Author Archives: Bonnie Finnerty

By Bonnie Finnerty, Education Director

To teach is to touch the future.

So true.  My former students are now coding software, engineering structures, managing businesses, and dispensing prescriptions.  They are mothers, fathers, consumers, and citizens active in my community and in many others.  An occasional chance meeting allows me to learn where one of my middle schoolers of the 90’s has landed.  Sometimes I am quite surprised.

For several years I got to play a small role in the development of today’s younger adults. Like other educators, it was a desire to nurture the hidden potential within each child that prompted me to become a teacher.

And it was precisely because of that desire that I quit the teachers’ union.

When I learned that the National Education Association, the largest union in the nation with almost 3 million members, supported “reproductive rights”, I could no longer pay the required dues.  How could I support an educational organization that was complicit in eliminating our very clientele?  If teachers were called to see the potential in every child, how could we ignore the potential of the pre-born and advocate for their termination? The irony shocked me, the hypocrisy plagued me, and I ultimately quit the union, hoping that one day things would change.

Sadly, the NEA has since instead doubled-down on their support for abortion.  While identifying themselves as the nation’s leading advocate for children, they recently added Business Item 56 to their agenda, which states that the union “vigorously opposes all attacks on the right to choose and stands on the fundamental right to abortion under Roe v. Wade.”

I continue to be mystified. Why does an educational organization whose mission of improving public schools take a position on this issue?  How about sticking to negotiating fair salaries and lobbying for lower student-teacher ratios in the classroom?  How about promoting strategies for greater parental involvement and supporting successful inclusion practices for all children?  There are a plethora of issues to address but abortion shouldn’t be one of them.

When I refused to join the union at my second teaching job, I was paid a visit by the president of the local affiliate.  She said I could be sued by a student and would not have union advocacy and legal protection.  It’s interesting that fear, which is almost always at the root of abortion, was being used to persuade me to join the union.

When that didn’t work, she told me I was ruining the 100% union membership of which the school had boasted for several years.  I was able to direct her attention to a poster I had just hung in my classroom. “Stand up for what is right, even if you are standing alone.”  That poster wasn’t there for just my students, it was a much-needed reminder to me as well.

Exasperated, she left my classroom with the promise to send another teacher and union member who was pro-life to speak to me.  I nervously awaited his visit.

When he stopped by the next day, we sat and had a good, honest, and lengthy talk. In the end, he decided he could no longer support a union that supported abortion. I was grateful for his courageous change of heart. If the two of us refused membership on the basis of abortion, would others join us?  Could we at least get people thinking and talking about this issue rather than simply accepting the NEA’s misguided position?

No teacher should have to pay several hundred dollars annually to an organization that lobbies for the abortion of future students.  There is nothing pro-child, pro-teacher, or pro-education about that.  Teaching should be about touching the future, not killing it.

by Jessica Resuta

Our guest blogger is a junior journalism major at Franciscan University of Steubenville and a past winner of the PA Pro-Life Federation’s Oratory Contest.

A recent New York Times article claims that the term “pro-life” is purely a marketing term and that “Whatever the anti-abortion crusaders call themselves, they don’t care what happens to an unwanted child — not after the child is born — and they’ve never cared about the mother.”

The author also says that “The anti-abortion cause didn’t promote itself as ‘pro-life’ until the more punitive-sounding ‘anti-abortion’ label failed.” What this article misses is that the term ”pro-life” means exactly what it says, supporting and cherishing all human life, and if anything is punitive it’s abortion. 

Abortion does not aid or help a woman feel safe because it is the intentional destruction of a human life that brings a woman pressure, heartbreak, regret, and a deadly quick-fix disguised as healthcare.  Pregnancy may be difficult but it is not a punishment. It is a normal, natural opportunity to give, love and respect life. Those who choose to love and sacrifice when it’s hard are those who do the most good in the world.  There are also others who tenderly care and are open to help with the difficulties that arise with an unexpected or crisis pregnancy. 

Being pro-life acknowledges the humanity and uniqueness of all life at every stage, and that includes protecting as precious both the unborn child and his/her mother.  The overused argument that pro-life only equals pro-birth is completely unfounded because it is those who support life who are actually giving a mother a choice, and not just a choice, but one that will help rather than hurt her.  

Many women choose abortion because they feel they have no choice. Abortion is portrayed as the only solution to an unplanned or difficult pregnancy, but telling women their primary option is to either pay a substantial amount of money or have the taxpayers pay to have their child killed is no way to make a woman or her child feel safe. 

These are not just words or ideals, there truly are other and better options for pregnant women, loving and helpful options.  In Pennsylvania alone, there are hundreds of pregnancy care centers all across the state, not to mention countless churches, families and pro-life communities who are willing to give a woman and her child the love and care they need at a critical time.  

The Pro-Life mission is one that treats all life with the dignity belonging to all humans, born and unborn.  Women need to know that there really is loving assistance and the life-giving options that they deserve. 

by Jessica Resuta

Our guest blogger is a junior journalism major at Franciscan University of Steubenville and a past winner of the PA Pro-Life Federation’s Oratory Contest.

Selena Gomez, Arianna Grande, Miley Cyrus

These are all former Disney Channel and Nickelodeon stars who influenced so many little girls as someone to look up to and who now as beautiful, famous young women still command the attention of the public spotlight.

Yet recently these women have all felt the need to praise and portray abortion as a way to empower women. Cyrus with her “abortion is healthcare” cake photo, Grande with her donation of concert proceeds to Planned Parenthood, and Gomez’s modeling and endorsement of a “1973” necklace by Sophie Ratner to commemorate Roe v. Wade’s abortion victory.  

Although it’s completely their choice to express themselves this way, it seems very telling of our present social climate that these young women see their glamorous endorsements of abortion as the answer to being strong women and solving problems in the world.  And yes, that’s their choice, but it does make an impact on the culture and the public’s perception of issues like abortion.

Viewing abortion as empowerment may appear simple and popular, but it completely disregards the natural function and capability of a woman’s body to form and carry children – a new, unique life.  That is empowering, as only a woman is able to carry a new life in her womb. It is empowering to protect the ones who need the most protection and to love those who are being torn down. In a society that constantly says “why can’t we just love and accept everyone?” I would say yes, why can’t we?

Abortion does not empower women, it removes them farther from their true selves and unique capabilities that only they possess as women. The ability to be a mother is a gift, a responsibility and an incredible capability that women should be praised for and encouraged in, not berated. Abortion is seen as a good thing because so many women are being told that it is degrading to have a child or that it is the only option.  Since so much emphasis and endorsement are placed on devaluing unborn lives and the role a woman plays in that life, women are convinced that abortion must be right and celebrated as the way to go, and the only way.

But what about all the amazing women whose stories are often ignored?  The young mothers who chose to bear and raise a child under difficult circumstances, and self-sacrificed so much out of love; the mother who gave a child with special needs a chance to share his love and joy with the world; the women who opened their homes and families to adopt a child who needed one;  the young woman who chooses to embrace her unique and beautiful femininity as a woman by not bending to the peer pressure to support abortion. These are women who are truly empowered, not by taking the way out of responsibility and sacrifice, but by looking at what it really means to love and accept those who are forgotten, neglected and vulnerable, and playing their role in the world as women.  That is powerful. Love is powerful.

So does society have to be this way? And are women truly empowered by abortion?  From Cyrus’ vibrant “birthday-style” cake there is an echo of all the birthday cakes that were never made for children who were “unwanted;” from Grande, there are the millions of dollars which could have been given to adoption facilities or women’s pregnancy care centers; and from Gomez’s necklace, the reminder of over 60 million American lives that were never given a chance.  

To Selena, Arianna, and Miley: you are beautiful, gifted women who as women and as humans have a capacity to love and respect, and also have the power to influence so many young girls who look to you and a culture that very often follows the crowd. Abortion does not enable a woman to love and respect others, but causes her to hide from who she is and what she can give to the world. Our society does not need fear, it needs an openness to love.   

by Bonnie Finnerty, Education Director

It was the best of times and it was the worst of times for two men. The first I never met, the second I know well. As we draw close to celebrating Father’s Day, their juxtaposed journeys deserve our attention.

Christopher Keelty is a writer who recently shouted his girlfriend’s abortion. His June 6 article entitled “What My Partner’s Abortion Taught Me: Men Benefit From Choice, Too” ironically appeared on the website Fatherly and is riddled with misinformation about abortion laws and statistics. But far more disturbing is the casual, unapologetic tone he assumes in telling of an unplanned pregnancy.

No doubt Christopher was quite relieved by his girlfriend’s abortion.  “While the decision was entirely hers, Liz’s choice to terminate benefitted me. It meant I could continue pursuing the personal and professional life I wanted.”  Addressing his male readership, he reminds them that abortion is good for them too, allowing men to escape the hassle of parenthood. Grateful that he and Liz aren’t “overhauling our lives to accommodate the child we never wanted”, he celebrates abortion as a great guarantor of freedom.

Yet there is a hint of uncertainty. Liz asks if getting an abortion is OK. If she believes “the decision was entirely hers”, why bother to ask him? Christopher responds that a baby was the last thing he was ready for.

Was that the answer she was hoping to hear?  Is it possible she asked because she wanted this man to protect and provide for both her and their child, rather than choosing the self-indulgent lifestyle he desperately clung to instead?

While he portrays himself as so very pro-woman, isn’t he really just pro-Christopher?

And then there’s Tim, a 19 year-old accounting major who learns about his girlfriend’s pregnancy while scrubbing pots in the hospital kitchen where he worked. The word abortion never crossed his lips.  Instead, he got a second job and then a third.

Tim married that girl. Financing his own education, he took 19 credits a semester and graduated early, all while changing diapers and being schooled in infant insomnia.

When he graduated, Tim moved his family out of his in-laws’ house into a modest apartment. Money was so tight that there was often not much more than a few items in the fridge at any one time.  Life was a continuous struggle in many ways.

But he didn’t dwell on what was lacking or a lifestyle he was missing. He saw what he did have. A family. A beautiful little girl whose wild blond curls and striking brown eyes melted his heart when he returned from class or one of his jobs. She was both his inspiration for working hard and his great reward.

You may have guessed that Tim is my husband of 32 years, the father of our five children, pappy to three grandchildren, a well-respected tax attorney and CPA. And he couldn’t be more different than Christopher Keelty.

For every reader who falls under Keelty’s spell of selfishness and believes abortion is the answer, I want to offer the story of another man, one who wasn’t driven by self-interest but by self-sacrifice.

My humble husband would never write an article about his story. But I share it because there are many other men out there just like him and they all warrant recognition and respect. Men who step up.  Men who put themselves last.  Men who pledge to protect and provide for their family, even when it is untimely or inconvenient. Real men. Would Liz have liked for Christopher to be that kind of man?

The reality is that 64% of post-abortive women say they felt coerced into getting an abortion. Sometimes the coercion is as subtle as the father saying a baby is the last thing he was ready for.

Like women, men too can be led to believe that an unplanned pregnancy offers no future and will lead to the worst of times.  But that is a lie. Embracing fatherhood may not lead to an easy, comfortable life, but the love between a father and child leads to the very best of times.

Tragically, that is a tale that Christopher Keelty, and too many other men, will not be able to tell.

by Bonnie Finnerty, Education Director

In my past life as an English teacher, I encouraged students’ playful experimentation with language. Words matter, I told my students.  Words stir emotions, illuminate a truth, even persuade a foe.  Poetry and prose possess power.

Yet, words can be used for more malevolent purposes.  They might not illuminate, but darken and distort. They can minimize, romanticize, even glorify that which is ugly, violent, and evil. Words can be used to manipulate those who hear them.

No one knows this better than the pro-abortion wordsmiths.

They have poeticized abortion, luring many with polished vocabulary and rhythmic phrases that seek to dull senses and numb protestations.

Their “ode” to abortion goes something like this:

The right to choose is a private decision between a woman and her doctor and an integral part of her reproductive freedom and health care. The termination of a pregnancy is a safe procedure that empties the pregnancy tissue from the uterus and is a Constitutionally protected right.

Sounds almost harmless.

Until you scratch through the lexicon’s shiny veneer.

Deconstruct this abortion “poem” phrase by phrase, and the blaring truth is a cacophony that pierces our conscience.

 “The right to choose”

Choice implies freedom. Yet almost two-thirds of women (64%) felt coerced into getting an abortion and 84% felt under-informed about their options. (Forced Abortion in America) And what is being chosen? Death for another.

 “a private decision between a woman and her doctor”

Ninety-three percent of abortions take place in a free standing “clinic” where there is no previous doctor-patient relationship established.  An intimate, well-thought out decision between a patient and her long-time physician? No, a desperate decision often rooted in fear. It’s an exchange of cash for services from a complete stranger who profits from that fear.

“Reproductive freedom”

Reproductive freedom exists –prior to reproduction. Does bodily autonomy extend to destruction of another’s life? As the saying goes “The right to swing my fist ends where your nose begins.” The right to manipulate my body ends where another life begins.

“health care”

Health care extends life.  Abortion ends it. There is nothing healthy nor caring about abortion.  Traumatized women are left alone to recover and heal and a child is relegated to a medical waste container or worse.

“Termination of a pregnancy”

The natural process of pregnancy is ended by the unnatural killing of a human being. The child is terminated.

“Safe procedure”

“Safe abortion is a euphemism,” said Dr. Beverly Macmillam, founder of Mississippi’s first abortion facility.

Between 1973-2014, the Centers for Disease Control reported that 437 women died from abortion complications, but due to under reporting, the number is likely much higher. Gosnell’s facility killed women and infected them with STD’s. A Philadelphia Planned Parenthood has failed 13 of the last 23 inspections.  Missouri’s last abortion clinic failed multiple inspections and called an ambulance 72 times. The list goes on. (see checkmyclinic.org)

Safe? Post-abortive women suffer higher rates of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicide.  Nothing about abortion is safe.

“empties the pregnancy tissue”

Eyes by day 19, heartbeat by day 24, skeleton by day 42, this is a genetically distinct, unrepeatable living human, not mere tissue. At implantation, this new life develops a hormone to prevent mother’s body from rejecting it.  This is baby’s home.

“a Constitutionally protected right”

There is no right to abortion in the Constitution. Legal scholars on both sides agree that Roe vs. Wade was decided on shaky legal ground, citing the right to privacy as the basis.  Consider this from Justice Harry Blackmun’s former clerk, Edward Lazarus, who considers himself pro-choice:

“As a matter of constitutional interpretation and judicial method, Roe borders on the indefensible. … Justice Blackmun’s opinion provides essentially no reasoning in support of its holding. And in the … years since Roe’s announcement, no one has produced a convincing defense of Roe on its own terms.”

In 1973, Justice Blackmun conceded that the right to abortion would not exist if the humanity of the “fetus” could be proved. Hasn’t science and technology since shown us the irrefutable proof he sought?

But those who compose the ode to abortion care little for facts that might interrupt the smooth rhythm that has been so carefully crafted.

Those of us committed to protecting life, though, will not be fooled by the euphemisms.  We will sing loudly our song of truth, drowning out the poetry of death.