Week 8: The Right to Life League of Southern California

      The Right to Life League of Southern California is an education and service organization dedicated to the support and protection of unborn life. Founded in 1967 they have done a marvelous at dedicating their time and efforts at defending life. Their purpose is to support women with unplanned pregnancies but rather than doing it through abortion they do it be establishing medical clinics, pregnancy centers, maternity homes, and educative services for teens.  I truly admire the work that they have done.

     I had not heard of them until a couple months ago when the Youth Minister at my church St. Justin Martyr handed me a flyer she had received. She knew what my mission in life was and she was willing to support me in whatever I needed. She left me in charge of organizing for our church's youth group to attend the Youth  Rally for Life on January 18, 2014. I was thrilled to be able to organize this. The date is approaching and I need to begin organizing and promoting for this great event.

     The Youth Rally for Life is a great opportunity for anyone interested in being pro-life or learning more. There will be a lot of fun events like speakers, music, testimonies, and so much more. I really hope many people will attend. I can't wait!

Week 7: A Letter to My Aborted Sibling by Dave Andrusko

     Unfortunately many times when mothers abort they forget to consider the impact the abortion will have on their future children. Some mothers even fail to realize that they could never again have children due to damage by the abortion. It is hard for anyone to understand that their mother that gave birth to them would've killed their unborn brother or sister. 

      Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. He describes the mourning he feels after finding out that his mother aborted through a letter titled "A Letter to My Aborted Sibling: I'm Sorry You Were Never Loved". 

This is the letter:

She was 15 when your life started, 16 when your life ended. She said no one told her you were more than a lump of tissue. I’m sorry for ignorance.

Your father would be 57 now. She said he doesn’t know. I wish she told him. I wish he fought for you. I wish somebody fought. I’m sorry for secrets.

You would have been my half sibling. 14 years older than me. She took you from me before I even existed…before I could do anything. I’m sorry for unfairness.

You would have been 34 years old. You would have more than likely been married and have your own children. I would have nieces and nephews, you would have a family. But you weren’t even given a name. I’m sorry for abandonment. 

Maybe when my other siblings were telling me lies and devaluing me, you would have spoken truth. Maybe you would have stood up for me when no one did. I’m sorry for life being devalued.

Is it possible to miss someone you’ve never even met?…because my heart longs for you. It longs for you to have life. I’m sorry for death.

I wish you could have come to my graduation, I wish I could have gone to yours. I wish we were friends. I wish I could call you right now. I wish we could share all of our joys and griefs. I wish we were at least given a chance.

I’m sorry for selfishness.

It’s just so unfair for you…for us. How could she have killed you? How could our grandmother drive our mother to the clinic so that they could murder you? I’m sorry for silence.

I miss you. I love you.

I’m so sorry no one loved you

Full story available at: http://www.lifenews.com/2013/07/07/a-letter-to-my-aborted-sibling-im-sorry-you-were-never-loved/

Week 6: Getting Informed

     Unfortunately I have not been able to get involved in any pro-life movements due to my busy school schedule. Therefore, I have been feeling like I haven't been drifting away from the real purpose of my project; to encourage and educate others. During my last event I felt like I lacked knowledge about the pro-life movement. I have therefore decided to get informed more before I fully get involved in my project. Getting informed is crucial for me because I know that there will be a lot of people that will be opposed to what I believe in so I need to be prepared to defend myself properly against those people.

     I have decided to read Why Pro-Life?: Caring for the Unborn and their Mothers by Randy C. Alcorn. This book was given to me a while ago during my very first pro-life event way back in May. This book gives factual answers to the abortion debate. It includes interesting topics like "What Makes a Human Life Meaningful", "Is Abortion Really a Women's Rights Issue", and "How Can I Help Unborn Babies and Their Mothers". This book clearly examines the pro-life position and it helps people who are in the middle of the abortion debate as well as encourage those already pro-life. I really encourage everyone who is interested in the pro-life movement to read this book. 

"To change our culture, it is not enough to say that we are pro-life; we must explain why we are pro-life. This is an excellent resource that does precisely that."
                                                                                                            -Fr. Frank Pavone

Week 5: A Baby At 20 Weeks

     As part of my goal to help fight for the pro-life movement I have my mind and heart set on becoming a doctor. I plan on becoming either an obstetrician, gynecologist, psychologist, or maybe even all three. In an attempt to get started on my medical career I joined the Savanna High School Medical Academy. In there I am learning the basics of medical terminology, medical history, safety precautions, and much more. I am really grateful to be in that class and although I am still far from becoming a doctor being in that class makes me feel closer.

     Being in the Medical Academy I got the chance to visit the Cadaver Lab. In there I got to see the insides of a human body. Although the smell in there was terrible I was fascinated by the human body. Our body is made with such precision and it has so much detail in every single organ that its hard to not consider it a miracle. My favorite part of the field trip was looking at the babies. (None of whom had been aborted, of course.) There was a couple week old fetuses in jars. There was one baby that was not in a jar and that we were allowed to hold; she was 20 weeks old. When I got to hold her my heart sank because she looked like she was a fully developed baby, just smaller. This baby had fingernails, eyebrows, eyelashes, and hair already. The reason this made me sad is because many mothers are allowed to abort their babies at this size or some even bigger. At this stage mothers are halfway through the pregnancy and with technology nowadays many of these babies could survive. No matter what these mother's reason is for aborting the baby they can't deny the fact that many of their babies could be saved if they chose life.

     I have the following video to show a fetus' development at 15-20 weeks.

Week 4: Dead Baby in Victoria's Secret

     I have been a little too busy to get involved in any pro-life movements lately. However, I am hoping to find another event to attend to soon. Meanwhile I will be posting some pro-life news for my readers to get informed.   

     The world has surprised me once again when through the news I found out that a dead baby was found in the purse of a shoplifter in a Victoria's Secret store in Manhattan. On October 19, 2013,  17 year old Tiona Rodriguez and her accomplice  Francis Estevez were stopped by a security guard when they were suspected of shoplifting in Victoria's Secret. A bad odor coming from a bag in Tiona's purse caused suspicion from the security guard. When her bag was searched a dead baby was found inside of her purse along with other stolen items.  The baby was weighing 8 pounds and was approximated to be about 8 months old. Tiona Rodriguez lied to the police saying that she was 6 months pregnant when she suffered a miscarriage on Wednesday. There is more information being looked for considering how the baby died. Tiona Rodriguez arrived at Manhattan criminal court on Saturday morning to face charges. The prosecuter Robert Hettlemen says they are not holding further charges and he is only asking for a $1,000 bail. More information can be found in the links below:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/10/20/tiona-rodriguez-charged-after-dead-fetus-found-in-bag-at-victoria-s-secret.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/court-quiet-fetus-tiona-hearing-article-1.1490637

     I feel confused sometimes to see how people treat abortion. There are people who are surprised and  disgusted when they read this story. They feel sad for the baby and they consider it murder, but many of these people are the ones that believe that it is the woman's choice whether she keeps the baby or not. This woman made her choice. How is this different than the babies aborted in abortion centers? Babies are found in trash cans, this baby just happened to be in his mother's purse. It is the same thing.

Week 3: An Interesting Story

     Today I am going to share an interesting short story that I heard from my dad today. I found it to be very interesting and it really got me thinking. I hope it will get you thinking too.

     A woman carrying a child in her arms entered her gynecologist's office.
     "Doctor, I have a problem I would like to speak to you about. I just had my baby less than a year ago and I am pregnant once again. I want to have this baby but I don't think right now is the appropriate time. I was wondering if you could do something so that I can avoid having this baby now." she said.
     "Well, we do have some options." replied the gynecologist.
     "I think I would like to have an abortion."
     The doctor thought carefully about what this woman was asking of him. After thinking for a while he was able to come up with something.
     "Or how about I take this baby that you have in your hands and kill him instead so that way you will only have one baby to take care of." said the doctor.
     "No!" said the woman rapidly.
     "Oh, I'm sorry ma'm, its just that a moment ago you didn't really seem to care about killing a baby I thought it would be the same for you."

     I thought this story was wonderful because it shows how differently we can view the born and the unborn sometimes. The born and the unborn both have one thing in common; they both have a life, neither one deserves to live more than the other.

Week 2: October is RESPECT LIFE MONTH

I go to St. Justin Martyr Catholic Church and about 2 weeks ago my mom happened to find the ad posted above in the church's weekly bulletin. Of course we were interested in the LIFE CHAIN and we decided to go. I was excited because it would be the first event in my project but I was nervous because I didn't know what to expect. I had done something similar outside another abortion center a while ago but it was different this time. When we got to St. Boniface Catholic Church we noticed that there wasn't many people gathered there. My mom and I then got a poster to carry and walked around the sidewalk to where a couple people stood. There is where I met Teri, the woman in charge of pro-life events in my church and I agreed to help her gather more people for our cause. 

Then came the hard part, we all spread out with our posters and just stood there silently. We stood there on the corner of Harbor Blvd. and Lincoln Ave. in silent prayer. It is one of the bigger streets in Anaheim where a lot of cars pass by and we all stood there with our rosaries in one hand and our posters on the other. I have to admit that it wasn't easy.

This event helped me a lot by showing me what pro-life is about about and it also helped encourage me. The purpose of my project is to create a documentary that will educate and encourage others to join the pro-life movement. I also learned that there is not enough youth on the pro-life side. There was probably about 20 people there and only 4 of us were under 20 years of age. I definitely I still have a long way to go!

My Mom (Martha Jacinto) on the corner of Harbor Blvd. & Lincoln Ave.

Week 1

When my teacher Mr. Lee announced the 20 Percent Project at the beginning of the school year I was a little nervous. I knew that the project would be a lot of work and that my grade would depend on it. However, I wanted to do something that would make a difference in someone else's life. I wanted to make the best out of the project and use it to help me grow as a person. I thought about the project and I came up with a lot of ideas but none of them stuck to me. When Mr. Lee told us to do something that we were passionate about I knew exactly what I was going to do; I was going to do a pro-life documentary. I know that doing a pro-life documentary won't be easy but I want to show others the facts about abortion and what an industry it has turned into. I am passionate about pro-life and I hope to gain a lot of information about pro-life movements throughout the project. Overall, I am excited to see the results of the project.