I am a brand new board member of Pregnancy Aid South Suburbs, a network of 3
pregnancy care centers and 1 maternity home located in the southwest suburbs of Chicago.

Tomorrow is PASS's annual Hike for Life, 1 of 2 annual fundraisers that is very important to PASS's financial stability....

I've known the leaders of PASS since 1999, when they became involved in trying to stop abortion at Christ Hospital. In fact, the 1st place I spoke publicly about my experience was at a PASS banquet.

Pregnancy care centers are in dire need of our help. In honor of Mother's Day, please help mothers in crisis carry their babies to term. Please give the
largest amount possible.

It couldn't be easier. Go to my sponsor page and post your pledge on PASS's secure site. You can pay now by credit card if you like, or you can choose to receive a reminder in the mail.

Thank you in advance for your generosity! My goal is $1,000 and I've just come on board, so I really need your help!

UPDATE, 5/10, 7:45a: I'm off to the Hike. Will post Weekend Question and new poll later.

Please consider donating to PASS through the weekend. I was blown away yesterday when within a couple hours after posting my request and sending an mail alert, you had donated over $800 - and my goal was $1,000! So I bumped it up to $1,500. This morning I see your pledges are up to $1,380! I'm so appreciative. Meanwhile, my friend Fran has issued a challenge to her readers at Illinois Review to compete with us. Fun!

A couple commenters did not see on my pledge page that you can check a box to have PASS mail your pledge if you don't want to pay by credit card. I wanted to draw that to your attention. Thanks again for your generosity.

UPDATE, 5/10, 7:15p: Hey, you have made my goal - $1,500! Thanks so much!

P.S. Don't let that stop you... :)

By Valerie Jane

It is ridiculous the campaigns that the pro-choice side is doing to stop crisis pregnancy centers. I hear how horrible we are. How we mistreat women. We are told how we commit harassment, criminal confinement, verbal and mental abuse, and intimidation. We see the anonymous statements from these poor and weak women who didn't know how horrible the pro-life side was. No proof is provided. No court cases cited....

In the pro-choice propaganda I have never seen proof. The only lawsuits that have been against CPC's are for state regulation of how they advertise and what they say to women (from NAF website.) No law suits concerning the kidnapping and maltreatment we do. No lawsuits about the harassment. Isn't that interesting? We only hear about the women who went to a CPC to get an abortion but then were held against their will and forced to look at pictures and listen to prayers. We hear how horrible we are because we don't tell them that abortion is an option. Wait, didn't they go there to get an abortion? And now that we have kidnapped them they no longer know what abortion is?

What is a crisis pregnancy center? Why don't we check out one in Bloomington, IN They have pregnancy testing and counseling. They have free parenting classes. They have the Hannah House Maternity Home where pregnant women who need extra help can stay before and after their baby is born. They *gasp* teach abstinence with access to peer support. They give free baby supplies to mothers. They help with after-abortion counseling. Here is one of their promises:

"You will receive accurate information about pregnancy, fetal development, life-style issues, and related concerns. The pregnancy center does not provide abortion or referrals for abortion, but we are committed to offering accurate information about abortion procedures and risks"

These people must be horrible! They teach abstinence and don't do abortions. Let's shut them down.
Go here and here so you can see for yourself just how horrible it all is.

(Thanks Jill for letting me be a Guest Blogger this week!)

[photos courtesy: Christine Sullivan

The cover story in the Feb. 26 edition of Time magazine is on the "new face of an old movement," medically-modelled pregnancy care centers that perform ultrasounds and conduct STD testing.

I read the article first from a pro-life activist's perspective (me!) and thought it exceedingly placed pccs under a microscope and on the defensive.

Would, for instance, that Time reported on undercover investigative calls to abortion mills on the hunt for misinformation, like it did pccs. Or that it had a young woman pose as a pregnant patient in an abortion mill, like it did a pcc.

Then I read the article from the abortion industry's perspective and thought they must certainly be depressed about it, likely reworking their talking points as I write. They were pathetic. Here was the worst....

"What is really tragic to me is that a woman goes into a center looking for information, looking to be able to make a better, healthy choice, and she doesn't get all the facts," argues Christopher Hollis, Planned Parenthood's vice president for governmental and political affairs in North Carolina. "That's taking someone's life and playing a really dangerous game with it."

Only because pccs don't counsel to abort? I'd say the pregnancy health center that most endangers someone's life would be the one where at least half going in die.

Here was another good one:

It is this discussion of risk that most enrages defenders of abortion rights, especially doctors who routinely see terrified women who come in for an abortion after hearing such warnings and ask over and over, "Am I going to die?"

Oh, please. Certainly one of the two patients in the room is going to.

Overall, pccs came out looking professional, savvy, and compassionate. My one complaint was they agreed with pro-aborts that the horror of abortion should be deemphasized.

And I loved the cover photo!

[Hat tip: reader Wynette.]