Episode 157 | The Gift Of Life

[Intro with Music]:

Sometimes controversial, always politically incorrect, and pro-life without exception, without compromise, and without apology. It’s the Pro-Life America podcast with your hosts, Sarah Waites and the president of Life Dynamics, Mark Crutcher.

Sarah: Welcome back to the Pro-Life America podcast. I’m your host, Sarah Waites, and I’m joined by my co-host, Mark’s daughter, Sheila Crutcher.

Sheila: Hi.

Sarah: We would like to wish you all a early Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. And we also want to thank you guys for taking the time out during this busy time, before the holidays actually start, to listen to this podcast. We know you have lots of stuff to do. I know I do. 

Sheila: Mm hmm. You’ve been running around like a chicken with your head cut off trying to get everything done.

Sarah: Yeah, it’s been a struggle, but I’ve made do. So thank you for taking this time to listen to the podcast.

Sheila: Or those who are listening to it after Christmas, hope you had a good Christmas.

Sarah: Yes, so if you are listening to this after the holidays, no judgment. We completely understand. And thank you for taking the time to listen to the podcast. We hope you had a wonderful holiday. In the spirit of the holidays, we wanted to do something slightly different for this show. And we wanted to cover only good news. We wanted to filter out all the negative, all the bad, all of the junk that’s going on and just focus on the feel good things. Not all of these are directly abortion related, but they are positive stories about life.

Sheila: Right. Exactly.

Sarah: But before we get to that, Sheila has a sad announcement.

Sheila: Right. Unfortunately, Dean Nelson, with the Frederick Douglass Foundation, has passed away after his struggle with cancer. He passed away just a few days ago, surrounded by family and loved ones. We know how hard it is, and so we want to put our thoughts and prayers to his family and loved ones.

Sarah: Absolutely.

Sheila: He will be missed.

Sarah: Yeah.

Sheila: So we have some good stories to share with you now.

Sarah: Yep. Speaking about life and our struggles, as many women know, it’s hard when you’re looking at OBGYNs, gynecologists, birth professionals – you want somebody who aligns with your personal values, right.

Sheila: Mm hmm. You want somebody who’s pro-life.

Sarah: Absolutely. Because the last thing you want is to get in there and they’re doing testing or something and then they say, ‘we think you should abort your baby,’ right? So we get this question a lot: “How do I find this pro-life doctor? Where’s a resource?”

And I just happened to find this on the internet, there’s a website called “Made For This Birth.” It is a website of resources for women, pro-life, Catholic, Christian- but pro-life women; and there’s a directory on this website that claims to have over nearly 400 birth professionals of Catholic, Christian, and pro-life birth professionals. To the best of their knowledge, all of these physicians, midwives, doulas, lactation consultants, etc, are pro-life and recognize the intrinsic value of your child. All this is to the best of their knowledge. It’s free for people to list. It’s free for people to use this directory. 

Sheila: Right.

 Sarah: But in order to get on the list, there’s three different categories: Catholic, Christian, and just regular pro-life, non religious – and each one has to sign this document when they provide their information that they agree to certain things. I’m just going to go over the non-christian birth professional, because this is just the basic standard, right.

So they have to sign and state that they are “a pro-life birth professional believing that human life begins at conception and that every unborn life must be treated with equal dignity as any other person.” They “will not recommend prescribe refer for assist at or directly procure a chemical or surgical abortion for any reason.” And this is the interesting one, they “do not and will not recommend, refer for, assist, or directly engage in fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization, or any that otherwise directly compromise the life of the unborn child.” 

Sheila: Which is something that a lot of people don’t even think about, even pro-life people.

Sarah: Well, IVF is kind of controversial amongst the pro-life community.

Sheila: A lot of controversy comes from just the basic lack of knowledge. A lot of pro-lifers don’t have a basic understanding of it. So I think that’s really good that they put that in there on the directory website.

Sarah: Yes, absolutely. It’s the “Made For This Birth Directory,” and I will put the link to that in the description if you’re curious. 

Sheila: And speaking of other good news, there’s a commission in Arkansas that has recommended a design for a monument to the unborn at the Arkansas Capitol.

Sarah: So all this is connected to Act 310.

Sheila: Mm hmm. So in March, the legislature approved Act 310, like you said, which authorized the Secretary of State to decide where to place a monument commemorating the unborn children who were aborted during what they called the “era of Roe vs. Wade.” The Capital Arts and Grounds Commission just voted on a proposal, a living wall of flora and fauna, which is going to be constructed on the Arkansas Capital Grounds. And it was proposed by an artist, Lakey Goff, who gave the memorial for 9-11 as an example for this one for the unborn. 

Sarah: Well, I know that you’re particularly excited about a living wall. Sheila is a huge gardener/ plant enthusiast.

Sheila: Yes.

Sarah: But I think that’s a wonderful idea. I think when you’re trying to honor lives, and abortion is very touchy and emotionally charged conversation, and so something like this – that’s kind of healing, but beautiful and celebrates life in a way – I think it’s incredibly appropriate and just such a beautiful idea.

Sheila: Yes, because it caters to more of a variety of tastes.

Sarah: Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Sheila: And it touches on the horrors of abortion, but without being graphic – and it being more healing as well.

Sarah: Yeah, absolutely.

Sheila: So, I think if they vote on it, and you know do it, I think it’s a great idea. It has to be recommended to Secretary of State John Thurston, who then has to have the final say. But they’re hoping to have this monument up. So hopefully that’ll get approved and they can get that done. More states in the future might do this as well.

Sarah: Let’s hope so. That’d be amazing.

Sheila: We’ll see if Texas does it.

Sarah: Wink wink.

(Laughter)

Sarah: Speaking of beauty and the beauty of life, in 2009 a research group found that newborns possess the ability to discern the beat in music. Now, we won’t get into all the technical details of the study and how it was done, but needless to say, there were people in the scientific community who, shocker, took objection to their findings.

Sheila: Right.

Sarah: So, like any good researchers, they went back. In 2015, they did a separate, wider study where they included animals in it to compare things to. And what they found is that, not only did the newborns have the ability to discern the beat in music, but that this “Beat Perception”, as they call it, is a distinct mechanism unique to humans. 

Sheila: Is it also true for people like me who have no musical ability?

(Laughter)

Sarah: Well, I’m sure there’s some fluctuations and variations in musical ability. But the thing that’s interesting about beat perception, it’s the foundation, for not only appreciating music, but being able to make music. Now, I know you didn’t get the whole make music bit but…

(Laughter)

Sheila: …at least I probably was able to appreciate it that young.

Sarah: But that kind of goes along with the fact that we know that music is not just a cultural thing. This is intrinsic to humans that spans across culture, and religions, and skin colors and unifies us.

Sheila: And it starts in the womb, too. You know, they say for pregnant women to be sure to talk to their babies in the womb.

Sarah: And some people like to play music to their babies…

Sheila: …classical music especially.

Sarah: Yeah. We found this and this was just so beautiful that we had to include this. I will put the link in the description if you want to go read more about statistical learning, and beat perception, and all of the in-depth stuff about it.

Sheila: That’s really cool. And another really cool thing is that there was an Israeli couple who traveled to the U.S. for life saving treatment after their unborn baby was diagnosed with heart failure. Doctors told the Grossman family that the baby wouldn’t survive after they had a routine ultrasound done at 23 weeks. It showed that baby Nathaniel had heart failure. So the doctors in Israel told them that he wouldn’t survive even if he made it to birth, he would die a few days later.

So they traveled to New York at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU. The doctors there performed a new surgical technique, they used his healthy right ventricle in his heart to move blood through his whole body since his left one was the one that was damaged. They kept Nathaniel alive until he could receive a heart transplant. He was born on December 6th, 2022, and they said that it was a struggle to keep him alive, but on June 16th, he finally got the heart transplant, and he got to leave the hospital August 25th.

Sarah: And he’s doing amazing.

Sheila: Mm hmm. They haven’t made it home yet, because the doctors want to keep an eye on him for about a year in New York, but after a year, he’ll be able to go home and continue on.

Sarah: That’s amazing.

Sheila: Yeah.

Sarah: You know, to be in that position where the doctors tell you there’s nothing that can be done… 

Sheila: They didn’t give up on him. It wouldn’t be surprising if the doctor said, just have an abortion, you can’t do anything.

Sarah: Yeah. How many women here in the U. S. have been told that very same thing?

Sheila: Right.  But then they say, ‘no, I’m not going to do that.’ And their baby lives. And so it’s, you know, the fight for life and they said, ‘no, we’re not going to give up.’

Sarah: Speaking of which…

Sheila: Yeah, speaking of not giving up… So there was a baby named Evangelina Statler who was born almost four months before her due date.

Sarah: Via emergency C Section.

Sheila: Mm hmm. Yup, she spent the first nine months after being born in the hospital being treated for pulmonary hypertension and other complications. Doctors had given her less than 50 percent chance of survival, but she survived and she went home in time for Christmas.

Sarah: Yep, she’s going home just a week before Christmas. That is so amazing!

Sheila: Yup, so, you know, there are lots of babies that end up in the NICU…

Sarah: …who unfortunately face so many hardships early on.

Sheila: Right.

Sarah: This next story, this is one of the ones that, you know, it just boggles my mind how you can hear these stories and not believe in God.

Sheila: Because this one is truly a miracle.

Sarah: This is truly a miracle – and it starts out with a tornado. And as many of you know, deadly tornadoes swept through Tennessee earlier this month, leaving six dead and even more injured. One of those tornadoes hit the mobile home of Sydney Moore and her boyfriend. When it hit, her four-month-old was sleeping in a bassinet when the mobile home’s roof suddenly was ripped off – and it sucked up the bassinet with her baby inside it. I mean, this is something that you would see in a movie. It’s just terrifying.

The boyfriend, the father of the child, rushed to try to save the child and was also pulled away by the tornado, and pulled them out of sight. The mother instinctively ran and jumped on top of her other son, who was just one years old, just as the walls of the mobile home collapsed.

Sheila: Wow….

Sarah: So she saved her other child. After the tornado passed, Moore and her boyfriend searched in the pouring rain for their infant, thinking he has to be dead.

Sheila: Right. 

Sarah: They found their four-month-old boy alive in a fallen tree with only a cut on his face. That was the only injury to this child. The mom said, “it looked like a little tree cradle. He was just lying there.” I mean, the odds of this happening is just astronomically low. I mean, this is just an insanely beautiful miracle.

 Sheila: Yeah, and how can you not believe in God after a miracle like that?

Sarah: Yeah.

 Sheila: That’s amazing.

Sarah: Yeah.

 Sheila: He’s gonna have a story to tell when he gets older.

Sarah: Somebody should make him a t shirt: “I survived a tornado.”

 Sheila: They might make a movie out of it, like a Hallmark type movie.

Sarah: Oh, they should! They should!

Speaking of Hallmark movies, if there are any other Hallmark movie fans out there. Many of you may recognize the name Kimberly Williams Paisley. She is one of the actresses who has been in a number of those Hallmark movies. She is married to the country star Brad Paisley. Her and her husband have announced that they have opened The Toy Store, which offers free toys for 400 families in the Nashville area this season, giving parents who may not be able to otherwise the chance to give their kids a really special gift for Christmas.

Sheila: Wow.

Sarah: How amazing is that? This is actually not their first store with kind of this concept. In 2020, they launched a year-round, free grocery store called The Store in Nashville, giving out free groceries.

Sheila: Cool!

Sarah: That’s amazing.

Sheila: Mm hmm. I’m not a country music fan, but that’s cool.

Sarah: That is really cool. This is the season about giving and being charitable, right? I mean, it’s something that for Christians we’re called to do year round…

Sheila: Right.

Sarah: …we may struggle with, but I mean this is the time of year where it really reminds us to do so.

Sheila: Mm hmm. Exactly. And this week’s From the Mouth of Mark comes from a Facebook post of his which was posted on December 23rd, 2020. We picked this one because it goes along with this theme of encouragement and continuing on. 

Sarah: Mm hmm.

Sheila: And he wrote, “I want to encourage you in the pro-life mission. I want to uplift your spirits. I want to assure you that your work in our Lord’s pro-life vineyard is more important now than it has ever been. God called us to this fight. Just remember, he promised us victory, but he never said it would be easy. In fact, he said just the opposite. He told us that the world would hate us because it hates him. He warned us that we would face harsh persecution. He made it clear that his enemies would come after us with a vengeance. But he also promised us in John 16:33, that even though we will have trouble in this world, we are to stay strong. Or as he told the apostles, ‘take heart, I have overcome the world.’ And he has.” 

Sarah: I think that is a perfect message, especially, like I said, we wanted to do something positive because there is lots of troubling and disturbing things that are going on.

Sheila: Right.

Sarah: But this is a time of year that’s supposed to remind us to have hope, right?

Sheila: Mm hmm. Exactly.

Sarah: Life and the side of death is going to throw so many things at us, but all is not lost. We have seen in this last year enormous setbacks and major victories.

Sheila: Right.

Sarah: And as we head into the new year, I want everybody to remember this hope, right? Because, and I know this sounds cheesy but I’m gonna say it because it’s so true, the light shines the brightest when it’s completely dark, right?

Sheila: It’s true.

Sarah: And so, we just have to remember to keep having hope – because the devil wants us to give up. He wants us to think that we’re alone, and that what we’re doing is futile, and to just give up.

Sheila: To be discouraged.

Sarah: Absolutely.

Sheila:  So keep on and on that note, Life Dynamics is not here to put up a good fight.

Sarah: We’re here to win.

Sheila: Because winning is how the killing stops.

Sarah: Now before we say goodbye, just want to let you know that this will be the last episode of 2023. There will not be a new episode until the new year. So we will see you in 2024!

Sheila: So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Sarah: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!

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