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The life issue is quietly making progress
in State Legislatures and in people's hearts.
And technology is playing an important role.
This is the CitizenLink Report.
Hi, I'm Stuart Shepard along with Carrie Gordon
Earll who tracks the life issue for
Focus on the Family. She's also the
Senior Director of Public Policy.
Hi, Carrie.
Hi, Stuart.
The last few years have brought about an astonishing
tide of pro-life legislation at the state level.
Let's talk about that.
What are you seeing?
Well everyone once in a while the abortion
industry, its research arm, the Guttmacher
Institute actually comes out with research
that makes our case. And we've been saying
let's keep an eye on the State Legislatures
because that's really where there can be traction,
that's where the US Supreme Court has given
a lot of leeway really in some of these laws.
So the Guttmacher Institute has come out with
a study that looked at the number of state
laws that have passed -- Pro-Life laws. And
again, this isn't their world view but it's
our worldview. And what they found was in
the last three years there have been more
state pro-life laws passed than in the entire
previous decade. So think about that -- you've
got 10 years of history at the state legislative
level where you've had a good number of bills
that have passed -- close to 190. But just
in the last three years we've seen 205 so
I'm not really good at math but I can look
at those numbers and tell you.
That's significant.
That there's a lot of traction
with what's happening.
What is it that set that up? What's changed
over the past few years that's put us into
a position where more of these laws can pass?
Well this is where we talk about elections
matter and when people are educated and they're
registered to vote and they go to the poles,
it makes a difference. And most of these laws
are passed in states that are more conservative.
They have pro-life majorities, they have pro-life
governors, and where we've seen that take
place we see these laws pass. We knew that
2011 which was right after the 2010 election
was really a bumper year for passing laws
and I think we're going to see continue in
2014. Now there are a couple of types of laws
that are really popular with state legislatures
right now. One is abortion center regulations.
You've got the abortion industry that's pretty
much unregulated except at the state level.
We saw that at the Pennsylvania case with
Dr. Gosnell up there and who had had horrific
things happening in his abortion center and
they weren't really regulated. So we see state
legislatures saying wait a minute, if we're
going to have free standing medical clinics
to do 'other types of medicine' which abortion
really isn't, shouldn't the abortion industry
have to live up to the same standards, and
they're saying yes. So they're passing those laws.
Another one is fetal pain: the idea
that we know that babies during that course
of development toward birth do feel pain and
there have been a number of states that have passed
laws banning abortions after 22-weeks because
of fetal pain. Another thing is the use of
chemicals for abortions. The drug RU-486 is
legal in the US and what we've seen especially
with Planned Parenthood in middle-America
is when they don't have facilities to take
women to -- for women to go to -- they will start
to do other types of dispensing of drugs.
Sometimes the Doctor's not even there. Sometimes
the Doctor doesn't even see the woman and
so state legislatures and governors are saying
wait a minute, that's crazy. We've got to
be able to make sure if abortion is going
to be legal, and we work for the day it's
not, that we do everything we can to make
sure it's as safe as possible for that mother.
And the reason this is taking place at the
state level right now, the US Senate is not
in a state where we're going to pass any pro-life
legislation. The Supreme Court is dicey as
well with the 5 -- 4 split, could go one way,
could go the other and that's pushed all of
this activity down to the state level. We
also know that given the court and the Senate
that we're not in an era of time were we're
going to be able to overturn Roe V. Wade anytime
soon. Would we like that? Absolutely. Is it
going to happen? No. So this working at the
state level in the meantime is saving lives.
Absolutely it is and it's kind of an incremental
approach. The idea being well what has the
Supreme Court said the states can do and let's
maximize that . Let's push that out as hard
as we can and really make an impact. And the
research that has been done on these and other
types of state laws find that they do make
a difference. Anytime you can get to that
mother and have her think twice about this
abortion decision, anytime that you can have
processes in this journey for her that make
her think through, you're going to have women
changing their minds. And that's what we want
is make sure that women are thinking through
what their options are.
Let's talk about how technology is opening
a view, a window into what a preborn baby
really is and what it is that we're talking
about. How's technology changing what we see
and what we think about?
Well you know in the 41 years since the Supreme
Court issued Roe V. Wade and Doe V. Bolton
we've seen a lot of changes. We have seen
a culture that has largely accepted abortion.
I mean when you look at the poling, people
don't like it, they want less of it. But it's here.
There not sure what to do with it but
what's really changing hearts and minds is
this ultrasound technology. I mean if you
are a young woman or order woman even who's
expecting a baby, you're pregnant, you can
go online and you can track your baby's fetal
development through the knowledge we have
of fetal development and through ultrasound
and other means. So it is changing hearts.
We know that the younger generation tends
to be more pro-life and part of that is they
grew up with the ultrasounds. Their siblings,
their cousins, having those images on their
refrigerator -- it has really changed a lot
on that context. We also see this with destructive
embryo research: another topic here where now
alternatives have been developed to destroying
human embryos and the scientists are finding
those alternatives not only are more solid
ethically and morally but they work well.
So it's interesting to see how technologies
really continuing to challenge the mindset
of Americans and move them
toward a pro-life position.
It makes it very difficult for folks on the
other side of this issue to try to say that
we're not talking about what we're talking
about because we can now see exactly what
it is we're talking about.
We are and that's where the facts before you
-- the picture before you -- the image before
you whether it be fetal development or just
seeing that little one through the ultrasound image.
It's really amazing to see
how that's changed.
Now we know from real life that the opportunity
to see an ultrasound image of that preborn
baby has a serious impact on the choices that
are made after that point in time on the direction
that people go. Focus on the Family's been
very active seeing the pro-life potential
of that in placing ultrasound machines out
in the field but also training people how
to use them. Let's talk about Option Ultrasound.
How's it going?
Well it's amazing, this is the 10th year.
It has enabled Focus on the Family to place
as you said not only training but machines
in pregnancy centers across the country in
all 50 states. And it helps them convert to
a medical clinic, which is a higher level
of expertise and care for the
women that are coming in.
Describes what that means. What does it mean
to make it a medical clinic as opposed to
a pregnancy resource center? What's the difference?
Well to have an ultrasound machine there you
have to have people who know that and who
know that technology. You need to have oversight
by physicians. It's a higher level of medical
standard. In the same way at the beginning
of this segment we talked about state legislatures
wanting to pass laws to require the abortion
industry to meet that higher standard of ambulatory
surgical center. You know the pro-life community
should do that as well. We should have our
very best available to women as we are ministering
and counseling them about the abortion issue.
And the last 10 years the estimate Stuart
is that 230,000 babies have been saved and
mothers have been saved from abortion due
to the option ultrasound program.
Which is an incredible story.
It is and again you know we're looking at
41 years of legal abortion and I know it's
easy to get discouraged. It's easy to think
in our lifetime we may not see an end to this.
I don't know if we will or not but I know
that in the resources and in the opportunities
that God gives us today, in this moment in
history, we're going to make the most of that.
And that's going to be passing state laws,
it's going to be getting these ultrasound
machines into the pro-life centers and making
sure the abortion industry is held to the
highest possible standard as 
long as abortionis legal.
So when you put all this together between
the changes in state law, the movement toward
a pro-life point of view, between the changes
in people's hearts because of technology and
because of the implementation of that technology,
we know of at least a quarter-million human
beings who are going to alive today who would
not have otherwise been here.
And when you think about that, those are real
lives and those are real women who have been
spared the aftermath of abortion which is
a whole number program to talk about.
But absolutely, to have that tangible to be able
to say that we know that lives have been saved
and many, many more through
state pro-life laws.
Alright. Carrie thank you for keeping track
of this and for the update -- very helpful.
Thank you Stuart.
And that you for watching. We always appreciate
hearing from you. Tell us your story.
You can write to us at Mail@CitizenLink.com
Give us what's happened in your life and also
share with us your questions, your comments,
your criticisms, we're always open to that.
We do read each note that comes into us here.
We encourage you to pray the folks who work
in pregnancy resource centers and medical
clinics around the country. Pray for them
as day-to-day they're right there on the very
front line helping people make difficult decisions
about whether to continue with the pregnancy
and give birth to a human, a human baby, a
real life, a real person out there.
And remember, Stand tall and Be Heard!
