Teachers Saving Children® of Pennsylvania Inc.
Newsletter
Volume 5, Number 1
November 2004
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I am delighted to tell you we have a new board member, Patricia Yamrick, who was officially approved at our September 25, 2004 Board of Trustees meeting. Her biographical sketch will appear in the next edition of our newsletter. Welcome aboard, Patty!
At our September meeting, we also made changes to our Constituion and Bylaws, to reflect the change to the National office handling our memberships.
Once again, I had the privilege of attending the National Board of Trustees meeting, held October 16 in Columbus, OH. We elected a new member, Pam Hall, to the board. She replaces Gloria Hoelle who resigned for health reasons. The NEA Expo 2005 will be July 1-3 in Los Angeles, CA. Once again we will have an exhibit there.
Please encourage others to join us (and remember to renew your membership annually, as well!). We have brochures available which you can get by contacting me. Also, please alert me to ideas you may have for getting out the message of Teachers Saving Children® of PA Chapter. In the past, we made a presentation at Lancaster Bible College to those planning to go into teaching. Perhaps you can give us names of other schools where we can make presentations, along with names of contact people at the schools.
Clearly, we are interested in increasing our membership. We can do that if each of us would invite someone new to join. Will you consider doing that?
The nation's largest teacher union, the National Education Association (NEA) convenes a Representative Assembly (RA) annually in July. The RA has been described as one of the largest single practices of democracy in the world, with over 9,000 delegates casting votes in an open forum to change or create NEA policies and procedures.
As a first-year delegate to the NEA-RA in Washington, DC, this year, I proposed that the NEA take a position of "No Position" on the issue of abortion. Based on a past public statement, "NEA will oppose any legislation which will erode the status of Roe vs. Wade and/or which impedes access to choice of reproductive health care options, by providing technical assistance to state affiliates," (NEA New Business Item #1990-65), the NEA unequivocally indicates that they take a position of support on the issue of abortion rights.
In addition, NEA actions advance the impression that the NEA takes a position of support on abortion. At the recent March for Reproductive Freedom Rally held in Washington, DC, the New Jersey NEA affiliate sponsored busses to the rally and the Washington NEA Headquarters provided a hospitality station for the rally. At the NEA-RA in July, some NEA members were wearing tee shirts with the "March for Reproductive Freedom" logo on the front and the NEA logo on the back. Notably, NEA-sponsored hospitality services have not been offered for the March for Life, which is held in Washington, DC, every January.
As a delegate, I was fortunate to have been given two minutes to speak on this issue before the 9,000+ delegates at the RA. I delivered a speech encouraging the NEA to take a position of "No Position" with regard to abortion. Unfortunately, before my proposal was opened up for debate on the floor, it was defeated by the delegation through an "object to consideration" motion. Even though not formally debated, my proposal did promote productive discussion among the delegates on an individual level. A countless number of delegates came to me after my speech and voiced concern over the NEA's stance on abortion. I believe that seeds of hope were planted from which our organization will benefit.
If you know public school teachers who are opposed to the NEA's position on abortion, please encourage them to let their local association president know about their concerns. If they are interested in taking a more active role, please encourage them to become a delegate for the next NEA-RA and let their voices be heard.
Applications to become an RA delegate can be found in the association magazines or through a local association president. In addition, you can inform your colleagues that there is our group, Teachers Saving Children® Inc., that is dedicated to encouraging change related to NEA's position on abortion. For additional information, visit our website, www.teacherssavingchildren.org. You need not be a teacher to become involved in this group or this issue.
Editorial Note: Jeff's application for 2005 NEA-RA candidacy has been accpeted, so he will be on the ballot. If you live in the southern region, please be sure to look for his name on the NEA-RA ballot in December or January and vote for him - and encourage other educators in the region to vote for him!
Court to hear Roe v. Wade Again: A federal appeals court has agreed to hear a request from the woman formerly known as Jane Roe, to reconsider the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion. The plaintiff, Norma McCorvey of Dallas, who joined with opponents of abortion nearly 10 years ago, is seeking to have the decision overturned. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans is going to review McCorvey's 5,437 pages of evidence from more than 1,000 women who testify having an abortion has had devastating emotional, physical, and psychological effects. (Care Net Report, Volume 5, No. 2)
The First Nine Months...Watch Me Grow! educational poster series are an excellent teaching tool for schools (teachers, nurses), doctors' offices, or similar settings. They are available in nine individual 16" x 20" beautifully illustrated posters, which document the growth stages of a baby for nine months in the uterus. They are also available as an all-in-one 24" x 30" poster, which includes the set of nine illustrations. The illustrations are captioned with the following: Month one: "My heart started beating today!" Month two: "I can suck my thumb now!" Month three: "I grabbed my hand today!" Month four: "I had a dream today!" Month five: "Mommy felt me kick today!" Month six: "I rolled over today!" Month seven: "I looked around today!" Month eight: "I like to listen to my Mommy's voice!" Month nine: "Here I am!" Each poster also includes written descriptions of the baby's developmental stage. The posters are available from: Little One Sweet©, 320 Cathedral Street, Room 705-B, Baltimore, MD 21201. Telephone: 410-547-5537
A Norwegian study that compared the psychological reactions of women who had miscarriages to women who had had abortions found that the women having abortions had significantly more avoidance issues two years after the event than women having miscarriages. When they began their study, the authors appeared to have assumed, as do many abortion researchers, that the women having miscarriages would experience the most difficulty, in that the loss of their child was generally undesired and unexpected. Measuring "intrusion events" (flashbacks, bad dreams, and strong feelings related to the traumatic event) and evidence of "avoidance" (avoiding thoughts and feelings related to the event), reearchers found that two years later, women who aborted displayed significantly higher avoidance scores than did their miscarriage counterparts. They concluded that, "The avoidance may represent shame over the abortion procedure and over being in the situation of having an unwanted pregnancy. It may also indicate a greater long-term emotional disturbance than what has been described in the literature so far." Those who have worked with post-aborted women tell us that sometimes it may take a woman five to ten years to face and emotionally react to her abortion. (Excerpted from "Abortion's Lingering Psychological After-Effects Documented," by Randall K. O'Bannon, Ph.D., in National Right to Life News, Volume 31, No. 6, 2004)
Planned Parenthood Causes Uproar: Planned Parenthood, the nation's leading abortion network has stirred up controversy by featuring a T-shirt with the phrase, "I had an abortion," printed on the front. As a part of their "social fashion line," these shirts are promoted on the Planned Parenthood website as a "powerful message in support of women's rights." The T-shirt has caused an outcry of protest from pro-life groups who consider the message to be insensitive and tactless. "Planned Parenthood's new T-shirt confirms that the abortion chain lacks any sense of integrity, tact, and compassion," said Jim Sedlak, Executive Director of American Life League's STOPP International. He went on to say, "This shirt's message celebrates an act of violence that is traumatic for women, and worst of all, kills an innocent child." The T-shirt has drawn criticism from the Planned Parenthood affiliates in North Carolina. (Pennsylvania Families School, PA Family Institute, Fall 2004)
According to a study published in the March 2004 issue of Psychology and Aging, children with loving, supportive parents are more likely to enjoy good health as adults. Nearly 3,000 subjects aged 25 to 74 were asked about the emotional support they received from their parents during childhood. Adults in the study who lacked parental support as children reported "increased levels of depressive symptoms and chronic health conditions (such as hypertension, arthritis, and urinary problems) in adulthood, and this association persists with increasing age throughout adulthood into early old age." According to the study's author, Dr. Benjamin Shaw, Assistant Professor at the University at Albany's School of Public Health, "early parental support appears to shape people's sense of personl control, self-esteem and family relationships, which in turn affect adult depressive symptoms and physical health." (From The Washington Times, 3-24-04, as reported in Pennsylvania Families & Schools, Summer 2004).
Former President Ronald Reagan,
have already been born."
responding to a reporter's question
in a 1984 press conference.
(Lifelines, February 19, 2001)
TEACHERS SAVING CHILDREN®of PA, Inc.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
| Robin Ross (Executive Director), York County | 717-292-2021 |
| Patricia Brock, Elk County | 814-832-6976 |
| Linda Burroughs, Warren County | 814-757-5077 |
| John Dunkle, Berks County | 610-796-0627 |
| Jeff Remington, Lebanon County | 717-838-7538 |
| Patricia Yamrick, Indiana County | 724-349-7489 |
The next PA board meeting will be on May 21, 2005, and National board meets on April 2, 2005. Please keep us in your prayers.
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