IN THIS ISSUE...
From Our Director
240 years ago today, the 2nd Continental Congress began its Philadelphia meeting where the Declaration of Independence was adopted and the unalienable right to life was forever stamped on the foundation of our nation.  

Even while we reel from this week's tragedy of the Supreme Court's decision, I stand firm in the belief and hope that the history of our nation will return one day to liberty and justice, not just for some, but justice for all.

I will be in Washington D.C. for the National Right to Life Convention next week. Stay tuned to our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages for regular updates!
  
For a Pro-Life Louisiana,
Benjamin Clapper 
 
P.S. Great job, Isabella del Rio, on the awesome video below! Please share it with others!
Pro-Life Video
Isabella del Rio, left,
with Hailey Guth of Lake Charles.
 
Watch Mandeville Teen's Pro-Life
Video on YouTube

Isabella del Rio, a 15-year-old Mandeville High School freshman, is super passionate about the pro-life cause and recently sent us this speed drawing video she created and posted on YouTube. 


Isabella attended last week's PULSE Leadership Institute, and she wrote a poem about the impact of abortion to read during the PLI mock committee at the Capitol. She has already reached out to the Mandeville City Council and hopes to read her poem there and propose pro-life activities in the Old Mandeville area.

She is also looking forward to being a member of the Northshore PULSE Rate Team, which she and other PLI students from the Northshore are putting together.

Isabella is the daughter of Brad and Dawn del Rio of Mandeville. 
40 Days for Life NOLA

Pre-Campaign Party
Date Has Been Set

It's not too early to start planning to attend the pre-campaign party for NOLA 40 Days for Life!

The event is Thursday, Aug. 25 at 6 p.m. at Blessed Trinity Catholic Church, 4230 S. Broad Ave., New Orleans. 
 
A special forum - "Abortion is not Women's Healthcare" - will be held during the dinner and feature Dr. Kathy Allen, Dr. Susan Caldwell, Archbishop Gregory Aymond, and Sancha Noel Smith.

Dinner will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.
BR Breakfast
Healthcare providers present were, from left, 1st row: Francis Rinaudo, D.D.S.; Robert Chasuk, M.D.; and Marco Chavez, M.D., and 2nd row: E.J. Shannon, Ph.D; Wayne Gravois, M.D., Sarah Chavez, M.D.; Keith Lorio, D.D.S.; and Dan Marsh, M.D.
 
Baton Rouge
Breakfast Draws Large Crowd 

A sell-out crowd attended the 6th annual Baton Rouge Right to Life Benefit Breakfast on Saturday, June 25 in the Parish Activity Center of St. Thomas More Catholic Church. The theme of this year's breakfast was celebrating pro-life healthcare providers.
 
The keynote speaker was Robert Chasuk, M.D., who serves as associate program director for the Family Medicine Residency Program at Baton Rouge General and has been a member of the faculty there since 1994. He is chief of the Family Medicine Division at the Baton Rouge General Medical Center, the medical director of the Wellness Center and Skilled Nursing Facility at St. James Place in Baton Rouge and an associate clinical professor in Family Medicine for Tulane University School of Medicine. 
 
His interests include evidence-based medicine and the treatment of infertility and other gynecologic problems using the Creighton Model FertilityCare System. He is certified as a medical consultant in NaProTechnology by the American Academy of FertilityCare Professionals.
 
Dr. Chasuk made the connection between the authentic healthcare offered by NaPro Technology that treats women as individuals instead of a "one-size fits all approach" and the role it plays in building a pro-life culture. NaPro Technology can assist families struggling with infertility and help with limiting family size using a natural method that is effective and is not reliant on dangerous hormones or medical devices. He also described the many challenges facing medical students and healthcare providers whose conscience rights are under attack.
 
Karen Stoehr, a jazz vocalist in New Orleans and mother of seven, shared the touching story of her youngest child's challenging prenatal diagnosis and her courageous defense of her child's life when she was urged by her doctor to have an abortion. 
 
The Joan Dowd Pro-Life Achievement Award was awarded posthumously to Dr. Wojciech "Al" Krotoski, a researcher in tropical medicine, a Nobel Prize nominee, and a leader of statewide, professional and local pro-life organizations who frequently testified before Louisiana Legislative committees. E.J. Shannon, Ph.D., a close friend of "Dr. Al" for many years, accepted the award on behalf of the family.
BREAKING NEWS
Lawsuit Challenges State's
New Pro-Life Laws

Today, the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit challenging ALL of the new pro-life laws passed by in the 2016 Louisiana Regular Session.

"Today's lawsuit by the abortion industry is yet another reminder that they are committed to abortion-on-demand without any common sense protections for the safety of women," said Deanna Wallace, Louisiana Right to Life's legislative director. "Louisiana legislators, both Democrat and Republican, both women and men, overwhelmingly enacted these reasonable policies in order to ensure that abortion clinics adhere to rational health and safety standards."

Don't Stop the Beat!
PULSE Institute 2016 Students

PLI Trains Students
to "Don't Stop the Beat!"

Students from across the state went to Baton Rouge last week for PULSE Leadership Institute 2016, and it was a huge success! Registration was over the limit, and with chaperones from various Louisiana college campuses more than 60 people spent the week together training to be pro-life leaders.
 
The theme for the week was the Olympics, and each small group represented a country. It was a beautiful testament to our "Pro-Life Culture" opening session, discussing how each of us play a different role in the pro-life movement with our countless different gifts and talents. 
 
Kara Hobbs (Greenwell Springs) and Julia Lavergne (Lafayette)

High school students started the week  training with Justice For All on how to have persuasive pro-life dialogue with people, and on Tuesday they put their training into action by having conversations with dozens of people at LSU's campus. LSU was packed that day with a 4H camp and a student orientation, so our students reached out to many people from all over the state. We also visited Delta Abortion Clinic that day and held positive, loving signs near the parking lot exit saying things like "You are loved no matter what."
 
Hailey Guth, a junior at Barbe High School in Lake Charles, said, "The most impactful thing for me was standing silently and praying outside of Delta. It was really powerful and moved me in a way that I don't think anything ever has before."

Anne Marie Fruge (UL-L), Luke Johnson (Washington),  Jayci Tekell (Lafayette), and Andrew Seymour (Luling).
 
There were breakout sessions on Third-Party Reproduction, Bioethics, Special Needs in the Pro-Life Movement, and Adoption on Wednesday, and students chose two of the four sessions to attend. General sessions included The Real Impact of Abortion: A Panel Discussion; Modern-Day Slavery: The Reality of Human Trafficking; Sidewalk Counseling; and Decades of Damage: On Contraception.
 
This year's PLI also included a college track, and some of our registrants were freshmen and sophomores in college. There were late-night sessions, particularly learning about each person's style of leadership, and had team-building activities for the college pro-life groups of UL-Lafayette, LSU, LSU-Eunice, Holy Cross, Tulane, and more. 
 
There were fun activities and field trips as well, like laser tag, movie night, and Coffeehouse, where small groups performed skits that they created. Students also visited Regency Nursing Home, and some played Bingo with residents while others roamed the halls to meet other residents.
 
Aaron Rodriguez from Winn Parish 
On Thursday the group visited the state Capitol and met many legislators, and even Gov. John Bel Edwards dropped in for a visit. Students had the opportunity to state why they are pro-life in front of a committee of their small group leaders and Louisiana Right to Life Co-Youth Programs Directors Alex Seghers and Krista Corbello. Upon returning to the Tracy Center, where PLI was housed, there was a Commissioning Ceremony, and each student told us what their activism promises were, including serving at Pro-Life 5Ks, starting pro-life groups, bringing pro-life education into their church communities, and starting PULSE teams.
 
As students leave PULSE, they are prepared to be the PULSE of the pro-life generation and to NEVER stop the pro-life beat in our nation!

CLICK HERE TO VIEW
MORE PHOTOS FROM PLI!


***
More PULSE Events in 2016!

SEPT 23-25: SHREVEPORT
NOV. 11-13: EUNICE
 
 CLICK HERE TO REGISTER! 
Admitting Privileges Laws
 
SCOTUS Strikes Down Texas Law 
 
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-3 and struck down parts of a Texas law requiring abortion clinics to meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers and requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has previously upheld those provisions, but the Supreme Court overturned that ruling, saying these provisions placed an undue burden on women seeking abortion.
 
The court, in an unsigned ruling, also let stand lower court rulings that blocked laws in Mississippi and Wisconsin requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.
 
So what does all this mean for Louisiana's Act 620, which requires abortionists to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the abortion clinic? It's unclear, but it does not bode well despite the fact the Supreme Court relied heavily on Texas-specific factual findings regarding the number of clinics affected by the admitting privileges law, and the 5th Circuit will be called upon to examine facts specific to Louisiana when it hears the appeal of a lower court ruling that found the law violated a woman's constitutional right to an abortion.
 
"This is a disappointing decision for those of us who have been fighting to protect women and their unborn children from an unscrupulous abortion industry," said attorney Deanna Wallace, legislative director for Louisiana Right to Life. "Instead of putting the lives of women over abortion politics, the court once again showed what Justice Thomas, quoting the departed Justice Scalia, called a 'troubling tendency to bend the rules when any effort to limit abortion, or even to speak in opposition to abortion, is at issue.'
 
"While the ruling by the Supreme Court is discouraging, we must remember this fight is not over. Abortion still takes thousands of lives every day and changes the lives of countless men, women, and children across our nation. We must continue to fight to protect both women and their unborn children from the profit-driven abortion industry."
Upcoming Events
Aug. 25:
NOLA 40 Days for Life Kickoff Dinner
Sept. 23-25:

PULSE Immersion Shreveport
Sept. 28-Nov. 6:

40 Days for Life
Oct. 1-2:

Life Chains Around State
Nov. 2:
Chers Bébés in Acadiana
Nov. 11-13:
PULSE Weekend Immersion Eunice
Jan. 15, 2017:
Sanctity of Human Life Sunday
Jan. 19, 2017:
Proudly Pro-Life Dinner
Jan. 21, 2017: 
La. Life March South
Jan. 28, 2017: 
La. Life March North
Feb. 4, 2017: 
La. Life March Central  
Louisiana Right to Life
ProLifeLouisiana.org     1.866.463.5433    @LARightToLife

Facebook Twitter YouTube