Each Person Is Valued…Has Dignity and Worth

Courtesy: PRO-LIFE WISCONSIN

Personhood: It’s for YOU, Andrew

A longtime staff member and dear friend shared a personal story with me that reminds me that being truly pro-life means you recognize the personhood of all children whether pre-born or born.  

 

Judith Brant married Kirby Brant in 1974.  Within the next couple of years, the couple found they were expecting their first child.  A couple of months or so into the pregnancy, Judith realized something was very wrong and went to the hospital.  While there and under treatment, she asked the doctor, “Is my baby dead?”  The doctor replied, “Please, Mrs. Brant—product of conception.”  Even under the influence of drugs, that phrase stuck in Judith’s mind.  Sadly, the Brants did lose this baby.  Happily, they eventually had two healthy children.

 

However, Judith relates that for the next nearly 2 years, every time she saw a pregnant woman, she would become quite emotional but really didn’t understand why. After all, what she had lost was only “the product of conception.”

 

Several years later, Judith encountered a pro-life group that came to their church and was handing out “baby feet” pins. She learned that the feet were the size of the feet of a 10-week old pre-born baby.  Her miscarriage had happened at 10 weeks.

 

At that point, Judith recognized the personhood of the baby she lost.  She realized the “Please, Mrs. Brant—product of conception” response from the doctor was horribly wrong.  This was a baby, a person, with tiny feet just waiting to grow.  The emotional response she had to seeing a pregnant woman after losing her baby now made sense.  She was grieving the loss of this little one—even though she didn’t know it or recognize it at that time. It was an inborn, natural response of a mother.

 

As she tells the story, she had sensed during the pregnancy that she was carrying a boy, and so she named this lost baby Andrew.  The date of his death is emblazoned in her mind, September 25, as is his projected due date which was April 19. She says each year she remembers his passing and what may have been his birthday, marking how old he would be.  

 

When Judith Brant fills out forms, even today, asking for how many children she has had, she responds with 3—2 living and 1 deceased.  Over 35 years later, she still tears up recounting the story.

 

Judith’s response when learning that she had lost her baby—not a mass of tissue or a blob of cells or the product of conception—forever changed how she views human life.  Suddenly seeing those tiny feet she knew what she had lost was a baby, truly human life in the earliest stages of development.  

 

Being pro-life means we value all human life, from the first moment of conception through natural death.  That means it’s always appropriate for mothers and fathers who experience a miscarriage to grieve.  In Illinois there is an organization, The Haven Network, whose sole purpose is to minister to grieving parents who have lost a baby, preborn or newly born.  In this organization’s Summer 2013 newsletter, I note that most of the families who lost little ones this year—likely most of them through miscarriages—had named their babies.  They knew, no matter the gestational age of their child, that this was a person and deserved a name, a unique identity.  

 

That’s pretty much what Wisconsin’s proposed personhood amendment is all about. Recognizing that preborn children are not “the product of conception” but are truly persons—and affording them the legal protections given in our Wisconsin Constitution in anticipation of the day when Roe v. Wade is overturned and the matter comes back to the states.

 

The more I hear stories such as Judith’s, the more convinced I am that the proposed personhood amendment is right for Wisconsin.  It’s certainly right for preborn children.   

As I think about Judith’s story, I cannot also help but think of those who choose to abort their babies.  At a recent hearing on a pro-life bill, I heard a woman who was testifying against the life-saving measure sharply, and angrily say she had had 3 abortions and hadn’t been fazed by any of them. I remember sitting in that hearing room thinking, “Oh, my friend, you have been very much fazed by them.  Your anger, hate and bitterness towards those of us trying to save babies very likely comes from your own response to killing these 3 babies.”  

 

Anything we can do to help pregnant women understand that they are carrying a baby must be done.  Anything we can do to officially recognize these babies as persons must also be done. Andrew Brant, this personhood effort is for you.

 

Learn more about Wisconsin’s Personhood Amendment HERE.

 

Sign the petition in support of the Personhood Amendment HERE.

POTUS MAKES HISTORY! Formally praises/backs Planned Parenthood “Services”

“He encouraged those gathered to continue fighting for abortion rights. ‘You’ve also got a president who is going to be right there with you, fighting every step of the way,’ Obama said.”

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN AMERICAN HISTORY a sitting U.S. president spoke before a Planned Parenthood group, vowing to be a comrade-in-arms, praising them for their “services” to women.  He referred to pro-life policies with words that mocked traditional values and insinuated an “old-fashioned” mindset.  Time and again, the President referred to the killing of innocent unborn babies as a woman’s “right.”

Wisconsin Family Action vehemently opposes the President’s statements at today’s Planned Parenthood event, and works unrelentingly to strengthen, defend and preserve marriage, family, life and liberty in the state of Wisconsin.  We are currently working with legislators on pro-life initiatives, including the Personhood Amendment, which will protect life for ALL Americans, born and unborn.

Powerful words of President Ronald Reagan via Personhood USA.

Wisconsin Family Action presents “ASK JULAINE!”

This is a time where Wisconsin friends and families have the opportunity to ask WFA president Julaine Appling questions about the issues that concern them most. Whether the topic is legislation, about our organization, or something you’d like to know about that you feel Julaine can assist you with, Wisconsin Family Action stands ready to receive your questions and lend our very best answers! (To submit a question, email WFA at info@wisconsinfamilyaction.org OR sent via USPS mail to P.O. Box 1327, Madison, WI 53701 – No phone calls, please!)

MLK Jr Day: Civil Rights – The Final Frontier

Via our friends at Pro-Life Wisconsin