In This Issue...
From Our Director...
BC
With just days until early voting begins in the Senate election,  the clock is ticking! Please join us for our tele-town hall Monday evening to learn what we can do together in the last few weeks!

I am very excited about the Chers B�b�s: Acadiana's Soiree for Life this coming Tuesday.  The entire Lafayette team has done a tremendous job of preparing this event and educating students.  While not in "Acadiana," here is our Sarah Mary Toce with students at Vandebilt Catholic in Houma earlier this week. Join us at Chers B�b�s to help further our youth education!


Also, please read below about the court proceedings for HB 388 / Act 620.  We await an important decision from federal court that should come any day now!

For a Pro-Life Louisiana,  
Benjamin Clapper

P.S. We post photos and tidbits from all our travels and presentations throughout the state on our Facebook page.  Please connect with us there!
Register for Chers Bebes
Join us at Chers B�b�s!  
Help Us Form
Acadiana's Pro-Life Future! 

Just a few more days remain until our first Chers B�b�s: Acadiana's Soiree for Life! The event will be held Tuesday, Oct. 21 at the City Club in River Ranch and benefits the Drs. Zerben Bienvenu and William Smith Education Fund. This fund helps Louisiana Right to Life offer educational presentations and training programs to all schools, churches and other organizations in Acadiana at no charge.

 

This fun-filled evening will feature:

* Music by the band Forest Huval and Friends 

* Comedy of  Sen. Jonathan Perry: The Cajun Comedian 

* Baby Shower Games 

* Moon Griffon of 96.5 as Guest Master of Ceremony

 

Life Chain Sunday

Members of White Dove Fellowship in Slidell took part in the Life Chain.
Life Chains Formed
Across Louisiana!

 
Fourteen Life Chain events were held in cities throughout Louisiana Oct. 4 and 5, as groups crossed denominational lines and came together to pray for our nation and an end to abortion.

One such gathering in Slidell drew more than 50 churches and 500 participants, organizer Michelle Gorney said. This was Slidell's 23rd year to participate, she added.
40 Days for Life Louisiana
Fr. Clark of St. Ann Parish in Metairie is joined outside the Causeway abortion facility with a parishioner and two Brother Martin students.
Prayers Being Answered at 40 Days for Life Vigils!   

40 Days for Life vigils continue at abortion facilities in Metairie, Baton Rouge and Shreveport, and at least 18 women have chosen life for their babies during this life-saving ministry.

Baton Rouge Campaign Director Charlotte Bergeron reported 11 saves to date in front of Delta Clinic, and Shreveport/Bossier City Campaign Director Chris Davis reported six saves in front of Hope Medical Group for Women.

"We had six saves, many hopeful turnaways and several good discussions with abortion workers," Davis said.

40 Days for Life New Orleans
Director Mary Nadeau Reed said that group's vigils in front of Metairie's Causeway Medical Clinic  continue with strong support. One save has been documented, and several others have been reported but not confirmed.

Please continue to pray to end abortion in our local communities, our state, our nation and our world as 40 Days for Life campaigns continue.

The following events associated with 40 Days for Life remain:

Baton Rouge
* Songs and Prayers for Life,
led by Kelsey Mayes, an LSU student and member of Parkview Baptist Church, and Benjamin Shoemaker, a student at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, on Friday, Oct, 24, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. at the vigil site, located across the street from the Delta abortion facility at 756 Colonial Drive.

* Divine Mercy will be sung at 3 p.m. at the vigil site as follows:
   - Friday, Oct. 17, led by Ken Tevenet, director of Liturgy and Music, St. Aloysius
   - Sunday, Oct. 19, led by Fr. Brent Mayer and Catholic Daughters, St. Ann's of Morganza
   - Monday, Oct. 20, led by Fr. Matthew McCaughey, St. Thomas More

Shreveport

* Closing Candlelight Vigil, Sunday, Nov. 2, 5 p.m, on the sidewalk at the corner of Kings and Centenary.

 

New Orleans

* Closing Vigil, Monday, Nov. 3, 6 p.m., at the proposed Planned Parenthood site (4636 S. Claiborne Ave.)  

  

For updates on the 40 Days for Life campaigns, visit the groups' Facebook pages by clicking on the city:

Baton Rouge

New Orleans 

Shreveport/Bossier City

Listen to Our New Radio Spot!
Radio Image

Check out our new radio spot that is running across Louisiana reminding people to be the voice of the unborn baby through their vote.  

Tele-Town Hall Logo
Join Fr. Frank Pavone and others to discuss the critical Senate election!
   
Monday at 7:30 PM
 
Creating More 'Life First' Voters
LA Right to Life's Voter Education Effort Aimed
at Helping Louisianians Cast an Informed Vote

 

By Sarah Zagorski, Now With Colorado Citizens for Life

 

Louisiana voters will go to the polls in a few weeks to choose a U.S. Senator. In anticipation of this critical election, Louisiana Right to Life implemented non-partisan voter education across the state. It is our duty as the state's premier pro-life organization to ensure that all citizens understand how candidates for office stand on the life issues and that they cast an informed vote.

  

After Supreme Court justices and the president, our U.S. senators make the most fundamental decisions with regard to the pro-life issues. They decide who will sit on the Supreme Court, whether abortion organizations like Planned Parenthood will receive tax funding, if health care should subsidize abortion, and much more.

 

If we are to make progress in legally protecting unborn children in our nation, the U.S. Senate MUST BE PRO-LIFE.

 

During this mid-term election, there are 36 Senate seats up for re-election.  We are only a net gain shy of six seats to achieve pro-life leadership. Until those six seats are gained, there is little to no hope for any pro-life progress in the U.S. Senate. 

 

We must defend those pro-life seats, and we must continue working tirelessly to educate people on abortion and the ramifications legalized killing has upon our society. This will help lead to the election of pro-life candidates and ultimately, a pro-life U.S. Senate. 

 

When trying to educate people on abortion we try to deliver the message that YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE in your community, our state and even our nation! 

 

Karen Cross, political director for National Right to Life, recently wrote:  

 

"You are pro-life because you recognize that it's not about us, or our individual states, or our preferred candidate. It is about coming closer each day to a pro-life Court that will protect the lives of vulnerable human beings - unborn children, the medically dependent and people with disabilities." 

 

It is essential that we prioritize protecting our nation's most precious resource, our children, and those who are most vulnerable. The more than 3,000 babies who die by abortion each day are far too important for us not to consider how we vote. 

 

Ambassador Grover Rees III, a Louisiana native, former U.S. Ambassador to East Timor, and good friend of Louisiana Right to Life, wrote an article published in 1979 by National Review, titled "The True Confessions of One Issue Voter," which said:  

 

"Still, as long as the six million abortions can be kept at arms length - even the ones that take place in the Women's Clinic, the attractive yellow brick building you pass on your way to work every day - they will only bother you as abstractions, no more real than famine in Africa or a few random late-night murders downtown."

 

When Ambassador Reese wrote that article, it was six million lives. Today, more than 55 million lives are lost to abortion.

 

If our vote is not profoundly impacted by abortion, we fall into the trap of seeing the fate of the unborn child as an abstract concept that can be rationalized away.

 

While it may be more comfortable to keep abortion at arms length, there is absolutely nothing abstract about babies being torn apart and then thrown in the trash. There is nothing abstract about women being lied to by the abortion industry or the genocide of more than 55 million children. We should never stop defending their lives in our

community, in our families, and with our vote.

 

Let's make sure everyone understands abortion as a reality rather than an abstraction. By doing this, we can create more "Life First" voters in Louisiana and create a U.S. Senate that values life from conception to natural death.

 

Request Voter Education Cards and Distribute Them! 

Vote Early
   Early Voting Period Next Week;
Mail Ballot Requests Due Oct. 31

EARLY VOTING 
Louisiana residents who want to participate in the Nov. 4 election but want to vote early can do so Oct. 21-28 (except Sunday). Voting will be conducted at various locations around the state from 8:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. Click to check this list to see where you can vote early.

ABSENTEE BALLOTS AND VOTE BY MAIL 

You may request an absentee ballot and vote by mail if you meet the criteria

FOUND HERE. To request a ballot,CLICK HEREto navigate to the Voter Portal on the Louisiana Secretary of State's website and follow these steps:

  1. Click the 'By Voter' button.
  2. Type in your First Name, Last Name, and Zip Code or Birth Month and Year and then click the 'Submit' button;
  3. Click the "Voting Information" tab;
  4. Click the 'Online Absentee Request' link found in the first sentence of Frequently Asked Questions; and
  5. Complete requested information and submit.

Note: You must be logged in to the Voter Portal as the voter for whom the request is intended to electronically submit a request for an absentee ballot. You may also print an application to vote by mail, which you complete and mail to your parish registrar of voters 

The deadline to request an absentee ballot is Oct. 31. 

Unsafe Abortion Protection Act Update


Trial Date Set for March 30, But Critical Decision Coming Soon

 

By Sandy Cunningham, Communications Director

 

Gavel March 30, 2015, is the new date of interest in the continuing saga that is the court proceedings on the Unsafe Abortion Protection Act (HB 388/Act 620).

 

Will abortionists denied admitting privileges to a local hospital be able to perform abortions in the meantime? That is the question before U.S. District Court Judge John deGravelles.

 

Act 620, which easily passed in the Louisiana Legislature and was signed into law by Gov. Bobby Jindal on June 12, requires physicians who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their facility. The law, slated to go into effect Sept. 1, was challenged by the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of three of the state's five abortion facilities and two abortion physicians. Judge deGravelles put a temporary restraining order in place on Aug. 31, barring the state health department from penalizing doctors who have applied for admitting privileges but have not received a decision on their applications. 

 

Since Sept. 1, the state's two other abortion facilities in New Orleans and Baton Rouge and their two physicians joined the lawsuit, meaning no abortion facility in the state closed as result of the law. Public court documents indicate that one of these physicians was granted admitting privileges at Touro Hospital in New Orleans. 

 

Judge deGravelles held a telephone status conference on Sept. 30 between attorneys for the plaintiffs (Center for Reproductive Rights) and defendants (the Louisiana Board of Medical Examiners and the Department of Health and Hospitals). At that time he set a trial date of March 30, 2015, for the full lawsuit. And while he determined the temporary restraining order would remain in effect, the scope of the TRO was in dispute, as follows: 

  • Attorneys for the defendants asked Judge deGravelles to maintain the TRO in its current form, ensuring that if an abortion physician is denied admitting privileges, he or she cannot continue performing abortions.
  • Attorneys for the abortion industry plaintiffs, as was to be expected, asked that the TRO allow physicians to continue performing abortions even if their requests for admitting privileges have been denied.

We expect Judge deGravelles to decide the fate of abortion physicians if they are denied privileges soon, months before the trial is slated to begin.

 

Remember, this law was put in place to protect the health and safety of Louisiana women. Since this law was passed, the sad story of Joan Rivers again reminds us that admitting privileges are critical and should be in place for all types of outpatient surgery, including abortion. (Click here to read about Joan Rivers' death.)

 

We hope, even while we await the March 30 court date, that Judge deGravelles sides with the state's attorneys, allowing the Unsafe Abortion Protection Act to do the job it was designed to do and protect Louisiana women.

 
Louisiana Right to Life | Lighting the Way to a Pro-Life Louisiana Since 1970
www.ProLifeLouisiana.org | 1.866.463.5433 | info@prolifelouisiana.org

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