IN THIS ISSUE...
From Our Director
Legislative Alert!

This evening,
SB 111 will be considered on the Senate floor in Baton Rouge. 
Last year, legislation was passed to make the sale of baby body parts after abortion illegal. Now, SB 128 will make the actual cutting of these broken babies after abortion illegal. This gives us another layer of protection against groups like Planned Parenthood!

Click to email your State Senator NOW!

Next Wednesday, we expect SB 111, "Screening for Exploitation of Minors Before Abortion Act," to be voted on in the Senate Health and Welfare Committee.  Email your State Senator on that bill as well, especially if you live in the district of one of the Senators on the committee!  
 
For a Pro-Life Louisiana,
Benjamin Clapper 
RIP, Rose Long
 
Pro-Life Heroine Rose Long Will Be Missed

Rose Long, wife of avidly pro-life State Senator Gerald Long, passed away on April 30. Rose was a champion for life, serving as a key leader of three separate crisis pregnancy centers throughout her life. Most recently, she was President of Women's Resource Center in Natchitoches. Rose, you will be missed! Senator Long, we are praying for you and your family during this difficult time.

Read her obituary by clicking here.
NOLA Pastor's Dinner
Hicks and Luter
Pastor Corey Hicks and Pastor Fred Luter Jr. at the dinner.
 
NOLA Pastors Attend Black Advocates Event

Pastors and community leaders from around the New Orleans area recently met at Café Reconcile for a dinner hosted by Black Advocates New Orleans Director Corey Hicks.  The evening began with a dynamic presentation from Hicks, discussing life issues in the community with an emphasis on the high rate of abortion in the Black community. Hicks appealed to those assembled to include abortion among the pressing issues they currently address in their neighborhoods.

The evening also featured personal testimony as well as an open discussion about needs in the black community and how individuals as well as ministries can participate in offering practical support to those who have made the choice for life. 

Black Advocates recognized the tremendous work of local leaders such as Dr. Ansel Augustine of the Black Catholic Ministry and Pastor Antoine Barriere of Household of Faith International.

Men in the New Orleans area, join Black Advocates for Life for a Men's Breakfast on May 13 at Bayou Breakfast!  Click here for more details!
Law Struck Down
State's Admitting Privileges Law Ruled Unconstitutional

U.S. District Court Judge John deGravelles ruled Louisiana's admitting privileges law, Act 620, unconstitutional on Wednesday, nearly a year after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a similar Texas law. deGravelles cited the Supreme Court decision in his ruling.

Click Here to Read Ruling
 
Act 620 passed the Louisiana Legislature by an overwhelming bi-partisan manner in 2014 and was signed into law by then Gov. Bobby Jindal. The law would have required doctors who perform abortions in the state to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. Of the three remaining abortion facilities in Louisiana, court records show that only one of those would remain open if the law went into effect.
 
According to The Associated Press, the state's Attorney General's Office is reviewing the opinion and will determine how best to proceed.

Click here to read statements from Benjamin Clapper, executive director of LARTL, and Dorinda Bordlee, vice president and senior counsel of the Bioethics Defense Fund.
PULSE Updates
   30 Pro-Life Leaders Trained in Covington   

Camp Abbey in Covington hosted 30+ high school and college students for a PULSE Immersion Weekend this past weekend.

Among activities, students heard from pro-life speakers, heard testimonies and visited the new location of the Northlake Crisis Pregnancy Center in Covington, where students heard from a counselor about services and how to directly help a woman in a crisis pregnancy. The seniors and chaperones also learned how to help pregnant and parenting students know their Title IX rights.

Students left the event fired up for life. Starting pro-life clubs at their high schools and getting a St. Tammany Parish PULSE team started soon were among plans made. 
 
***

The annual PULSE Leadership Institute is scheduled for June 5-9 at the Bishop Robert E. Tracy Center in Baton Rouge.

Special Elections

Crews Wins House Seat; Senate Seat Heads to Runoff

The Louisiana Legislature gained another pro-life representative Saturday when Raymond Crews of Bossier City was elected in a runoff for the vacant District 4 House seat. Crews previously answered Louisiana Right to Life's questionnaire 100 percent pro-life.

The vacant Senate 2 seat will not have a new occupant until May 27. Saturday's primary featured 14 candidates, with Warren Harang III and Edward "Ed" Price being the top vote-getters and moving into the May 27 runoff.

Harang, Saturday's first-place finisher, answered LARTL's questionnaire 100 percent pro-life.

Price did not answer the questionnaire.
Your Bowtie Helps Mothers and Saves Babies!


Bowties for Babies Funds
Advertise for Life Project 
Will You Attend and Help? 

Many women who regret their past abortion often say, "I wish there had been some sign to direct me away from abortion." 

At Louisiana Right to Life, we are providing just that through our Advertise for Life Initiative.

As you know, most people these days "google" anything they are looking for. The Yellow Pages are almost a thing of the past.

This is the same for abortion. We must be there for them even on Google.

Throughout the state, when someone searches for abortion on Google, many times our ad pops up, giving women (and men) a website and hotline they can call to connect to a pregnancy help center in the state. While there are many times these calls end abruptly when the person realizes they are not talking with an abortion facility, many times the call with the pregnancy centers helps the caller, and often it even ends with an appointment made for a pregnancy test, ultrasound, or simply a time to speak with someone who cares.

This is the purpose of the Advertise for Life project, which utilizes optimized search-engine advertising through Google to connect abortion-minded women with one of the state's pregnancy resource centers that can effectively provide counseling and resources that save the child and help the woman.

Here are just two examples of how the project has saved lives:
  • A woman searching online for an abortion in New Orleans called a pregnancy to ask about an abortion. She was informed of the center's services and agreed to an appointment before making her decision. A pregnancy test revealed she was in her second trimester, and a counselor spoke with her and her family members. The woman and the family chose to keep the baby!
  • A woman searching online for an abortion in Shreveport called a local pregnancy center. She was set on an abortion but agreed to visit the office for an ultrasound. But after the ultrasound she told her nurse and counselor she still planned to abort. Later, she revealed to the nurse and counselor that she went to the abortion clinic and was about to go through with the procedure, but she changed her mind, left, and chose life!
Without our online ads, these women may not have reached these amazing pregnancy centers! Lives were saved by these online ads!!

In 2016, the Advertise for Life project produced more than 16,500 unique clicks on the pregnancy help website and generated more than 1,650 phone calls to the pregnancy help hotline. While these numbers are good and lives are being saved, there are many more women we can't reach due to funding limitations.

You can help by attending the upcoming Bowties for Babies: A Southern Soiree Benefiting Life, whose sole purpose is to generate funds for the Advertise for Life project.




Bowties for Babies is May 11 from 7-10 p.m. at the Capitol Park Museum in Baton Rouge. Live New Orleans jazz will be performed by Bean 'N' the Boys, a live painting will be created onsite by Baton Rouge artist Stephanie Torregrossa, and a silent auction will allow guests some competition among friends.


Former State Sen. Ben Nevers and former Rep. Tom Willmott will receive the 2017 Leadership for Life Awards, and Attorney General Jeff Landry will be the guest speaker.

For more information on the event and award winners,   click here.

To visit our Facebook Event Page,   click here.

To view our silent auction items, click here.

***
Stephanie Torregrossa

You don't have to attend Bowties for Babies to have a chance to win the Louisiana-inspired painting by Stephanie Torregrossa that will be created live at the event!
And you can even watch the progress of the painting on May 11 on Facebook Live!
 
Raffle tickets are available now through noon May 31 for $10 each. The winning ticket will be drawn at 2 p.m. at the Louisiana Right to Life headquarters, and that too will be broadcast on Facebook Live.

Click here for more information on the artist and to purchase raffle tickets online.
Poo-Dat Diaper Drive
Diapers filled the storage room of Access Pregnancy and Referral Center, this year's diaper drive recipient. Access distributes more than 10,000 diapers every month to families in the greater New Orleans area.

First Poo-Dat Diaper Drive a Huge Success Thanks to You!

We asked and New Orleans area residents delivered, making the first Poo-Dat Diaper Drive a big success!

Beginning Wednesday, April 19, diapers began showing up at the Louisiana Right to Life headquarters and Robért Fresh Market, both on Robert E. Lee Blvd. By Tuesday evening, April 25, when the diaper drive came to a close, 14,026 diapers had been donated!

Kathy Favret and Tony Pastor were among volunteers.
Thank you to the volunteers who worked outside Robért Fresh Market Saturday and Sunday urging shoppers to pick up one extra item, and especially to all of you who donated diapers! Because of the success of the drive and because we want to continue helping area families in need, we plan to make the Poo-Dat Diaper Drive an annual event.

Some of our pro-life friends joined us Tuesday evening to celebrate the drive's success. These three huge boxes were filled and overflowing!

If you drove down Robert E. Lee Blvd. during the event, you couldn't miss our display in front of LARTL headquarters.

***

Interested in a future "Poo-Dat Diaper Drive" in your community?  Contact us at info@prolifelouisiana.org and maybe we can get one started in your community! 
Upcoming Events
Louisiana Right to Life
ProLifeLouisiana.org     1.866.463.5433    @LARightToLife

Facebook Twitter YouTube