TWIN CITIES — As 2007 kicks off, people everywhere are making resolutions. Some merely want to lose five or 20 holiday pounds, but for many Christians, resolutions are being made to better the world around them. And Minnesota pro-life groups are offering plenty of opportunities to get involved this year so people can do just that.

“Our main thing is we want to keep on branching out,” said Scott Fischbach, executive director of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life. “The election returns in November did not do as well as we hoped. We still have to change a lot of hearts and minds.”

One of the more notable ways of initiating this change in times past, the annual March for Life at the Capitol, takes place at noon on Jan. 22. After attracting a crowd of more than 6,000 at last year’s gathering, MCCL hopes in 2007 to see matched or increased attendance and enthusiasm to lobby for change in legislation. Since legislators went into session Jan. 3, attendees will also have the opportunity to set up meetings with politicians to discuss pro-life legislation.

“All eyes are on the number of people who turn out to the march,” Fischbach said of the 34th annual event. “It’s the critical kick-off to the rest of the events for the year—all pro-lifers need to be there. I know it’s cold, [but] we’re hopeful that we’ll have a very energetic crowd.”

Aside from rallying pro-lifers at the March for Life, MCCL has other outreach opportunities planned for the rest of the year—many of which include ways to educate Minnesotans about this important issue. One is a 30-second TV ad campaign which not only emphasizes the importance of saving lives, but also offers a toll-free number pregnant women can call for help. The ad can now be viewed at www.MCCL.org.


PLAM
Meanwhile, Pro-Life Action Ministries International has a full post-holiday plate as well. This organization, celebrating its silver anniversary in 2007, plans to continue their sidewalk counseling campaign, along with actively seeking to shut down a major abortuary in the Twin Cities area.

Brian Gibson, executive director of PLAM for nearly two decades, said the organization’s counselors have found much success over the years simply by speaking the truth to pregnant women outside of abortion clinics.

“We offer the love of Christ to women planning on having their children killed,” Gibson said. “So far, we have documented almost 2,100 [babies saved] in the history of the organization. It’s amazing. It’s God’s grace.”

It also requires tenacity, a trait that will be put to good use as PLAM attempts to shut down an abortion clinic in a very prominent place: Regions Hospital.

“It is extremely unusual for a hospital [to have a full-time abortuary],” Gibson said. “They have a separate area—a late term abortion clinic, which will perform abortions at 6 months.”

Since Regions Hospital is owned by Health Partners, one method of closing the clinic is going directly to members of the Health Partners Board of Directors.

“We’re encouraging people to call and write and e-mail [and] strongly encourage them to close the abortion clinic,” Gibson said. “[And on] Jan. 22, immediately following the March for Life at the capitol, we’ll have a prayer vigil in front of Regions Hospital.”

Through these efforts, PLAM hopes to help spread pro-life views in a world that seems hesitant to hear them.

“We are the only world religion that fundamentally recognizes the dignity of human life in all its stages, and for that reason alone we must be clear and vocal about what human life is,” Gibson said.


United for Life
However, in order to spread this knowledge of human life, Christians need to be prepared. This is where workshops such as those featured in the upcoming United for Life Conference come in handy.

The conference, held Jan. 19-20 at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Mounds View, will feature moving, notable speakers and several opportunities to learn more ways to advocate human life.

The United for Life Conference was developed by the Sanctity of Life Task Force, founded in 1987 and chaired by Hale Meserow of BBC. While the organization has focused mainly on preventing abortions in the past, it is now in the process of expanding.

“Abstinence, adoption, stem-cell research, end of life issues—the United for Life Conference will cover all of these things,” Meserow said.

The two-day conference costs only $39 for anyone registering within a week of this publication, Meserow said, and it includes presentations by noted author and speaker, BBC’s Pastor John Piper, and John Diggs, M.D., a leading authority on family, marriage and life issues. In addition, attendees are treated to dinner and music on Friday evening, and several workshops the following day which will cover the broad range of information that pro-life advocates need to know.

“If we can learn something to change our culture, then Hallelujah,” Meserow said.

And it couldn’t come at a better time.

“We are disintegrating, and not only morally. [There have been] 46 million [abortions] since Roe v. Wade,” Meserow said. “Probably 50 million people would have been in the work force, [so there is a] huge economic component as well. These are the kinds of things will come out at the conference.”

For more information, visit www.unitedforlifeconference.org.


Silent No More
Another local group which knows all too well the consequences of abortion is taking action as well. Silent No More Minnesota, an organization founded locally by Ann Marie Cosgrove, offers support for women who have had abortions—and are suffering from the consequences.

“What we really do is go out and speak out about abortion,” Cosgrove said. And for women dropping by her office for help, she said, “We’re the first step.”

For these women, Cosgrove and others at Silent No More offer resources and organizations for women to turn to for help, catering to these women’s many different schedules and needs. Another major part of this organization consists of telling pregnant women in trouble—and their legislators—about their own mistakes, wearing signs reading, “I regret my abortion” or “I regret lost fatherhood.”

Along with marching at the Capitol, Cosgrove and others have tackled college campuses such as the University of Minnesota, bearing truths that many students were astonished to hear.

“A lot of people said, ‘I didn’t know,’ or asked, ‘When are you coming back?’” Cosgrove said.

This age group in particular was one she felt was important to reach.

“When you’re 18, 19 or 20, to make a life-changing decision at that age, you really don’t know how that decision will affect you,” Cosgrove said. “[When you’re older], you’re looking at your family, and you’re like, ‘There’s one missing.’ That’s our goal, just to bring that awareness.”

Cosgrove also wrote the script for the documentary, “In the Wake of Choice,” developed by Silent No More and Hidden Padre Productions. In it, couples who made the choice to have abortions express their pain and remorse over making that decision, through individual interviews and footage from Silent No More events.

It also reveals some startling facts about abortion. More than 40 percent of women have had an abortion by the time they have turned 45, for example. Another, as one repentant father noted, is that abortion is the biggest killer of African Americans today.

The film makes its debut at a fundraiser for the organization on Jan. 27. Tickets are $20 and can be ordered by calling (763) 536-8800. Silent No More will hold several additional events throughout 2007, including their fifth annual gathering at the State Capitol on Jan. 20 at noon, and a “Speakers for Life” series in May. For more information on these events and on the organization, visit www.silentnomoremn.org.

With these many organizations and outstanding individuals advocating the right to life, it remains clear that Minnesotans have many opportunities to get involved.