Teachers Saving Children® of Pennsylvania Inc.
	Newsletter Volume 5, Number 2 August 2004	Home TSC Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Newsletters

Contents

Once again it was a joy to represent Teachers Saving Children^® of PA at the National Board Meeting on March 27, 2004, at Bergholz, Ohio. The level of commitment to the pro-life cause is so sincere that it was very energizing to be there.

The big news is the Constitution & Bylaws change that provides for a state representative on the National Board. Up until now, state representatives have attended as guests. However, as of the fall of 2004, we will be official members of the National Board. Thank you, PA Board, for electing me as your representative to the National Board of Trustees.

National also changed their Constitution & Bylaws effective June 1, 2004, to reflect the handling of all memberships on the National level. Membership in National will automatically establish membership in the PA Affiliate Chapter. You should have received membership information from the National office in July. We are in the process of changing our Constitution & Bylaws, also, to include both of these changes.

The NEA-RA in Washington, DC, was held on July 2-7, 2004, with our Assistant Director, Jeff Remington, serving as an NEA delegate! National again had the "Wonder of Life" exhibit at the NEA Expo 2004, held July 2-4, 2004.

We regretfully accept the resignation from our PA Board of Trustees of Michael Grella and Barbara Purcell. Their resignations will be effective after our board meeting on September 25, 2004. We thank both them for their dedication and valuable contributions to the Teachers Saving Children^® of PA's achievements.

This now means that we have only four board members, and we need five for a quorum. Won't you prayerfully consider joining us. Without a quroum, we cease to be official, so this need is urgent! Board members meet twice a year. Contact me at 717-292-2021 or email me at bilskto@aol.com for additional information and a candidacy application form. We need you.

Patricia (Patty) Brock recently joined our board. She lives in St. Marys, PA, with her husband, Harry. They have two sons, Fr. Herald Brock, CFR, who lives in Honduras, and William C. Brock, who lives in Lewisburg with his wife Deb Dolan, and children, Hannah, ten years old, and William who is five. Patty retired following a thirty-year career as an elementary teacher. However, she has been involved in the pro-life movement since the 1980s, having served as president/chairperson since the 90s for the Elk/Cameron Right to Life Group. As an educator, she gives pro-life educational talks to pre-teens and teens. In their spare time, Patty and Harry do some traveling, play golf, and read. Welcome aboard, Patty!

Do you find yourself wondering how to respond when your local asks you to make a contribution to PACE every August or September? When Jeff Remington received this request, he writes a letter of response such as the following. You may want to consider using his creatively assertive idea yourself!

Recently I heard on the Focus on the Family radio program this statistic: every eight seconds there is a birth, and every 26 seconds there is an abortion occurring in the United States. Those numbers startled me especially as I have been hearing the number of abortions is declining! In fact, a local crisis pregnancy shelter designed to house pregnant girls as well as girls and their newborn infants has closed for lack of clientele.

We of the pro-life position often hear the assertion that a fetus is not really a person; therefore, abortion is not ending a life but is, rather, a choice. On this same radio program, the speaker outlined four differences between a fetus and a newborn infant.

The first difference mentioned is size. The speaker queried, "Since when is size a determination of personhood?" Are small people or short people less human than tall or large individuals? Of course, this is ludicrous. The child in-utero, though tiny, even microscopic at conception, is indeed no less a person.

This same argument appplies to the second difference, which is lack of development.

The third difference is environment or location. How does where one is have any bearing on who one is This point is particularly important with respect to the heinous late-term abortion method.

Degree of dependency is the fourth difference cited. This counters the argument that until viability, the fetus is not human. With modern medical advances and techniques, many tiny ones born prematurely can survive.

I believe the pro-life position is true, in spite of our postmodern relativism and rejection of absolutes. None of these objections are morally relevant nor are they true.

If we speak the truth, perhaps our abortion statistic will decrease from one every 26 seconds to zero.

We will do well to remember Psalm 72:12-14, "For He will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death. He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in His sight."

Pam Stenzel, a nationally known speaker who discusses "the abstinence advantage" with candor and humor, spoke to a few Central Pennsylvania High Schools about abstinence. She was well received and kept students riveted with her powerful message on saving sex until marriage. She spoke at Bishop McDevitt, Trinity Hershey, Palmyra, and Milton Hershey High Schools on April 27 and 28. She has recently spoken at schools in the Lancaster and Lock Haven areas, also. If you would like to invite Pam to your school or would like more information about her progrmas and videos, you will find her on the web at www. pamstenzel.com.

Do you receive the National Right to Life News? Our own Connie Bancroft, Executive Director of the Teachers Saving Children^® Inc. - National, is quoted in the May 2004 edition. Her comments appear in the article, "Teachers Protest NEA's Ties to Pro-Abortion March."

The June 2004 issue of the National Right to Life News included an interesting article entitled, "President Delivers Commencement Address at Concordia University." The editor noted that "For the most part, commencement addresses come and go, making nary a ripple...That surely wasn't the case when President Bush (as a reporter for Knight Ridder put it) urged new college graduates at Concordia Univeristy 'to promote a culture of life in America as part of a lifetime commitment'..." The president challenged graduates to "protect and honor life in all its seasons," further stating that "You can fairly judge the character of society by how it treats the weak, the vulnerable, the most easily forgotten." The full article is worth reading.

The Focus on the Family's Physician magazine recently included an excellent letter from an M.D. (January/February 2004). He stated, "Pro-life physicians likely have felt a certain level of exasperation as the abortion debate has unfolded over the last three decades. Abortion proponents use fallacious arguments to rationalize legal abortion on demand. From a medical standpoint, we know that the fetus is alive and unquestionably human." While urging physicians to take action, he further wrote that "Our nation is ready to hear the testimony of physicians speaking the truth about abortion. Technological advances such as the 4-D ultrasound have the capability to provide the public with a much more vivid and realistic representation of the life of the fetus. Whereas abortion was previously represented as an innocuous procedure performed with clinical dispassion, it has now been revealed to have serious adverse effects on the mother and subsequent pregnancies. Young people today are less likely than those from previous generations to accept the culture of abortion uncritically."

"When one observes the pitched battles around persons of strong convictions, who do not accept the prevailing beliefs of others, it is no wonder that those who might otherwise wish to participate find more hospitable outlets for their civic interests. ...I do believe that we are required to wade into those things that matter to our country and our culture, no matter what the disincentives are, and no matter the personal cost. There is not one among us who wants to be set upon, or obligated to do and say difficult things. Yet, there is not one of us who could in good conscience stand by and watch a loved one or a defenseless person - or a vital national principle - perish alone, undefended, when our intervention could make all the difference. This may well be too dramatic an example. But nevertheless, put most simply: If we think that something is dreadfully wrong, then someone has to do something." (Excerpt from Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas' speech in Washington, D.C., in 2001, entitled "Be Not Afraid," and published in Perspective, September 2002.)

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