Alternatives to Abortion saves lives

Submitted on July 23, 2009

In the last several months American pro-life workers have experienced setbacks — some of them alarming. There are more major challenges and possible losses for life advocates in the future. The key to responding to such reversals is the Catholic community in the United States. If Catholics, both lay and clerical, spoke up in larger numbers on embryonic stem-cell research, abortion on demand becoming “an essential service” in Congress's new health care bill, parental notification laws, late-term abortions and the Freedom of Choice Act, the nation could be transformed, and unborn children would have a fighting chance at realizing a full life.

In Missouri, Catholics and people of faith have an immediate opportunity to make their voices heard by Gov. Jay Nixon by supporting the Missouri Department of Health’s Alternatives to Abortion program. According to the Missouri Catholic Conference, the state Department of Health and Senior Services has proposed that Gov. Nixon cut this program for 2010, to help balance the state budget this program provides emergency services to poor women facing crisis. The support for these women, woefully below the poverty line, and their children then continues for a year after the children are born. The program is made up of a consortium of faith-based agencies and institutions that offer counseling, educational programs and services, adoption assistance, prenatal care, mental and physical health care, newborn care, housing, food, clothing and other basic needs.