A letter from Pulse Life Advocate’s Executive Director, Maggie DeWitte
Dear Fellow Pro-Life Warrior:
Prayer holds the pro-life movement together. It fuels our ability to persevere in the face of setbacks, and to ultimately triumph. That’s why Pulse Life Advocates and our allies in the pro-life movement pray together. We want you to be a part of our shared prayer. To that end, would you join us at the 2023 Iowa Prayer Rally For Life?
Here are the details:
DATE: Monday, February 6th
PLACE: Iowa State Capitol Rotunda
SCHEDULE:
11AM to 2PM: Meet the members of the Iowa Coalition of pro-life leaders. They’ll have tables set up in the rotunda. Ask them how YOU can join the effort and save BOTH babies and mothers in Iowa.
11AM to Noon: Go to Room 305 to learn how to lobby. Make your voice heard. We promise you, Planned Parenthood has trained their acolytes. We have assembled veteran lobbyists who will show you exactly how to properly influence public officials.
Noon to 1PM: Be inspired. You’ll hear from Iowa’s pro-life leaders on the latest efforts to save babies’ lives; you’ll hear from and encourage legislators who are standing up to defend life; and you’ll join local clergy in powerful prayer at the focal point of where Iowa public policy is decided.
We’ve invited the following speakers: Governor Kim Reynolds; Senator Kevin Alons; Senator Mark Costello; Representative Luana Stoltenberg; and Reverend Dr. Jim Lamb, a Lutheran Family Service Life Advocate.
Let’s rock the house with prayer!
1PM to 2PM: Go lobby your Senator and Representative.
The 2023 Iowa Prayer Rally for Life is sponsored by a ‘who’s who’ of Iowa pro-life leaders, including:
- Pulse Life Advocates
- Iowa Right to Life
- The Family Leader
- Lutheran Family Service
- Personhood Iowa
- Operation Outcry
- Thomas More Society
- Iowa Catholic Conference
- Restored By Grace
- Dubuque County Right to Life
These groups comprise the Iowa Coalition of Pro-Life Leaders, whose motto is:
Standing firm in God’s truth for life.
Prayer is the foundation of the pro-life movement. This movement needs YOUR prayers more than ever. Please … join us at the 2023 Iowa Prayer Rally for Life on February 6th.
Thank-you,
Maggie DeWitte, Executive Director
PULSE LIFE ADVOCATES
Women hold the important leadership positions in the pro-life movement. Some examples in Iowa:
Pulse Life Advocates: Maggie DeWitte
Iowa Right to Life: Kristi Judkins
Innervisions HealthCare: Theresa Welch
Agape Pregnancy Resource Center: Leanna Simpson
At the national level:
Live Action: Lila Rose
March For Life: Jeanne Mancini
Susan B. Anthony PRO-LIFE America: Marjorie Dannenfelser
Students for Life: Kristan Hawkins
Abortion isn’t a woman’s issue
In recognition that abortion isn’t merely a ‘women’s issue,’ men were well-represented at last Friday’s March For Life in Washington DC, both as ‘marchers’ as well as speakers.
Perhaps the highest profile man speaking at the March was Hall of Fame football coach, Tony Dungy, who won Super Bowls both as a player and a coach.
Mr. Dungy stated that his appearance at this human rights event was “way, way more important” than the NFL play-off season, which so defines his career, both as a player and a coach, and now as a high-profile football analyst. You can watch his speech below.
The man in the arena
By agreeing to speak at the March for Life, Tony Dungy truly became a “man in the arena,” opening himself up to vitriol from a pro-death culture. For example, Dave Zirin, sports editor for The Nation, blasted both Dungy and his boss, NBC:
“If Dungy wants a show on ‘The Daily Wire,’ more power to him. But his being center stage on the most watched program in the country makes NBC and the NFL complicit in his disinformation and political posturing. Like Dungy, neither NBC nor the NFL has commented about his latest eruption. But their silence speaks volumes. It’s a silence that’s almost as loud as Dungy’s hateful blather, almost as loud as the thousands of people descending upon Washington—some mandatorily—to celebrate a fascistic, discredited Supreme Court and the loss of our rights. It’s shameful. And we should not be afraid to say so.”
Mr. Zirin’s tirade barely scratches the surface of the hateful feeding frenzy that took place on Twitter.
Another man in the arena
Actor Jonathan Roumie, who portrays Jesus in the hit TV series, The Chosen, also stepped into the ‘arena’ at the March For Life. Said Roumie:
“I know how difficult it can be to think differently, to swim against the current, to choose life in a culture that celebrates death. You know standing here and saying these things to you now is neither the obvious career choice, or an easy decision for me, because I’ve never set foot in this arena before publicly. But ultimately, I had no choice. This guy made me do it [pointing towards heaven], and I’m a better man for it.”
Role models for men
Tony Dungy and Jonathan Roumie are role models for men to boldly leap into the arena to defend the little guy, the unborn, regardless of the cost. Teddy Roosevelt described what it takes to be this man in the “arena”:
“It is not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, if he wins, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
Join us in the arena
Pulse Life Advocates honors not just the great women in the pro-life movement, but those men who act like men by stepping into an arena that the culture says doesn’t belong to them.
Men like Tony Dungy and Jonathan Roumie.
Men like Bishop William Joensen who attended last year’s March, and who just issued common sense guidance on how to handle gender dysphoria in Catholic schools and churches, despite the cultural pushback he knew would come.
Men like Michigan football coach, Jim Harbaugh, who spoke at a Michigan pro-life banquet last year, despite the pushback he knew would come.
Young men in the arena
And men like the high school and college young men who ‘dared greatly’ by making a pilgrimage to this year’s March in Washington DC with Pulse knowing that they’d face pushback from their peer group who don’t see the life issue in the same way as they do.
Timid men cower in the face of the threats hurled at the likes of brave men like Dungy, Roumie, Joensen, and Harbaugh. There is no shortage of these men.
Rather, let us emulate Teddy Roosevelt and all the brave men who step into the arena and fight valiantly for a worthy cause. The March For Life demonstrates that they won’t be alone.
[Pulse Life Advocates needs your financial support to continue our pro-life educational outreach. Donate today.]
Pulse Life Advocates published 81 blogposts in 2022. Some were news, political, and legislative updates; some were cultural commentary; some were prayer. All are connected by Pulse’s mission to promote life from fertilization to natural death.
Here are the top 10 blogposts for 2022, accompanied by an excerpt from the piece and a link for you to read the entire piece.
We encourage your comments.
#10
You contradict yourself. You don’t actually believe in the right and dignity of a girl or woman at any stage of her development if you allow another person to kill her in the womb, even if she is a zygote. And even at that young age, she contains the same 46 unique chromosomes she’ll have at age 5 or 95. She has the entire genetic blueprint of a new individual at that young age. Her chromosomes contain tightly packed, coiled molecules at fertilization with the detailed instructions for her to develop into an adult … unless she is killed in the womb by human abortion.
#9
The media is noticing. The Wall Street Journal ran yet another piece touting the case for marriage. They reported on the mystifying tendency of married couples to become wealthier than their non-married counterparts in a November 7th piece (“Moving in Together Doesn’t Match the Financial Benefits of Marriage, but Why?”).
#8
Abortion Politicians Set Their Sights on Catholic Hospitals
Although they assist in a half a million births a year and provide extensive pre and post natal services, they don’t provide abortions. Which is a problem to abortion activists, like Jill Filipovic. She’d rather see Catholic hospitals shut down if they refuse to provide abortions:
#7
Various polls affirm that 7 out of 10 Americans support limits on abortion. In fact, President Biden supported limits on abortion at one point in his career, asserting that the Supreme Court had gone “too far” on abortion with the Roe v Wade decision.
#6
Fr. Martin accuses pro-lifers of grumbling
“Fr. James Martin claims that support for the death penalty is the moral equivalent as support for abortion. [Abortion and the Grumbling Crowd, July 21st.] Let’s contrast the issues:
Some 800,000 innocent unborn American were ‘executed’ (aborted) for the crime of being inconvenient last year in contrast to the 11 criminals who were executed for the crime of murder.
There is no moral equivalency between human abortion and the death penalty.”
#5
“The answer, of course, is nobody isn’t your neighbor: not Jews, not Samaritans, not Democrats, not Republicans, not blacks, not whites, not South Koreans, not North Koreans, not Red Sox fans, not even Yankee fans. Your neighbor is everyone — not “everyone” in general but each one in particular, one by one: every person God brings into your life in any way, even heretics like the Samaritans.”
And even the unborn.
#4
Roe Dies on the Solemnity of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
The Pope further explains that from the Heart of Jesus flows a deeper understanding and experience of his His divine love.
Abortion is the antithesis of Christ’s love.
Love is sacrificial, which is why Christ allowed His Sacred Heart to be pierced by his oppressors, so that He could save us all.
Abortion is selfish, as it pierces the hearts of its innocent victims to the detriment of us all.
#3
Is Western Civilization Worth Saving?
Saint Mother Teresa posed a provocative question: “… if a mother can kill her own unborn baby, what is left of Western civilization to save?”
There’s no question that Western civilization is under attack.
‘Western Civ’ is a decreasingly required course in institutions of higher learning. And when it is taught, curriculum tends to focus on its negatives rather than its staggering achievements.
The progressive Left calls for a dismantling of the structures and values of Western civilization.
Rank and file citizens of the West display increasing apathy towards the rich heritage bestowed upon them by the superior values of Western Civilization.
So before answering St. Mother Teresa’s challenging question, we should ask, “what defines Western civilization?”
#2
Sadly, the overpopulation myth is having a devastating impact on our culture. Erhlich claimed that the earth didn’t offer enough resources to accommodate the planet’s population. When that claim was proven false, a new breed of alarmists came on the scene and said that our growing population was heating up the earth and unnaturally changing the planet’s climate.
#1
Top Ten Religious Movies For Lent
[This is consistently one of our most popular annual blogs, updated every Lent.]
Lent has started. What a perfect time to enjoy a good religious movie. At some time or other in your life, probably during your Lenten fast, you have asked yourself the question, “what is the meaning of life?” And the answer is, that life has meaning. That meaning comes from being adopted sons and daughters of God. That meaning comes from the unique mission our Creator gives to each of us as members of His Kingdom.
A good religious movie helps us appreciate the profound meaning of our lives as it ultimately draws us nearer to Christ. It reveals the Truth, with a capital T. If you have not had the good fortune of watching any of these films yet, then you may want to see what your Cable TV package has available and where you could watch these with the family. There is a source here that discusses the statistics of people who watch TV and what they are looking at, so maybe you’ll be able to find a package that leans towards more religious teachings that can help you with your journey.
[Pulse Life Advocates needs your support more than ever to pushback against Big Abortion’s attempt to overturn every single pro-life law in Iowa. Arm us with the resources we need to reach more at-risk Iowans with our educational pro-life outreach. Donate today.]
By Tom Quiner, Board President, Pulse Life Advocates
I conducted a little survey amongst family and friends. I asked this question:
By the year 2100, will the population of the planet be:
- One billion MORE persons?
- About the same as today?
- One billion LESS persons?
Most answered one billion more persons. The correct answer is one billion fewer persons, according to demographers, Joel Kotkin and Wendell Cox. Their essay in Quillette (The Unexpected Future) portends a planetary depopulation trend based on data published by the United Nations.
Surveys show ignorance on depopulation concerns
How can this be? A YouGovAmerica survey asked:
“Which do you think is of greater concern to the world in future decades?”
53% of respondents said overpopulation; 22% said neither; 15% didn’t know; and only 10% said underpopulation.
No one is worried about underpopulation. Just the opposite. I remember when Paul Erhlich’s apocalyptic tome, “The Population Bomb,” was published in 1968. I was in high school, and it made quite a splash. Students went from class to class making presentations based on his prognostication:
“The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.”
His book asserted that overpopulation is the root problem. Not only did he influence impressionable high school students, the political class jumped on board. High profile public figures, such as Zbigniew Brzezinski (who became President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Adviser), J. Paul Getty, and Henry Luce III among others took out a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal declaring:
“The world as we know it will likely be ruined before the year 2000,” since “food production cannot keep pace with the galloping growth of population.”
A demographic misdiagnosis
Of course, they were wrong. None of Erhlich’s dire predictions came to pass. In fact, the United Nation’s Food and Agricultural Organization said hunger dropped from one of four people in the world at the time Population Bomb was published to but one in ten today. Those affected by famines dropped from 27 million in 1900 to less than a million today.
Nonetheless, the damage was done. Anti population measures were aggressively implemented in countries like India and China, including forced sterilizations and abortions. In the U.S. and Europe, liberal abortion policies have helped drive birth rates below replacement levels.
The fruit of these polices is now evident, according to Mssrs. Kotkin and Cox:
“It’s not a matter of if but when global populations will start to decline. Under the UN’s medium variant projection, the world’s population will peak in 2086, while under the low variant, the peak will occur in 2053, and by 2100, the population will be about a billion below today’s level.”
Devastating impact
Sadly, the overpopulation myth is having a devastating impact on our culture. Erhlich claimed that the earth didn’t offer enough resources to accommodate the planet’s population. When that claim was proven false, a new breed of alarmists came on the scene and said that our growing population was heating up the earth and unnaturally changing the planet’s climate.
A Wall Street Journal October 7, 2018 headline said:
“U.N. panel warns drastic action needed to stave off climate change.”
In another piece on September 26, 2019, the Wall Street Journal began a piece with this provocative paragraph:
“Inside the United Nations General Assembly this week, world leaders tackled the gravest issues facing humankind. Nuclear weapons. Tensions in the Persian Gulf. Fears of a climate apocalypse.”
Politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez amplified the media’s apocalyptic rhetoric with dire forecasts, like this claim made in 2019:
“The world is gonna end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change and your biggest issue is how are we gonna pay for it?”
With 1.8 followers on Facebook and another 13.4 million on Twitter, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has tremendous influence.
“A social intelligence of a sea sponge”
Although she later backtracked, claiming that only those with a “social intelligence of a sea sponge” would believe such a claim, the damage was done. A Rasmussen Poll showed that two-thirds of Democratic voters do believe the claim.
We’re still waiting to see if Ms. Ocasio-Cortez apologizes to the sea sponge lobby.
Climate alarmism affects young people’s willingness to bring children into this world, as the New York Times pointed out. They asked readers for their feedback on reactions to the “existential” threat of climate change. Here was a fairly typical response:
“I have one child, a daughter, who told me age 8 that she would never have a child because of global warming. She’s now 34 and has never changed her mind. So I will not experience a grandchild. For her wisdom, I am grateful. I would be heartsick if I did have a grandchild who would have to experience the onslaught of changing climate.”
Overpopulation has been a bogeyman for most of Baby Boomer’s adult lives. But now that they have reached retirement age, a depopulation bomb looms as a serious threat to the U.S. economy and social-safety net. Every single state in the U.S. has a fertility rate below replacement level.
Depopulation weakens our social safety net
At the time of the Roe v Wade decision (1973), there were 29 people on Social Security per hundred workers compared to 37 today and projected to rise to 66 by 2100, according to SS trustees. Reserve funds will be depleted by 2035.
The depopulation bomb presents more than an existential threat to our social safety net. It guts the vitality of an entire economy, as Japan’s experience shows us.
Their fertility rate dipped below replacement level in 1973. Their economy began to sag twenty years later as the effects of a shrinking labor force were felt. Their per capita GDP fell from $44,198 in 1995 to $39,285 by 2021.
The depopulation bomb is an existential threat
So what is the biggest existential threat to the United States and the world? The depopulation bomb. Demographic projections have a more reliable track record than climate projections. The same people warning of global warming today warned of a coming ice age just fifty years ago.
In light of the growing need for more people, the U.S. can’t afford aborting 900,000 human beings a year, who represent our ultimate resource. The time has come to end the moral and economic confusion at the heart of the abortion debate.
[Tom Quiner is Board President for Pulse Life Advocates, a pro-life advocacy group located in Des Moines, IA. You can learn more about their educational outreach at www.PulseForLife.org and support their cause here.]
The late, great Beatle, John Lennon, has written some very fine songs. But boy has he written some clunkers. Two songs stand out as being particularly insufferable: “Imagine” and “Happy Xmas (The War is Over).”
Let’s start with the latter. The first sentence asks:
“So this is Christmas, and what have you done?”
Take a listen …
Lennon and his co-writer, wife Yoko Ono, are trying to make you feel guilty that you Christians aren’t doing enough to make the world peaceful, that somehow you’re actually phonies.
“Superficial do-gooders”
Writing in the National Review, Mark Milke characterizes their lyrics as “superficial do-goodery.” Says Milke:
“Those ten words have enough hubris to inflate the Hindenburg. It’s as if ordinary folk somehow should justify themselves to a 1960s–1970s rock star consumed by self and by error, as in his musical worship of anti-religious belief and consequences.”
Lennon’s issue was war; so is ours, only ours is the the war on the unborn. In fairness, Lennon’s views on abortion aren’t known, although Yoko Ono said she considered aborting their son Sean, but John said no. That speaks well of Mr. Lennon.
The transformation of the ‘peace and justice’ crowd
Sadly, the peace and justice crowd morphed from an anti-war movement in the 1960s into a pro-abortion movement in the name of women’s reproductive rights in the 1970s. That helps to explain this blog’s disdain for the opening line in this sorry Christmas song.
The pro-life movement has to endure endless sniping from Big Abortion and their acolytes demanding to know, ‘what have YOU done’ to help babies after they’re born.
The pro-life movement does so much nationally helping moms after their babies are born to possibly list here. In Des Moines, Pulse partners with Mary’s Helping Hands to provide clothing, diapers, and formula for the first two years of babies’ lives.
The largest pro-life group in the world
The largest pro-life group in the world, Catholic Charities, works non-stop:
√ Reducing infant mortality.
√ Boosting the number of kids with health coverage.
√ Increasing access to healthy food for the hungry.
√ Lessening the number of families and individuals forced to live in emergency shelters.
√ Expanding the quantity of affordable housing units.
√ Working to increase fathers’ involvement in families.
√ Expanding access to quality affordable early childhood education.
√ Increasing the rate of high school completion.
√ Raising the number of youth participating in postsecondary education or workforce training.
√ Adopting out more children than any other provider in the country.
If ever there was a pro-life group that helps babies after they’re born, it is the Knights of Columbus.
The Knights of Columbus supports the Special Olympics, you know the very kids abortion advocates abort at alarming rates. (Some 90% Down Syndrome babies are aborted.)
They buy ultra sound machines for pro-life pregnancy centers.
They provide funds to support refugee relief to help persecuted groups facing genocide around the world.
And they provide coats for kids; wheelchairs for the lame; and homes for the homeless.
There’s more …
Pro-lifers adopt babies and support women’s pregnancy centers in every state in the union. In fact, pro-lifers have erected an entire social safety net on their own dime helping women, as government programs often won’t let groups participate if they don’t refer clients for abortion services. That happened during the Obama presidency when the administration terminated a program run by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops helping women who were victims of human trafficking.
Lennon’s hectoring in this Christmas song is compounded by his unendurable anti-religion lyrics as expressed in “Imagine”:
“Imagine there’s no heaven,
It’s easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky.
Imagine all the people living for today.”
Take a listen:
Hard to take
All of this is hard to take in light of Christianity’s relentless outreach to the poor over the past two millennia. The Catholic Church in particular founded the modern day university and hospital systems. Even today, Catholic hospitals care for one out of every seven patients in the U.S.
And yet Mr. Lennon became the poster child for driving young people from the Church by using his platform to preach his smug sermons:
“Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I’ll be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first—rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.”
John Lennon’s most obnoxious song
So what is John Lennon’s most obnoxious song? This blog votes for Happy Xmas (The War is Over) as Lennon presents his secular religion in Christmas wrapping paper. We live in an era of woke virtue-signaling where self-righteous elites constantly lecture the little people on their moral failings.
Our tirade isn’t meant to diminish the good songs John Lennon wrote, nor even his activism to promote peace. After all, who opposes peace? But we live in an age where pro-lifers are constantly asked: “what have you done?”
In this Christmas season, we respond: much. We believe that peace begins in the womb. It seems only fitting that we end this essay in Mr. Lennon’s own words, “All we are sayin’ is give peace a chance.”
By Tom Quiner
Fr. Frank Pavone (left) with Pulse Board President, Tom Quiner
Fr. Frank Pavone was one of the most inspirational pro-life speakers I’ve ever heard. He came through Des Moines a number of years ago and riveted the audience with his passionate defense of human life in the womb.
What stuck with me was his concern for the women suffering with guilt from their abortions.
What stuck with me was the faith-based compassion he demonstrated to women who participated in thousands of abortions until they saw the light.
What stuck with me was this is a man who is making the world a better place.
The news from Rome is that Pope Francis has defrocked Fr. Prank Pavone effective immediately. This blog won’t take sides. We don’t know all that has transpired between Fr. Pavone, his bishop, and the Holy See.
All of us at Pulse Life Advocates are saddened by the news. Nothing, though, changes my conviction that Fr. Frank Pavone has made the world a better place with his tireless defense of the unborn and his heartfelt outreach to the women so wounded by the horror of human abortion.
I don’t know what the future has in store for this ‘priest for life.’ We simply want to thank him for all the babies he has saved.
[Support Pulse for Life’s pro-life educational outreach with your donation. Here’s how:]
Pulse Life Advocates publishes and promotes a Facebook post with the message:
“Thanks to you, life goes on. Keep the fight for life going.”
We received a sharp rebuke, which we post below with our response:
“Why am I seeing this?”
Because Pulse Life Advocates is a pro-life organization that promotes the sanctity of life from fertilization to natural death.
“I believe in the sanctity of life including the right and dignity of a girl or woman who is viable outside her mother’s womb to have bodily autonomy and the right to have a safe and legal abortion if she chooses.”
You contradict yourself. You don’t actually believe in the right and dignity of a girl or woman at any stage of her development if you allow another person to kill her in the womb, even if she is a zygote. And even at that young age, she contains the same 46 unique chromosomes she’ll have at age 5 or 95. She has the entire genetic blueprint of a new individual at that young age. Her chromosomes contain tightly packed, coiled molecules at fertilization with the detailed instructions for her to develop into an adult … unless she is killed in the womb by human abortion.
And viability is a meaningless, subjective standard. Viability has changed dramatically since the time of the Roe v Wade decision as science allows humans to survive outside the womb at earlier ages than ever.
“Of course if a woman chooses to have a child whether planned or not I support that decision too.”
Glad to hear it. Sadly, women are getting pressure from their employers to abort their baby to save them money over having to pay for childbirth expenses and maternity leave, as the video below so aptly parodies.
“But I will ALWAYS defend the right to a safe and legal abortion for anyone who may find themselves facing an unplanned pregnancy!”
Abortion is never safe. Most of the time, the unique human being in the womb is killed. Those that survive the ordeal and are born often don’t live long, or are permanently impaired by the violence inflicted on them by the abortionist. Here’s the testimony from one abortion survivor, Melissa Ohden:
Most women who have had abortions acknowledge the physical, emotional, and spiritual trauma human abortion exacts on them.
“I think forcing a woman into gestational slavery against her wishes is one of the most immoral things anyone can do!”
Gestational slavery? Please. Men and women know that the sex act leads to conception. Both parties have a moral responsibility to the unique human being they have created through their choice to engage in sexual relations. What is immoral is the casual killing of this unique human being simply because she is inconvenient, especially when there are 35 couples waiting in line to adopt each baby that is aborted.
“Of course no one who is a misogynistic anti-choicer (I say this because for the most part the ‘pro-life movement is just pro-birth) thinks about what it’s like to lose a friend, daughter, girlfriend, wife etc. because she was denied a safe and legal abortion and was so desperate she would rather kill herself than face gestational slavery until it happens to them!
I know women and people who have faced this!”
Yes, so have we. That’s why those of us in the pro-life movement have worked so hard providing free pregnancy resource centers and a social safety net for women after their baby is born.
For the record, a variety of studies in the U.S. and abroad reveal that women who abort their babies have a higher incidence of suicide than those that give birth. The violence of abortion is never healing as hard data reveals. So what is truly misogynist is to promote abortion when we know it hurts women and their families.
By Bishop William Joensen
God of life whose love brings us into being, we keep a vigil of sorts this evening in this warm and festive place as night and cold and brightly shining stars surround us.
Months after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision marked an answer to so many prayers, to decades of bold witness and advocacy, and yes, engagement in the political order with those whose sights and priorities extend only to this world, we know that there is yet so much to strive for. And so we seek the grace to remain unflagging and faithful in our collaboration with you, Father forever, in advancing a Kingdom not made by human hands, where justice and mercy embrace just as a child is held in her or his mother’s and father’s arms.
We want to ensure that all who are lowly and most vulnerable find a ready welcome just as Jesus did in the womb of his mother Mary, to provide the way station for those who want to migrate from the womb to the world. He did not hesitate to become a child for our sake so that all daughters and sons of every age might fully become who you know them to be in your mysterious wisdom and dominion over all times and seasons.
Billions upon billions of human persons arise from the union of male and female, a truth that enlightens and forms our affirmation of the necessary link between sex and gender. You know the number of our days, and the moment when all history will be fulfilled and time will cease, which as St. Gregory of Nyssa reminds us, will be as long as it takes for you to create all the humans you intend.
With the pulse of our hearts quickened by the witness of the Sisters of Life, and drawn into sync with the cadence of music performed by inspired artists for whom we are profoundly grateful, we ask you to bless this gala evening and all that composes it: the food and those who have both prepared and bear it to us, the conversation and and savoring of unmediated presence which we will never take for granted again, and above all, the recounting of the mystery of Jesus, King of Kings and Word made flesh. He became like us so that we can accompany one another into the fullness of life who you are, +Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, where we will sing your praises, forever and ever. Amen.
[If you missed the Gala, you can still support our pro-life educational outreach with your online donation.]
Good evening, my name is Sr. Cecilia Rose and this is Sr. Shirley Ann. It is a gift & delight to be with you all.
I realize this is a Christmas banquet, but this past 4th of July some of us went to an epic firework show! I have never been that close to fireworks in my life! They were literally exploding right over our heads!!! It was awesome!
My favorite part, though, was a little guy high up on his dad’s shoulders. I was watching him and as each explosion happened he’d yell out –“WOW!” then again, –“WOW!” and again, –“WOW!” It was incredible to see the sheer delight, wonder, and awe on his face as he watched the fireworks explode.
So, now here I find myself in front of each of you, made in the image and likeness of God, an imprint of His glory, my heart is exploding, –“WOW!” — ––“WOW!” ––“WOW!” — Each of you so much more amazing than those fireworks. The sheer wonder of your being makes me exclaim, –“WOW!” Speaking of WOW – “Defenders of the Defenseless for 50 Years” – WOW!!!
There is nobody like you
From all of eternity, the Lord desired that you exist. There is nobody like you, and there has never been nor will there ever be anyone like you. This is the stunning truth:
every human person, no matter how strong or weak, rich or poor, healthy or sick, is loved and willed into existence by God. You are chosen and loved and looked upon with mercy.
Each of us thirsts to know this truth. We thirst to know that we matter, that our life has meaning, that we are good, loved, lovable. But the reality is, in today’s busy, efficiency-driven world, it’s easy to forget who we are, what we’re made for.
That’s why our community exists
Founded in 1991 in NY by Cardinal O’Connor, we exist so that every person can encounter the goodness of their own life, and every person’s life. Our main work is prayer, and all of our missions flow from that relationship with Christ:
we serve women who are pregnant and in need; we host weekend retreats; we speak around the country about the dignity of the human person; and we also have a mission of Hope and Healing for those suffering after abortion, inviting them to receive the Lord’s mercy.
A visitor comes
We recently had a visiting day at our Motherhouse and one of our sisters’ nieces who is ~2 ó yrs old, came right up her auntie and went straight for her crucifix and gave it a BIG kiss! Then later on in the day, I asked her, Rose, what do you want to be when you grow up? She replied enthusiastically, A saint! If those two things weren’t enough, right before they departed she found the nativity set in our fake fireplace, picked up baby Jesus, rocked him and said,
“I love you Jesus.”
She’s got it! One of the most important truths to remember on this our pilgrimage of life, is that we’re each called to be a saint and called to love! I would like to propose to you a guide for this pilgrimage of life – the Blessed Mother.
I would like to look briefly with you at three specific words of Our Lady, the call that each word reveals and how each one is an invitation. The three words are Behold, Fiat, and Magnificat!
BEHOLD! – CREATED BY GOD
Come Holy Spirit, living in Mary, inspire their hearts.
In the marvelous account of the Annunciation in Luke’s Gospel, the angel Gabriel comes to Mary and tells her she is going to conceive and bear a son. The angel said to her,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord…”
What is key here is God’s individual love for Mary, just as he knows and loves each one of us. The Lord approaches Our Lady first. Any country music fans out there?
♫♪I loved her 1st, and a place in my heart will always be hers, when she first smiled at me, I knew the love of a Father runs deep… ♪♫
God has prepared her from all eternity. Each of us are the recipients of His grace, His love, His mercy, not meriting it but receiving it as a free gift. The gift of life is totally gratuitous and unmerited. When God looks upon us, He doesn’t see humanity as a whole but as individuals, each one whom he knows and creates.
And so when the Lord approaches Mary first in love, what is her response? “Behold.” And we can respond in the same manner.
How do we look at ourselves?
BEHOLD means simply to observe, to look at. How do we observe, or look at ourselves – do we see ourselves as being created by God out of love, or do we lose sight of this truth? How tempting it is to see ourselves in other ways – by our achievements or by our failures, by how successful or faith-filled our kids or grandkids are, by our job – title, status or rank, by our bodies and how they look or how we wish they didn’t look, by our sins, and regrets. But God doesn’t see us that way. Do we behold ourselves as beloved daughters and sons of God the Father? He is always looking upon us, beholding us, with eyes of love and mercy!
A profound experience
A few years ago, when I was serving in our mission up in Canada, I had a profound experience with one of the pregnant women who came to us – I’ll call her “Maria”. She herself was not Catholic at that time, but found out about us through a priest at a parish nearby her apartment complex where she wandered in looking for help.
When she came to us, she was very abortion vulnerable- in and out of appointments – it was a real roller coaster! The turning point for her was when we took her in for an ultra sound, so she could see her baby. Picture this: she and her friend, myself and another sister, all crammed into a tiny little doctor’s office. She was prepped, the jelly going onto the wand and then as it went onto her belly, a little voice inside said to look at her face. As her baby appeared on the screen for the 1st time — she lit up! Her face was absolutely beautiful, radiant! Her smile, the look in her eyes, so full of life! Up until then, she kept telling me to pray she had a boy, b/c boys are so much easier to take care of than girls — girls are too much drama. However, at that moment she exclaimed,
“Sister, that’s my baby! I don’t care if it’s a boy or a girl anymore. That’s my baby! That’s my baby.”
The way she looked at her preborn son (yes it was a boy) gave me a tiny of glimpse of how God the Father looks at each one of us! Before we were born He delighted in us, He loved us.
We don’t have to earn God’s love! He loves us. He died for us. He wants us to be free and authentically ourselves.
To not hide anything from Him. When we pray, and open ourselves to God’s love, it is as though we can sigh with relief and let go of everything we carry, especially those parts of our hearts that we want to keep hidden – our sins, weaknesses, bad memories, and things about ourselves we do not like. We can go to Him and say,
“Behold, here I am Father with this sin I can’t let go of” or “Behold, Lord, here I am, with this resentment, or this wound inflicted by someone I love, or this lack of trust in You, or this trait in myself I don’t like”…
whatever it might be. He knows and wants it all…. (pause) He receives our fragile faith and wounded hearts with tenderness.
The Blessed Mother is our model
Mary is our model in this – she was completely transparent with the Lord. In her “Behold,” we see what we aspire to – to bring our whole beings, the entirety of who we are as beautiful and flawed creatures, to the light of God’s love, who approaches us first. / Her invitation to us is to RECEIVE His love first.
Once we know and deeply live from the truth of our being – created in the image of God, and loved by him – it enables us to say yes to God and allows us to make a total gift of ourselves.
Which brings us to Our Lady’s next word & call –
FIAT!- CALLED TO LOVE
Fiat means,
♫♪ Let it be, let it be… ♫♪ Any Beatles fans in the house? Fiat means – “May it be done” — Yes — I give You permission Lord”.
Mary says YES to the Lord’s invitation to love, in a way that she never expected, in circumstances that she could not have foreseen. In fact, her entire life was one big Fiat! His birth, at the temple with Jesus, the Wedding feast at Cana, the agony and way of the cross… She has complete trust in God and what He asks of her, and continually responds “fiat” – may it be done. – she knows that He is 100% worthy of our trust.
What’s beautiful is the ripple effect that comes from her fiat. Her yes allows us to make ours. JCOC’s yes allowed each Sister of Life to say yes to her vocation. Parents pave the way for their children and on and on. Like it or not, the way we respond to Christ has an impact, an effect on others!
The story of “Jane”
A couple years ago, “Jane” was living with us at Sacred Heart, our convent where we invite pregnant women to live with us, we call it our holy respite mission. We invited her to join us for the March for Life. She had never been … and was always up for an adventure, so she came. She was about 6 months pregnant at the time and we traveled together on a bus filled high school students, while she herself was only about a year older than many of them (~18)! We let her take the lead on how much of her story she wanted to share and at the beginning she wanted to keep it on the down-low that she was pregnant. We simply introduced her as a friend of ours. It was a true pilgrimage, extremely cold weather that year, but she really toughed it out and seemed to enjoy it.
On the bus ride home, Sr. Lucy gave the students the opportunity to share any graces they received on the trip – an open mic time. Jane looked at me panicked and said, “Do I have to share?!?” I reassured her that it was completely optional, however, if she felt called by the Lord to share, she should consider it. She breathed a sigh of relief and sat back in her bus seat. Student after student came forward and shared beautiful testimonies of how inspired they were to see so many other young people standing up for life. After about 5 or 6 students, Jane leaned over to me and whispered,
“my heart is racing.”
To which I replied,
“Do you want to share something?”
Before answering, she got up and took the mic:
“Hi guys. You don’t know this, but I’m pregnant. I’m one of the women you’re here to support, to stand up for. You’ve each inspired me. When I told my friends I was pregnant, they said they were with me in whatever I decided to do. That’s not what I needed to hear. I needed them to tell me I could do it, that I could be a good mom. Well, they didn’t, but the sisters did and well, now here I am, 6 months pregnant and on a bus with you all coming home from the march for life. On behalf of all scared, confused, pregnant women — TY– Thank you for your encouragement and support. I can’t wait to see my baby.”
She received a standing ovation.
“I am pro-life!”
What surprised us all was the next person to come forward. A teen boy, almost sprinting to the front, took the mic and thanked Jane for sharing. Then he honestly admitted that he came on that trip in order to solidify his beliefs that it’s a woman’s choice and that no one can tell her what to do with her body. But hearing her share about what she really needed to hear and her own courage to come to the march, as a pregnant woman in need convinced & convicted him that he was wrong. He ended by shouting,
“I am pro-life!”
Our yes’s impact others! Here is another quick example. We have Co-Workers who faithfully pray outside planned parenthood every Saturday – rain or shine, snow, sleet, hail, whether they feel like going or not, they go and pray.
Answered prayers
Most of the time, they do not see the fruits of their prayers. However, one Saturday morning, outside at their post, a nice car rolled up next to the sidewalk where they were praying. A man in his late 50’s rolled down the window and said,
“Thank you. If you or someone like you wasn’t here 25 years ago today, my girlfriend and I would have gone in there and we would not have been able to call our daughter today and wish her a happy 25th birthday because she wouldn’t be here. So, thanks.”
Jane chose to share part of her story on the bus. Our co-workers and lay faithful choose to pray outside abortion mills even if they don’t feel like it. Fiat. Let it be done. We can learn from Mary that our own “fiats” to the Lord, our own trust in Him, extend to each moment. In every moment, every circumstance of life we have the opportunity to renew our trust in Him, to say “let it be done unto me” again, to open our hearts again and make ourselves vulnerable.
Mary’s invitation to each of us is GIVE God permission.
The last word and call of Our Lady that I’d like to look at with you this evening is:
MAGNIFICAT! – MATURING IN LOVE.
As our love matures, it is purified. We will all be called at some point to suffer for the Beloved. Our love goes through a refiner’s fire and results in the capacity to give even more. When we experience suffering in our lives, part of us may question the Lord – why did You let this happen? Where are you in this? When our love doesn’t seem to be bearing fruit or a mother who sees her grown children making choices that lead away from the Lord, when we have been betrayed or disappointed in relationships, in marriage, when we see an innocent child suffering, in all these situations and more we are tempted to say that the Lord doesn’t know what He is doing.
Ultimately, the answers to these questions are beyond our limited human capacity, but the Lord does point us to something: the Cross.
In his encyclical, On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering, Pope St. John Paul II wrote,
“Suffering is, in itself, an experience of evil. But Christ has made suffering the firmest basis of the definitive good, namely the good of eternal salvation. By his suffering on the Cross, Christ reached the very roots of evil, of sin and death. To the suffering brother or sister Christ discloses and gradually reveals the horizons of the Kingdom of God: … a world being built on the saving power of love.”
We can turn to the Blessed Mother and see in her a response to suffering. She also knew fear, anxiety, frustration, confusion, the pain of loss. Think of her words to Jesus after searching for Him for three days: Why have you done this to us? In the face of it all, even without understanding “why?” she pondered what each event of her life communicated and moved forward with faith and trust. Faith means believing God is able to do something…but trust is knowing He will. With her presence, attentiveness, empathy, she is always there, in our Cana. Sensitive to and easily perceiving our needs and asking Jesus for those things we do not even realize we lack. And through her intercession, we receive new wine in our souls.
Redemptive suffering
One of the women we’ve served experienced this in her own life – how the Lord can use our suffering, and our trust in Him, all for good: “Jenna” found out she was pregnant, and she called us. Her family was against her, and her boyfriend wanted her to end the pregnancy. She had already suffered an abortion, and knew she never wanted to do that again… she asked herself, is there another way out? Spent hours on phone with us, and was still scared. We offered to connect her with another woman we had served, Jenna agreed. Jenna talked to “Christine”, who spoke words of peace to her. She told her,
“God chose you to be a mother, the mother of this child.”
The morning of scheduled abortion, Jenna said something stopped her from going – the words in her memory:
“God chose me.”
She received grace not to go, to choose life, motherhood.
Fast forward – now 5 months pregnant, Jenna had a doctors appointment where the dr. told her her baby was positive for spina bifida and was recommended “genetic counseling”. Jenna knew her baby’s life was in danger and being threatened. She realized what the dr. was hinting at. The Doctor says to Jenna, what are you going to do? Jenna replies in her Bronx fashion,
“What am I going to do? What am I going to do? I’m going to be a good Mother! That’s what I’m going to do! Spina bifida or no spina bifida, I’m going to be a mother to my child! That’s what I’m going to do!”
Wouldn’t you know it, at her next doctors appointment: sorry, false positive. / Baby girl was born and Jenna told our Sisters, if another girl calls tempted, let me be the one to talk to her!
Jenna talks to “Alicia”
Couple months later, “Alicia” called, 19, pregnant, her parents told her her life was over, she was under a lot of pressure. We called Jenna, and she could see herself in Alicia, in her story. We connected them and Jenna told Alicia, I’ve made both decisions, not a day goes by that I don’t think of my first baby, you can’t make decisions based on what other people think. They forget the next day, you have to live with it for the rest of your life. Alicia then took her words to heart, chose life, and heroically discerned placing her child into adoptive family.
The Lord does this in all of our lives – He takes our sins, our sufferings and if we allow His redemptive power into them, he creates bigger, more beautiful places in our hearts that didn’t exist before and brings a great good out of them. When we suffer, the Lord who loves us is inviting us to share in the sufferings he took on when he assumed our human condition. He desires to share everything that we experience but is without sin. When the Lord asks something of us that is hard to give, or we cannot fully understand and we say YES, we allow his Life and Love to come into the world. We say yes to the redemptive power of the cross that makes us foolish in the eyes of the world. But, when suffering is transformed from within, it gives us the strength and serenity to carry it and allow it to change us. It results in the ability to praise God amidst trials and difficulties of life. “Magnificat.”
A scene from the Visitation
To close, I want to turn to the scene of the Visitation where Mary arises and goes with haste to her cousin Elizabeth. John the Baptist leaps in her womb upon hearing Mary’s voice. Elizabeth greets Mary with joy, and Mary responds with her song of praise, her Magnificat:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit exalts in God my Savior, and holy, holy, holy is his name.”
John Michael Talbot, anyone?
As we see in Mary, the natural expression that springs from complete given-ness and surrender to the Lord is “Magnificat!” Even amidst the uncertainty of what lies ahead, in Mary’s generosity in going out to help her cousin, she experiences the joy of the Lord doing great things for her.
After receiving His love, His mercy, His goodness, and trusting Him with our hearts and souls, and surrendering everything to Him, praise wells up within us. Praise, Mary’s Magnificat, is the natural expression of a heart that knows itself to be loved by God, has responded to this love and has allowed the challenges of love to bring out something of the heart of Our Lady in each one of us. Her invitation to us is to PRAISE Him in all things.
These are the aspects of love that we have reflected on:
1.) God loves each of us into existence and so we can say, Behold. 2.) We are called to love and this requires our Fiat. 3.) As we allow ourselves to be changed by Love, we can sing God’s praises through the Magnificat!
I pray that each of you may be able to echo the Words of our Lady in your lives as a response to God’s love for you.
To Receive His love first, Give Him permission, and Praise Him in all things.
To close, I’d like to invite you to pray the “Magnificat with Mary” with me.
It can be found on your table – it’s a call & response, please join in with the bold phrases.
In the Name of the Father…
[This speech is printed with the express permission of the Sisters For Life. Our annual Christmas Gala is just one small part of Pulse’s pro-life educational outreach. We need your financial support more than ever to remain on offense against the deep pockets of Big Abortion. Click and donate today! Thank-you.]
Ladies and gentlemen, Saints and Sinners, I have good news tonight: we’re winning!
Pulse Life Advocates has been engaged in spiritual, moral, and political warfare on behalf of our unborn brothers and sisters for half a century.
Yes … the stars are brightly shining on the pro-life movement tonight!
But … we need your financial support to continue our relentless pursuit of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for the unborn.
We celebrate
We celebrate one triumph after another in this, the 50th anniversary of Iowans for LIFE, now known as Pulse Life Advocates.
• We celebrate the end of Roe v Wade!
Did you know that abortion declined 6% nationally in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe? That’s 10,000 babies saved in just the first two months!
• Here in Iowa, we celebrate our Supreme Court for correcting the 2018 Reynolds decision that uncovered fundamental right to an abortion in our Constitution.
• We celebrate the re-election of our pro-life governor, Kim Reynolds!
• We celebrate the election of a pro-life Attorney General, Brenna Bird!
• We celebrate the election of a pro-life Iowa legislature!
• We celebrate a clean sweep in Iowa’s Congressional contingent to Washington with the election of Zach Nunn in Iowa’s third district.
A pro-life tsunami
Talk about a pro-life tsunami! What a year to celebrate!
Pulse Life Advocates has been a factor in turning Iowa into a pro-life state. Despite what a former president of the United States said, we will NEVER get sick of winning!
Now there are some Debbie Downers in our midst.
They fret that we need to take our foot off the gas pedal, because the Pro-Life Party underperformed in the recent midterm election, and that abortion was the reason.
Hmmm … ask Governor Reynolds if she agrees. She just won a landslide victory after signing not one, not three, not five, but seven big pro-life bills since she became governor.
Ask Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida who won by 19 points.
Ask Brian Kemp, governor of Georgia, who won by 8 points.
Ask Mike DeWine, governor of Ohio who won by 25 points or Greg Abbot, governor of Texas, who won by 11 points.
These pro-life governors all signed into law pro-life legislation since the Dobbs decision.
Kim Reynolds and Ron DeSantis have demonstrated that it is far more effective to stay on offense than play defense if you want to govern a state well.
In Florida, Governor DeSantis has a group called ‘Florida Voice for the Unborn’ supporting him on the ground.
Here in Iowa, Governor Reynolds has Pulse Life Advocates.
And to increase our impact, we’ve joined forces with other great pro-life groups, many of whom are represented here tonight, to forge an Iowa Coalition of Pro-Life Leaders.
Just two years ago, the pro-abortion party won the popular vote by 3 points. But the pro-life party won by 5 points this time … a pick up of 8 points!
Not the time to go wobbly
Now is not the time go wobbly when a movement has this much pro-life firepower.
But it takes money to continue the fight. If you pull the plug, it all stops.
But with your continued financial support, Pulse Life Advocates can continue advocating on behalf of society’s most vulnerable members: the unborn.
The Abortion Party wants unregulated abortion for the entire 40 weeks of a pregnancy; they want taxpayers to pay for them; and they want Catholic doctors, nurses, and hospitals to perform them.
They’ve made tremendous headway in states like California, Michigan, Illinois, and New York.
What’s to prevent them from spreading their cancer to Iowa? Pulse. Life. Advocates. That’s who.
Education matters
So here is what I am asking you tonight:
I am asking you to dig deep into your pockets to save babies and honor the God who creates them.
Education matters.
A little more than two decades ago, 12,000 babies were aborted in Iowa.
That number has dipped below 4000 today.
Why did this happen?
Education. Lobbying. And prayer, especially prayer.
During the period when abortions plummeted in Iowa, Pulse Life Advocates took thousands of Iowa high school students on a pilgrimage to the March for Life in Washington DC.
We handed out hundreds of thousands fetal models to young kids at the Iowa State Fair.
Cause & effect
Ladies and gentlemen: cause & effect.
√ In recent years, we’ve expanded our website and social media footprint.
√ Have you subscribed to our blog yet? Do it before the weekend is up if you want to stay up on pro-life news in Iowa and beyond.
√ Pulse has developed Pro-life Apologetics tool kits and videos.
√ We’ve developed the Holy Family webinar project.
√ We’re hot at work on the “How to Raise Pro-life Children” video project.
√ Our executive director, Maggie DeWitte, is tireless, meeting with churches, legislators, and speaking on pro-life issues in every corner of the state of Iowa.
It’s all working … because of YOUR support.
We thank-you for your past support and boldly request that you not only continue supporting Pulse, we ask you to increase your support.
We need to stay on offense
Social and political pressure has only increased since Roe v Wade fell. We need more resources than ever to stay on offense.
Here is what I’m asking:
- Remove the pledge cards from the white envelopes on your table.
- Prayerfully consider your level of support.
- Keep in mind that we also love monthly givers. Simply indicate your method of payment on the card, whether by check or credit card, and put it in the envelope that accompanies the pledge card. Ambassadors will come to tables to collect the envelopes.
As you’re completing the pledge card, don’t forget you can still make online bids up to 8:39PM.
I’d also like you to encourage you to support Pulse Life Advocates through legacy giving. We can accept gifts of stock, mandatory IRA distributions, and more through our relationship with the Catholic Foundation of Southwest Iowa. Contact Maggie DeWitte or me for details.
As you can tell, the pro-life cause really matters to me, just as it does you. I’m asked what made me pro-life?
I guess I was really influenced by Ronald Reagan when he ran for president in the late 1970s. He said something that always stuck with me. I quote, “Have you noticed that the only people who are for abortion have already be born?”
Tonight, join me in standing up for the unborn! Thank-you!
[If you missed our Christmas Gala, you can still support us financially with an online donation.]