​On the day of the 2019 March for Life, Melissa Ohden told worshippers at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, DC, how she was nearly killed in her mother’s womb at eight months gestation.  
 
In August 1977, an abortionist injected her mother’s uterus with saline solution. Melissa explained what normally happens is that the baby marinates in this toxic solution for 48 hours (for Melissa, it was five days).  Its skin is burned, becomes bright red and peels off its body. The baby’s lungs are incinerated and the heart eventually stops. 
 
Abortionists have abandoned this procedure; not as a humane or moral decision, but because some babies, as in Melissa’s case, live through it. But there are many methods to the abortionists’ madness. Without anesthesia, babies are dismembered, suctioned out of their mother’s wombs or die by having scissors jammed into their skulls. A baby’s anguish can be seen on screen, but its screams cannot be heard.    
 
Melissa weighed close to 3 pounds. Her weak cries and gasps for breath compelled a compassionate nurse to whisk her to neonatal intensive care where she was treated.  When she was two months old, loving adoptive parents took her home.
 
Eventually, Melissa learned about the circumstances surrounding her birth and how her maternal grandmother had coerced her mother into aborting her.  Melissa is now a wife, mother and pro-life advocate who founded the Abortion Survivors Network.  Her story is chronicled in her book, You Carried Me: A Daughter’s Memoir. 
 
Melissa and all pro-lifers will fight against the slaughter of innocents until these sinful acts against God and nature end. We know with every fiber of our being that abortion is an evil scourge that demeans, denigrates and debases us as a people and a nation. Eventually, we will triumph. We are praying to God, the Blessed Mother and all the angels and saints. 
 
President Trump also sides with the unborn. He promised to veto any bill that “weakens the protection of human life.” He said, “I will always defend the first right in our Declaration of Independence: the right to life.”
 
Senator Steve Daines (R., Mont.), who formed the first ever U.S. Senate Pro-Life Caucus said at the 2019 March for Life, “The science is clear. Life begins at conception…every life must be valued, and every life must be protected.”
 
The keynote speaker at the March, conservative commentator Ben Shapiro said, “We stand between America and the darkness.  And we will march until that darkness is banished forever and all of our children can stand together in the sunlight.”

On December 14, 2012 a mass shooter named Adam Lanza opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Connecticut, leaving 20 children dead. Flash forward to January 23, 2019. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law the Reproductive Health Act. RHA allows abortion up to the very day of birth and does not require a medical doctor to commit this act. If
an abortion is “unsuccessful,” practitioners are allowed to let the child die on the table. If a pregnant woman is murdered, the law considers it a single act of homicide.
​
This New York abortion legislation not only passed, but was celebrated with a needle-like pink spire at (ironically) the Freedom Tower in New York. But not everyone was cheering.

Many throughout the nation reacted with the same shock, horror, revulsion and immense sadness as we did when those innocent children were fatally shot at their school in Connecticut. This was the appropriate response on learning that New York made it easier for children in the womb to be tortured to death and cast aside like trash or have their remains sold to the highest bidder.

Radical leftists are quick to insist that firearms are the cause of innocent lives being taken. But isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black? What is the excuse for Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the New York legislature for their part in the torture and mass murders of, not 20, but millions of the most innocent, defenseless and vulnerable among us, our unborn children?

Abortionists do not use high-powered weapons to kill. These modern-day Dr. Mengeles wear lab coats and use sharp objects, toxic potions, heart-stopping drugs and other hideous and gruesome items and methods to ensure children die.

The abortion industry proves every day that mass murder is in the minds of the killers, not the inanimate objects they employ to commit their evil deeds. The commonality among mass murderers – not only murderers like Adam Lanza, but also Gov. Cuomo, Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortionists - - is that their minds have been overtaken by demonic forces.

The most effective method to dispel the dark principalities that have invaded the minds of the radical leftists in our nation is to speak the truth, fight for what is right, and engage in constant prayer and worship.

I have been pro-life for over ten years now. I grew up in a house that didn’t talk about stuff like that. I would venture to guess that many of you reading this could say the same thing. Maybe it was because my parents didn’t have an opinion. Maybe it was because they had one, but didn’t want to impose it on us kids. Or maybe they just didn’t want to talk about it. Either way, the truth was not a part of my life for a long time.
​
The election of 2008 woke me up. That, coupled with a very dear friend praying for me and my conversion, brought me to awareness of the barbaric nature of abortion. Barack Obama was elected that year, one of the most pro-choice presidents our country has ever seen. I have gone from on fire with my guns blazing to sitting at home praying that abortion would just stop. And yes, I have even done nothing. I have often lost hope. I have fought an apathetic attitude on and off throughout my ten years as an advocate for the unborn. Two days ago, my fire came back. This morning, my heart entered in the fight.

I logged on to Facebook a couple days ago to find that New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, signed a death sentence for any child in the womb whose mother may be undergoing any physical or mental illness that would impair her ability to carry the baby to term, or if the baby has been diagnosed with a fatal illness. At first I was angry. Then I was frustrated. This morning? I was sad. ​

Karen Cross
Secretary, CCRTL

In the Gospel reading this morning, Jesus seeks out four apostles: Peter, Andrew, James, and John.  They are busy about their business, fishing for a living.  Jesus calls them and says, "Come ye after Me, and I will make you to be fishers of men." ~Matthew 4:19

Our 3rd Annual Pro-Life Symposium is tomorrow.  We will have Steve Wagner from Justice for All to speak to us about how to speak to others about the issue of abortion and how to be more convincing in a respectful way without compromising on the importance of the right to life from conception to natural death.  This is important work.  He is literally able to save lives with the gifts God has given Him.  He was called and he answered with a yes.  Local exhibitors and pro-life champions, who will sit on our panel discussion, have also answered the call and will be there. 

If you are receiving and reading this email right now, consider this your calling.  I am personally asking each and every one of you right now to follow us, to follow Jesus in the important, hard, frustrating work to change our culture of death into a culture of LIFE. 

What are your gifts God may be calling you to share in the pro-life movement? Do you have work experience, a talent, or a passion God gave you that He can use to save lives? Is there something you are doing tomorrow that is more important than following Jesus and His call to you to help save unborn children from the slaughter of abortion?

Maryland is on the verge of making sure that abortion is accessible to all of her residents forever by putting it into our state constitution.  We must act now.  We cannot afford to sit on the sidelines any longer.  This is our Roe v. Wade moment.  Don't let it pass you by. 

Come see what Jesus has in store for you.  Accept the grace He is offering you at this very moment to say yes and to join us at St. Joseph Catholic Church tomorrow for our third annual pro-life symposium.  It is completely free.  Lunch and breakfast included.  Childcare provided.  Teens WELCOME as we have a representative from Students for Life who will be attending and is ready to join hands with them in this fight. 

You can register here.  https://www.somdpro-life.com/3rd-annual-symposium

And please, spread the word.  Invite others to follow Jesus and be fishers of men. 

Karen Cross
Secretary, Charles County Right to Life
Holy Family Respect Life Committee Member

 Our questions, mirroring those asked by Maryland Right to Life, are here (click each photo to read the questions in their entirety):

Maryland Right to Life PAC Endorsements here.
Maryland Catholic Conference: Congressional Responses, Maryland General Assembly Responses

See how the other half endorses: NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland

Election day is approaching, this coming Tuesday, November 6.  Perhaps the most heated and intense mid-term elections in modern history (or ever?) and the stakes for Maryland have never been higher.  We surveyed our local and state-level candidates again, as we did for the primary election, and have compiled their results here on our blog and social media accounts.  Check our Facebook page often this weekend for relevant voter education.

Our second round of surveys yielded few results.  The two Libertarian candidates for Senate and Congress let us know how they feel about protecting the unborn and the elderly, infirm, and disabled.  A newcomer to the County Commissioner Race let his opinion on the Right to Life be known, and a MD State Senate and MD State Delegate candidate each weighed in on their intent for pro-life laws.  See our table below:

For a copy of the questions asked of the candidates, mirroring those drafted by Maryland Right to Life, you may click here:
​

We collect email addresses everywhere we go.  Programs, emails forwarded to us, and most years from the Charles County Fair.  This past October 13, we gathered to pray at the Planned Parenthood in Waldorf as we always do.  A woman decided to join us who has been on our email list for 3 years but has never even opened one sent to her!  However, because of a recent personal tragedy, she decided that she would like to be more active in standing for her beliefs.  God was surely bringing light to a dark situation.  Her prayers for the unborn and the closure of that facility will be powerful.

Additionally, we had a pastor and his wife join us for the first time.  After being moved by Abby Johnson's speech at the Catherine Foundation Gala and speaking to another CCRTLer at the gala, he decided to check us out!  Never stop sharing opportunities, because this fight is not just for the unborn, elderly, and infirm, it's for the betterment of our own souls as well.

Join us next month, November 10 at the Waldorf Planned Parenthood for more prayers and peaceful protest.

by Bernadette Smith
October 17, 2018

Abby Johnson, the guest speaker at The Catherine Foundation’s 35th Anniversary Gala on Oct. 6 at the Waldorf Jaycees, gave a heartfelt talk about an issue that she knows from both sides — abortion.  Johnson interspersed her talk with self-deprecating humor and had attendees both crying and laughing. Johnson is a riveting speaker, and she knows from whence she speaks.

Johnson relates her experiences with the abortion industry in her best-selling memoir “Unplanned” and its follow up, “The Walls are Talking.” Johnson was in her junior year at Texas A&M, when a persuasive Planned Parenthood representative at a career fair appealed to Johnson’s desire to combine her leadership skills with her compassion.

Johnson signed on and rose to a Planned Parenthood clinic director. At a lavish banquet in 2009, Planned Parenthood honored Johnson with Employee of the Year Award. Johnson was proud to sit next to Hillary Clinton who received the Margaret Sanger Award.

Sanger was a eugenics founder and devotee who sought the “ … extermination of the Negro Race.” She pushed birth control, as reported in LifeNews “ … as the best way to get minorities and the handicapped, whom she detested, to voluntarily stop breeding.” Besides Clinton, another admirer of Sanger was Adolf Hitler who put into practice Sanger’s ideas of ridding the world of those deemed undesirable.

The longer Johnson worked for Planned Parenthood, the more she harbored doubts about the organization. Then one day, she participated in an ultrasound guided abortion. Johnson said that as the probe drew near the baby, he backed away and flailed his tiny arms and legs. He twisted and turned, “but there was nowhere for him to go.” The abortionist then said, “Beam me up, Scottie,” and the baby was sucked out of his mother’s womb piece by piece.

Johnson could no longer deny that abortion is the murder of innocents. She came to terms with the fact that Planned Parenthood’s messaging is based on lies.

One of the biggest falsehoods is that Planned Parenthood exists to help women. In truth, Planned Parenthood’s overarching goal is to make money. The more babies they murder, the more money is added to their coffers. Planned Parenthood encourages abortions and gives rewards for meeting quotas. Another lie is that legal abortions are safe. Aside from the moral depravity of killing a baby, the procedure is risky and dangerous to the mother no matter where it’s done or by whom. While abortion advocates tout the private relationship between a woman and her doctor, Johnson said there is no interaction between a woman and an abortionist. The lack of conversation is deliberate, because if women were informed, they would change their minds about aborting their children.

Johnson broke ranks with Planned Parenthood and joined her former opponents, the pro-life believers who warmly welcomed her. Thinking about how she had led women to discard their unborn babies “like trash,” Johnson said, “I fell to my knees and wept.”

Dear Friend of Life,

On May 30, 2018, Charles County Right to Life sent surveys to all registered state and local candidates in the relevant representative districts (Charles County School Board, Charles County Courts, Districts 27a and 28, and Congressional District 5, as well as statewide offices such as US Senate, Governor/Lt. Governor, Comptroller) in an effort to collect and publish information on where the candidates stand on Life Issues.  All candidates were given 2 weeks to respond and a follow-up reminder.  We received 22 responses in total.

Some candidates question why they should answer our survey questions, which are legislative in nature, when they are running for a non-legislative position such as school board.  We respond that School Board is often a spring board to future political aspirations and the voters have a right to know their stance on issues that are relevant to pro-life voters.  Personally, we feel School Board Members should desire to protect the vulnerable at all stages of development.

The candidates were asked to state whether they would support or oppose the following:

1. Support a Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act
2. Support a Dismemberment Abortion Act
3. Support an Abortions Sought by Minors - Parent or Guardian Consent Act
4. Oppose a Physician-Assisted Suicide Bill
5. Support a law requiring the reporting of abortion statistics statewide

​The candidates' results can be found here:

It cannot be overstated that Charles County Right to Life cannot and does not endorse candidates.  We can, however, urge you to vote pro-life.  Every candidate was given the opportunity to respond and at least one follow-up reminder.  If you do not see a candidate listed, consider their name to be annotated with DID NOT REPLY.  As we know from experience, a person choosing not to respond signifies a disagreement with the policy positions of that particular organization.  

Whatever your current affiliations, you have a pro-life choice to make.

For more information on pro-life endorsements and for candidates not included in our own survy, please see the Maryland Right to Life endorsement results here: https://www.mdrtl.org/electioninformation.html

Additionally, the Maryland Catholic Conference, which is an organization that lobbies for the prerogatives of the Catholic Church in Maryland, surveyed all candidates on five of their own issues.  There were two pro-life questions pertaining to public funding for abortion and physician-assisted suicide.  If you would like to see how the candidates answered those questions, you may find those results here: http://www.mdcathcon.org/generalassembly-responses.  Several District 28 candidates completed this survey.

While this email is for our own CCRTL subscribers, there are thousands of pro-life voters in the state of Maryland who might be sitting this primary season out because they feel they have no good choice.  Please go to our Facebook page and SHARE our results with those voters.  Knowledge is only power if we use it.


May God bless our efforts and soon deliver to us life-affirming governance,


CCRTL Leadership Team