I now counsel women who are facing an unexpected pregnancy and urge them to choose life, because when you choose life, there is hope.
Debbie, Essex Junction, Vermont
“At 18, my baby didn’t seem real. My life and plans were my focus. At 28, when I saw an ultrasound screen during my first trimester that showed one living twin and one that I was miscarrying, the reality of my past was right there in front of me. I’m 49 now. I still miss and love my children. My choice at 18 was for a future of regret.”
A Mom, Middletown Springs, VT
When I told my boyfriend I was pregnant he said, “there goes the next 18 years of my life.” He became angry, insisting I have an abortion and then told me if I didn’t get an abortion, I would need to find another place to live.
I remember the clinic worker telling me that I could always have another baby when I was ready.
We later married but I had lost my fertility. What I had been told by the clinic worker was a lie. I would not have another baby later. When I “chose” to abort my first baby, I was unable to ever have a baby again.
Lisa, Montpelier, Vermont
A higher percentage of women who become pregnant are choosing to give birth to their babies.
Chart with Number of Abortions per Year in Vermont 1985 – 2012
(Statistics provided by the Vermont Department of Health)
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What is the Current Status of Unborn Children in Vermont?
No law in Vermont recognizes the humanity of an unborn child at any point throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy, even though science and technology indisputably demonstrate that fact.
Search the Vermont Statutes Online http://www.leg.state.vt.us/statutesmain.cfm
Adoption Option
“When we were finally able to adopt a baby girl, our family was complete – and our daughter has stayed in touch with her birth mother over the years! With reforms to the adoption process, birth parents have more options in creating an adoption plan,”
Ethel, Milton, VT
Young people are more pro-life than ever. According to Gallup, people between the ages of 18-29 are the most likely to be pro-life. (Photos taken at the annual March for Life in Washington, DC)
According to Gallup polling, people between the ages of 18 to 29 are the most likely to be pro-life. A recent CNN poll found that 58% of Americans oppose abortion in most or all cases.
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Prenatal Testing: Not Always Accurate
When my son Nathan and his wife were expecting their second child, the doctors told them that their unborn baby had a chromosomal abnormality that would cause him to die at birth. Despite the dire prediction, his Mom and Dad made the decision to carry the baby to term. At birth they discovered that the doctors were completely wrong! Jayden is now 8 years old.
When this same little family was expecting their third child, they were told by the experts that their unborn baby had tested positive for Down syndrome and were offered a “termination.” Both parents told the doctors, “We’re going to have this baby and love him, no matter what.” Once again, another of my grandsons was born with no symptoms of Down syndrome.
The “experts” were wrong, not once, but twice – in the same family!
Rob, Westfield, Vermont
In a local hospital during my 5th pregnancy, my doctor said “Mrs. Sheppard, we’ve noticed a problem with your baby’s heart…..it appears that her heart is missing part of the pulmonary artery.” He indicated that this was a large, complicated defect. At first I was alarmed and scared, especially when the doctor suggested that I consider a termination. I opted for her life.
By the time Olivia was born, her heart was almost completely healthy. Olivia would eventually need some surgery, but nothing complicated or life-threatening, and today she is an avid skier, skater, soccer player and dancer. The doctors are not always right.
Heather, Cambridge, Vermont
“It is natural to feel a range of emotions when you first discover your child has Down syndrome, but the actual experience is so much different than what you expect. Our experience was typical of most parents who have a child with Down syndrome; we immediately fell in love with our Sadie. She has brought us nothing but joy, and our lives have been changed for the better. No prenatal test can predict that.”
Eileen, Jericho, Vermont
Eileen has been so inspired by the experience of having a child with Down syndrome that she co-founded a national organization to raise awareness of the positive contributions of children with Down syndrome.
http://keepinfantswithdownsyndrome.blogspot.com
UPHOLDING THE SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE
Vermont Right to Life Committee, Inc.
Defending Life since 1971
Educational Trust Fund established in 1989
www.vrlc.net
