10StepsToEndAbortion.com

There is a wide variety of pro-life activities and strategies. Priests for Life has been at the forefront of planning and guiding such strategy and training, and offers the following summary of some of the key dynamics and activities of the pro-life movement as it moves toward the goal of ending abortion.

1. Pray!

Prayer is the foundation of all we do in the pro-life movement, and puts us in touch with the source of our life and freedom, God himself. Pray each day the Prayer to End Abortion, which you can download at www.PrayerCampaign.org.

On that page, you will also see during various seasons of the year, and as we approach various special feasts and holidays, we have special prayers that combine the pro-life theme with the theme of those special days.

Urge your family, parish, school, and pro-life organization to say these prayers regularly. You can also order beautifully printed cards for each of these prayers. See the links at www.PrayerCampaign.org.

You can also join the largest prayer group in history on Facebook, the cause “Pray to End Abortion.” Find it at www.ProLifePrayers.com.

2. Promote Alternatives!

The easiest single reference to help free someone from feeling she has to abort her child is the Option Line, 1-800-712-HELP (4357), and its associated website, www.PregnancyCenters.org. This number connects the caller to the nearest pregnancy resource center.

 Individuals should keep this information close at hand at all times, and also share them with schools, hospitals, and other community groups.

Pastors should place this information on the parish bulletin and website.

The numbers can be placed on posters, business cards, in newspaper ads, on the internet, and on signs posted in Churches, stores, and other places. You may also inquire at these numbers as to how you can volunteer to assist those who provide alternatives to abortion.

3. Promote Healing!

Confidential, caring, expert help is available for those who have had abortions and need a friendly ear as they walk through the pain and try to regain hope and meaning in their lives. The resources available for this help and healing can be found at www.SilentNoMoreAwareness.org/resources.

On that page, you will find a search box. By entering a zip code, you will find the pregnancy centers, post-abortion ministries, and Rachel’s Vineyard retreat sites within a reasonable distance of that zip code.

To promote this information as far and wide as possible is to free people from guilt, shame and despair and to show the true face of the pro-life movement, which is a movement of compassion and mercy.

This information should be promoted in the same way as indicated above regarding alternatives to abortion.

4. Use Testimonies!

The personal witness of those who have lost children to abortion breaks the spell that abortion is somehow good or helpful for an individual or society. More and more women and men are speaking publicly about the devastation abortion has brought to their lives, and also about the fact that the pro-life movement and the Church bring healing. These voices are multiplying through the Silent No More Awareness Campaign. You can read and share these testimonies in print, audio, and video format at www.SilentNoMoreAwareness.org/testimonies.

As a way of showing your commitment to the two action items above, you can partner with the campaign, as an individual, Church, or organization. See www.silentnomoreawareness.org/partner for details on how to do this.

5. Speak Up!

There are many ways in which you can speak up for the unborn, whether in private conversation, letters to the editor, comments on blogs and other social networking sites, You Tube videos, and various forms of lobbying elected and appointed officials.

It is also crucial to be a voice publicly, by taking part in demonstrations, Life Chains, and other gatherings that bring the truth of abortion to the public. Presence at abortion facilities, moreover, provides a way to let your voice be heard by those who run those places of death, by those who resort to them, and by the community that allows them to operate.

We offer training in all these areas. Various resources are available, such as

-- Our suggested letters to the editor
-- The booklet “Pro-life Answers,” which we can send you right away
-- Training on Preaching on Abortion
-- Seminars on How to Talk about Abortion [Part 1] [Part 2]

6. Be Politically Active!

The pro-life movement frees people from the oppression of unjust laws and policies. We foster political responsibility, and participation in elections and lobbying, so as to advance the culture of life. Our election headquarters at www.PoliticalResponsibility.com provide ongoing guidance for this kind of activity.

One of the ways we exercise political responsibility is by fostering non-partisan voter registration drives. As an individual, Church, or organization, you can help fellow citizens to register so that they can have a voice in each year’s elections! Go to our voter registration page to find out how.

On Election Day, and during early voting season, you can advance the culture of life by helping people get to the polls. Raising awareness, sending reminders, helping the homebound fill out absentee ballots, and providing transportation to the polls are some of the many ways to do this. Information about early voting dates in each state that has them is available at www.priestsforlife.org/states. Additional information about getting out the vote is available at www.PoliticalResponsibility.com.

7. Expose Abortion!

St. Paul writes, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless works of darkness; rather, expose them!” (Eph. 5:11). A key reason abortion continues is that its violence is hidden. Hence for so many people, the word “abortion” has lost all meaning. Often enough, the problem is not that people support abortion, but rather that they have never seen it. When its violence is exposed to the light of human conscience, most will reject it.

Our “Is this what you mean?” campaign challenges abortion supporters to admit what it is, and in the process, either shows others either what it is, or shows them that it’s too horrible for its supporters to describe. It’s a winning strategy, and all the tools you need to carry it out are here: www.priestsforlife.org/isthiswhatyoumean.

Besides exposing the procedure itself, through photos and descriptions, we also expose the harm it does to women, men, and families, as mentioned above, and we expose the corruption in the abortion clinics, as mentioned below.

8. Expose the Abortion Industry!

Many believe that because abortion is legal, it is therefore safe, carried out in licensed facilities, and under the guidance of trained professionals who follow all the standards of modern medicine, with the best interests of their patients at heart.

But when it comes to abortion, nothing can be further from the truth. The abortion industry is corrupt, unregulated, unscrupulous, and just plain dangerous. The more we expose the malpractice and abuse to the public, the more they will see that the abortion battle is not between mother and child, but between the abortion industry on one side and mother and child on the other.

One way to do this is to order your own copy of Lime 5, which details the corruption in the abortion industry and explains why and how this strategy works.

9. Take to the Streets!

Many people go out of their way to avoid talking or thinking about abortion. Yet we have to get a substantial number of people focusing on the problem in order to end it. Therefore we have to put ourselves in their path, which is exactly what we do by having peaceful, First Amendment gatherings and communications in the public forum. Literature distribution, Life Chains, demonstrations, parades, rallies, and similar events can spread the pro-life message.

Yet it is not only a matter of giving a message; it is also a matter of intervening directly to save lives at the places where the killing occurs. Presence at abortion mills is a key way to weaken the abortion industry. 

10. Be a Missionary of the Gospel of Life!

Pro-life activity is not simply a hobby or a cause or a political ideology. It is, at its core, a spirituality, an aspect of our discipleship. Pro-life spirituality, rooted in the Gospel, gives us both the why and how of pro-life activity, trains us in the virtues we need to carry it out, and insures that our activity is rooted in God and leads us back to God. After engaging in training with us, people can make public promises to live out this pro-life spirituality.

You can see an outline of the training, as well as the characteristics and virtues that shape this spirituality, at www.MissionariesoftheGospelofLife.org. You can sign up there as well!