Hans Calmeyer, in saving some 3000 from the death camps, saving countless future babies, also proved in his own family (in the case of his second son born out of wedlock) that he would not support abortion under any circumstance. Life meant something more to Calmeyer than did the convenience or the desire to be rid of certain kinds of people. He also did not wish death on his Nazi countrymen, but he was acutely aware of the need to resist Nazi law and totalitarianism, whether practiced by left, right, or centrist governments. Whatever his beliefs, which were clearly uncomfortable with the organized church in Germany at the time, which he felt (historically confirmed) part of the selling out crowd that enabled the Nazis, Calmeyer felt something Godly and immutable in every life.

It is typical of an elitist view of the sanctity of life that abortion rights are viewed as more important than the life and soul of the unborn. This is largely a matter of convenience, as in Barack Obama’s phrase that he would not want his daughters “punished with a baby” or the formulation that a baby “should not be be brought into a world where it is not wanted.”

In a world of Darwinian and Ardreyan survival of the fittest, overpopulation is the main argument for abortion on demand (though this also opens the door to State-influenced demands for selective abortion to keep specific populations down). Despite strong demand by hopeful adoptive parents for all races, it is said there is not enough room for the unwanted and those born into poverty, and certainly these are arguments for the future pursuits of happiness of the baby. But it is a specious argument, in the sense that no one can be certain that a baby will not become a future Stephen Hawking despite real handicaps. And overpopulation is not necessarily an unsupportable evil, even if Malthusians and Global Warming enthusiasts pronounce it so.

Malthusians have long objected to unlimited population growth. Abortion-advocates have long argued against any value of life in the womb. Saving the life of the mother is an oft-used pretext, but this is seldom the issue, convenience for the mother and concepts of authority over her own body are the true motivations. But even abortionists sometimes give in to agreeing with the horror of late-term abortions of intact babies that clearly feel pain and have all other faculties well-advanced into a complete human being. The admitted vagueness of when a baby matures from conception into a legitimate (and we emphasize “legitimate” in the sense of law-supported  definitions) life is the crux of much soul-searching.

We think the following story below is horrible, it is all about aborting “unwanted” children, having nothing to do with the health but with the convenience for and poverty of the mothers (that thus avoid punishment). Rather than spending an average $300 on partially funding abortions, an orphanage and adoption referral would of course be more expensive, but 19,000 lives lost in this way? To us, this seems more like extermination of low-income lives.

On the other hand, the recent story below of money spent on education and showing women literally the true picture of the lives they are considering to abort, is a better way than merely “sending a check” out of compassion for the economic environment a newly born child may face, when alternatives such as adoption or “love of the baby” is so much more compassionate. These women do not mainly feel punished, though they may repent, they realize a more important priority: LIFE.

Crusader with a checkbook: Anne Nicol Gaylor helps women fund abortions

By DOUG ERICKSON | derickson@madison.com | 608-252-6149 | Posted: Sunday, August 22, 2010 7:25 am  | (182) Comments

    Anne Nicol Gaylor, 83, pictured at her  Madison home, administers a fund from her dining room to help low-income women pay for abortions.CRAIG SCHREINER – State Journal

At all hours, strangers phone Anne Nicol Gaylor's Madison home, always desperate. The caller one recent morning was a middle-aged woman with a 14-year-old pregnant daughter. "What clinic will she be using?" asked Gaylor, 83, jotting down the response and the cost of a second-trimester abortion ($875). "If we helped with $300, do you think you could find the rest?" Gaylor asked.

After the call, Gaylor opened a checkbook for the Women's Medical Fund, a Madison nonprofit that has helped pay for abortions for 34 years. Gaylor has written every check for every abortion. This was No. 18,986.

Controversial figure

Gaylor is well-known for leading the Freedom From Religion Foundation in Madison for decades. Less known is her work with the Women's Medical Fund, which she co-founded in 1976, the same year she helped start the foundation.

The fund's sole purpose is to pay for abortions. Last year, it paid out $162,202, about 75 percent of which came from individual donors, the rest from foundations.

There is no office and no paid staff. Gaylor, whose title is administrator, takes all of the calls — some 800 a year — at her dining room table on her home phone, the same one her four children and two granddaughters reach her on. There is no answering machine.

"It would burden anyone else to deal with all those calls," said her husband, Paul Gaylor, 84, a former vice president for a building maintenance company. "But she listens to every woman and cares for every single one of them."

The phone number isn't widely circulated. Women get referred from clinics, doctors and nurses.

"When you give money away, people find you," said Anne Nicol Gaylor, a petite woman with grayish-white hair and a soft voice.

'All about the child'

The Supreme Court legalized abortion three years before the fund began, but many women simply couldn't afford the procedure, said Bob West, 82, of Madison, a professor emeritus of chemistry and co-founder of the fund with his wife, Margaret West, now deceased, and Gaylor. The three had become friends through the Madison chapter of the group Zero Population Growth.

"For me, it was all about the child," he said. "In the kind of world I want to live in, all children would be wanted."

Gaylor said her motivation came from a doctor who told her about a girl who was raped by her father and had to drop out of high school to raise the child. "Those kind of stories are so numerous and so tragic," Gaylor said.

She sends out fundraising letters at least once a year, often tying the appeal to a significant event, such as Mother's Day.

"Of the 632 women the fund has helped so far this year, 147 were teenagers," Gaylor wrote to donors last Thanksgiving. "Of these, nine were only 13 years old, and one, not yet a teen, was just 12!"

Gaylor used the occasion of her 80th birthday to hold a fundraising party for the fund at the Madison home of Dr. Dennis Christensen, an abortion provider who has since retired. Gaylor sent invitations far afield, including one to a well-to-do woman in California she'd never met but who had donated to the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

The woman sent her regrets and a $20,000 check.

The other side

Anti-abortion activists have long been aware of the fund.

"It's a stark example of misguided compassion that serves as discrimination of the worst kind," said Peggy Hamill, state director of Pro-Life Wisconsin. "To finance extermination of pre-born children because those children would have been brought up poor is deplorable."

Gaylor said no one is chasing down low-income pregnant woman. They're simply the ones who come to her. "If that's discrimination, so be it," she said. She thinks critics would view the fund differently if they heard the calls.

"We get calls, too," counters Sue Armacost, legislative director for Wisconsin Right to Life. "We understand how heartbreaking some situations are, but the answer is not urging and assisting a woman to destroy her child."

Others call Gaylor a hero.

"She's been on the front lines of two of the most contentious issues in our society, what I call the two A's ”abortion and atheism," said Nora Cusack of Madison, a retired business owner and board treasurer of the Women's Medical Fund. "It's astonishing how fearless she is."

A way with language

Gaylor may look like Betty White, but her words still carry the socko punch that once led an audience member at the taping of a Philadelphia talk show to rush her from behind and put her in a chokehold.

On large families: "How presumptuous of someone to think the world is interested in a half-dozen or eight or 10 of their kids."

On anti-abortion activists: "They're religiously motivated, not intellectually motivated."

On abortion: "A blessing."

Gaylor said she has never had an abortion but once witnessed the procedure when a woman asked her to be in the room for support. It did not change her views, she said.

On the phone with strangers, Gaylor is gentle but pointed in her questioning.

"The guy who got you pregnant, is he helping you pay?" she asked a 19-year-old woman from Sheboygan with two children and a third on the way.

"What will you do next time so this doesn't happen again?" she asked a 25-year-old woman from Madison.

Looking ahead

The last three years have been tough on Gaylor's health. A blood clot took the vision in her left eye, and she has an inflammatory disorder that causes muscle soreness and stiffness.

She retired from the presidency of the Freedom From Religion Foundation in 2004. It is now run by her daughter and son-in-law, Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker.

The board of directors of the Women's Medical Fund has not discussed a succession plan, said West, who has been board president since its start. "It's something I probably need to talk to her about," he said, adding that he would defer to her wishes.

Gaylor does not mention slowing down. "My regret is that we don't have $1 million a year to give away so that we could help more women," she said.

 Posted in Health_med_fit  on Sunday, August 22, 2010 7:25 amUpdated: 11:52 am.Anne Nicol Gaylor,Women's Medical Fund,Abortions,Teen Pregnancy,Rape,Pro-life Wisconsin,Wisconsin Right To Life

Focus  on the Family Donates 500th Ultrasound, Saving 81K Babies From Abortion
 

by  Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 26,  2010
 

Colorado  Springs, CO (LifeNews.com) -- Focus on the Family recently donated  to a local pregnancy center the 500th ultrasound machine designed  to help women contemplating abortion see an image of their unborn  baby. The program is credited with saving as many as 81,000 children  from abortions across the United States.

The  Option Ultrasound Program awards ultrasounds to qualifying pregnancy  medical clinics.

The  grants cover 80 percent of the cost for ultrasound machines or sonogram  training, helping the medical clinics to confirm a healthy pregnancy  for their clients.

The  ultrasound machines do much more than provide a needed medical service,  however -- they often introduce a woman to her preborn baby for the  first time, giving her the chance to see a real-time image of the  child inside her womb.

We  regularly hear from women who, years later, still regret and grieve  their abortions. The desire to better serve these women, and the babies  they carry, motivated Focus on the Family to start Option Ultrasound, says Kelly Rosati, vice president of community outreach.

Rosati  added, Our purpose is to empower women with the information  they need to make informed decisions. We're here to come alongside  of them in their moment of need, offer them love and help them  find hope.â€�

What  makes the pregnancy medical clinics in the Option Ultrasound Program  Focus partners with unique is that they provide the women they serve  with both counseling and ultrasounds.

Focus  on the Family's research shows that the combined provision of counseling  and ultrasound services result in nearly 60 percent more stated decisions  for life than counseling alone.
 

Focus on the Family launched its Option Ultrasound Program in 2004  with the goal of giving abortion-minded women greater access to ultrasound  services -- technology Rosati says not only helps women make informed  decisions, but also supports their health.

Ultrasounds  give women an opportunity to bond with her baby early on,â€� says  Rosati. This experience encourages her to seek early prenatal  care that protects both her health and that of her preborn child.

Life  is a precious gift. At Focus on the Family, we're honored to help  preserve it," she concluded.

Rosati added, Our purpose is to empower women with the information  they need to make informed decisions. We're here to come alongside of  them in their moment of need, offer them love“ and help them find  hope.