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I was honored last night to join my friends State Rep. Mike Johnson and Center Director Lisa Gould to give the keynote address at the Northwest Louisiana Pregnancy Care Center banquet in Minden. A young pregnancy center, NLPCC is doing great work to save lives in Webster Parish. Keep up the great work, Lisa and company!
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| Ben Speaking at Minden Pregnancy Center Banquet |
In conjunction with the release of the "How to Find Low-Cost Healthcare" video with Students for Life of America included below, The Advocate just published a joint letter I submitted together with my friend Kristan Hawkins, executive director of Students for Life of America. Please read and share so we can make sure people know that low-cost healthcare exists in New Orleans. We don't need Planned Parenthood! Read the letter here.
Kudos to our staff for their extensive travel this week to bring the pro-life message across Louisiana. Alex Seghers and Deanna Wallace spent the entire week in Shreveport and Monroe to advance our youth education, and Ryan Verret, after a successful Chers Bébés fund-raiser on Tuesday, spent Wednesday and Thursday in Alexandria and capped the trip off last night with a presentation on Down syndrome to the Physician's Guild of Central Louisiana. We are blessed to travel this great state for LIFE!
For a Pro-Life Louisiana,
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Affordable Women's Health Care
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Planned Parenthood:
We Got it Covered!
Planned Parenthood wants everyone to believe if it loses Medicaid funding in the state of Louisiana women will have nowhere to turn.
But that just isn't so. Check out this new video that shows there are
PLENTY of low-cost women's health care services in NOLA other than Planned Parenthood.
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Lawyers for the state and Planned Parenthood will be in federal court today making arguments before U.S. District Court Judge John deGravelles.
Planned Parenthood is seeking an injunction after the state Department of Health and Hospitals terminated its Medicare contract in September.
The state previously ended the contract with Planned Parenthood without cause, but later it rescinded that action and said it was cancelling the Medicaid contract for cause, a Medicaid fraud allegation in Texas two years ago by Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, the same company that operates two facilities in Lousiana.
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| Ms. Evelyn Landry, Fr. Michael Champagne, and Dr. and Mrs. Wilton Bergeron |
Chers Bébés a Big Success for Acadiana's Youth
Thank you to everyone who made this year's Acadiana Chers Bébés such a great success!
 More than 200 friends of the unborn gathered Tuesday night to honor Dr. Wilton Bergeron and Ms. Evelyn Landry for their tireless efforts over the last 40-plus years in creating Acadiana's vibrant culture of life. The fun-filled evening included great food, music and fellowship!
The generosity of so many is helping secure the future of pro-life education of young people through the Zerben Bienvenu and Bill Smith Youth Education Fund of Acadiana.
Thank you to all who attended, our sponsors and our generous benefactors.
- Ryan Verret
Associate Director, LARTL
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Grant Parish PULSE Youth Rally Planned Next Month!
A pro-life immersion night for youth in seventh grade through college will be held Saturday, Nov. 7, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at First Baptist Church of Pollock, 7956 Ridge St. (Highway 165), Pollock. The event will be held in the Family Life Center.
PULSE will feature music, food, fellowship and more, and students can learn about getting involved in pro-life efforts in their schools and communities.
For more information contact Bro. Dalton Adge, youth pastor at FBC Pollock, at 318-489-3106 or [email protected].
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Louisiana Life March North, South
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Louisiana Life March North, South Set for January 23!
Will you march with us and take a stand for the priceless value of every human life? Join us at the Louisiana Life Marches North and South on Saturday, January 23!
The 2016 theme of the Louisiana Life March is "Life is Priceless!"
With horrendous videos highlighting Planned Parenthood's sale of baby body parts, we must remind the world that human lives are valuable and priceless. In Luke 12:6-7, Jesus reminds us the value of each human life: "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows."
For the first time ever, both the Life March North in Shreveport-Bossier and the Life March South in Baton Rouge will occur simultaneously on the same day Saturday, January 23 from 10 a.m. to noon!
The LLM North, in its third year, begins at Bossier City's Louisiana Boardwalk, travels across the Texas Street bridge, and ends at Shreveport's Festival Plaza, where speakers and musicians will lead in prayer and presentation and a life ministry area will be set up.
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD NORTH FLYER
The LLM South is headed back downtown this year after marching on the LSU campus in 2015. The march begins at the Old State Capitol and ends at the State Capitol, where there will be music, prayer, inspirational presentations and a life ministry area. Due to the possibility of a special state legislative session, the rally at the State Capitol could be in a park on the Capitol grounds, versus on the Capitol steps. Stay tuned for more information as the event draws near.
If you would like to request materials to help publicize the events, please contact our office at 1.866.463.5433 or [email protected].
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Using Fetal Organs to 'Treat and Cure' is a Sham Defense
Did you see the article by Sen. Bill Cassidy and David Prentice in
The Washington Times Sunday detailing how the scientific research on the body parts of unborn babies has failed?
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Where do candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and the Louisiana Senate and House stand on life issues?
Click Here to find out!
VOTE PRO-LIFE ON OCT. 24!
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Legalizing Assisted Suicide Is Not Good Public Policy for States
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By Ryan Verret, Director, Center for Medical Ethics
Remember Britta
ny Maynard, who became a celebrity and one of CNN's most extraordinary people in 2014? Maynard moved from California to Oregon in order to take advantage of Oregon's "Death with Dignity" law after being diagnosed with a very rare type of brain cancer. If Brittany were alive still today she would not have to make the move, as California now has its own "End of Life Option."
 Earlier this month California Gov. Jerry Brown, described as a lifelong Catholic and former Jesuit seminarian, signed into law legislation legalizing doctor-assisted suicide. He said in a written statement to members of the California State Assembly that he struggled with the issue and consulted former classmates, two of his own doctors, and a Catholic bishop while debating whether or not to sign the bill.
California is now the fifth state that allows individuals living with advanced illnesses to take their own life with the direct help of their physician and pharmacist. Other states where assisted suicide is legal are Vermont, Washington, Oregon and Montana.
To some this news may be a welcome sign of progress in this era of patient autonomy and control. However, most Americans, especially physicians, understand that helping someone end their life is incompatible with a doctor's fundamental role as a healer. It is understandable that a patient who is suffering from a terminal, painful, or debilitating illness would rather die than live. Yet, is this "choice" of suicide a real good decision for them or merely the illusion of choice?
I would suggest that what California and the other states have done is not good public policy for the following reasons:
- Doctor prescribed suicide is a recipe for elder and disability abuse. It can easily put lethal drugs in the hands of those individuals who are abusers.
- An abusive caregiver or relative can always pick up the lethal drugs from the pharmacy and give them to the patient with or without the vulnerable person's consent. We must keep in mind that existing laws regulating this "choice" do not require a witness to be present.
- Can we expect that the government and all insurance companies will do the right thing with regard to costly treatments? Or would they more likely go with the cheaper "choice" by deciding only to pay for the drugs to end a patient's life? This is what happened to Barbara Wagner in Oregon, whose insurance company refused to pay for medicine to help keep her alive but agreed to cover the $50 drugs for a physician-assisted death.
- Most people know someone who has been misdiagnosed or has outlived a terminal diagnosis. Can we trust doctors and insurance companies to know what the future really holds for us?
Laws and public policy regulating and influencing choices about when and how it is appropriate to die can have significant, unintended consequences for all of us. In particular the elderly, terminally ill, and disabled can find themselves at a serious disadvantage due to their dependence on others for their care and welfare. Doctor prescribed death or assisting someone to end their life is neither safe nor compassionate care.
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Sidewalk counselor Melissa Tittle talks to 40 DFL participants at the Shreveport-Bossier midpoint rally.
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40 Days for Life Campaigns Continues Strong in Louisiana
19 Saves Reported So Far This Fall
40 Days for Life campaigns in Louisiana and around the world are in full swing with prayers being heard and lives being saved. The 2015 campaign began Sept. 23 and lasts until Nov. 1, and in Louisiana prayer warriors are keeping vigil outside abortion clinics in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport. To date, 19 unborn babies have been saved during the Louisiana campaigns.
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| Prayers continue in Metairie, where 8 babies have been saved. |
The
NEW ORLEANS 40 Days for Life campaign
has reported eight saves as several hundred men, women, teenagers and children have stood together to protect women and unborn children from abortion through inter-denominational prayer, peaceful vigils and community activism.
The campaign will hold its closing candlelight vigil Sunday, Nov. 1, from 5:30-7 p.m. in front of the Planned Parenthood construction site on S. Claiborne Avenue.
The New Orleans vigil site is near the Ridgelake abortion facility in Metairie, and there are still times available for groups to come out and pray. To check the schedule and sign up,
click here.
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| Vigil participants continue lifting up daily prayers at the Shreveport abortion facility. |
The SHREVEPORT-BOSSIER campaign held its midpoint rally last weekend. The event featured courageous testimony from a post-abortive woman. Also, sidewalk counselor Melissa Tittle shared pictures of baby Noah, a child saved from abortion during last spring's campaign and born on Day 1 of this fall's campaign.
"We have had a very good presence on the sidewalk as usual, and we have a small army of newly trained sidewalk counselors, but we have only three saves," reported campaign chairman Chris Davis. "The reason? There are much fewer women seeking abortions! The parking lot is half as full or less as it normally would be on abortion days. We are seeing less and less activity. We are winning the battle!"
Davis said two of the three saves were recorded Wednesday, as "two women rolled down their windows in succession and said they were keeping their babies. Please pray for them!"
Shreveport-Bossier will hold its closing candlelight vigil Sunday, Nov. 1, at 5 p.m. at the Shreveport abortion facility, 210 Kings Hwy.
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| Campaign co-chair Charlotte Bergeron talks to the crowd at the Baton Rouge midpoint rally. Also participating were musicians Kelsey Maye and Trey Bourgeois, Pastor Lewis Richerson, and outreach coordinator and sidewalk counselor Kamie Sanchez. (Photo by Darlene Aguillard) |
In
BATON ROUGE
, eight unborn babies are confirmed saved, and more than 1,250 people have participated in the campaign by praying at the vigil site, located across the street from the Delta abortion facility at 756 Colonial Drive.
Baton Rouge held its midpoint event on Sunday, Oct. 11 from 5:30-6:30 pm, Day 19 of 40 Days for Life.
Kesley Mayes and Trey Bourgeois, members of Parkview Baptist Church, led a beautiful evening of praise, prayer and reflection at the vigil site with 70 adults and youth attending from area churches, including Woodlawn Baptist, Jefferson Baptist, Bethany,
Our Lady of Mercy, St. Patrick's, Immaculate Conception-Lakeland, St. George and more.
The Rev. Lewis Richerson, pastor of Woodlawn Baptist Church, opened the evening with a heartfelt prayer and challenge to persevere in the pro-life battle. Kamie Sanchez, a 40 Days for Life outreach coordinator and sidewalk counselor, shared some of her experiences on the sidewalk reaching out to abortion-vulnerable women and men. Ross McCalip, a member of St. Aloysius, shared how 40 Days for Life has helped make members of his church aware about abortion in our community and has inspired more activity. Jason Collier from Bethany Church closed the event with a powerful final prayer.
After the event, Ali Dazzio gave many participants a tour of
Woman's New Life Center, the pregnancy center located next door to Delta abortion facility.
Baton Rouge will hold its closing candlelight prayer vigil on Sunday, Nov. 1, at 6 p.m. at the vigil site. Continue checking the
Calendar of Events for details, which will be posted as they become available.
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David Scotton, LSU senior and great friend of Louisiana Right to Life, spoke in the past few weeks to the student bodies of both St. Michael's High School in Baton Rouge and St Thomas More in Lafayette. Thanks, David, for sharing the beauty of adoption!
Want to bring a Louisiana Right to Life speaker to your group?
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| David Scotton with St. Michael's Pro-Life Club |
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