As part of a new ProWomanProLife series, Tuesday we posted part 1 of our interview with Rebecca Richmond, who is the Executive Director of the National Campus Life Network. Yesterday, we posted part 2. Below is part 3 of that interview.

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To Linda Gibbons. Her daughter passed away this week and Linda is in custody. Information on how to send her a letter is available here.

(Linda often responds to those who write her a letter. She actually wrote me a detailed note in response to a simple Christmas card I sent her one year.)

I’m sure she’d appreciate the encouragement.

As part of a new ProWomanProLife series, yesterday we posted part 1 of our interview with Rebecca Richmond, who is the Executive Director of the National Campus Life Network. She shared that her earliest nickname was “Gaga” and we learned about her organization, the National Campus Life Network. You can check out yesterday’s interview here. Below is part 2 of that interview. Visit PWPL tomorrow for the final segment of the interview.

Faye: Welcome back Gaga…er, Rebecca. Let’s jump right in. What is one fact most people don’t know about NCLN?

Rebecca: Some people think that campus clubs are chapters of NCLN or something like that. But they aren’t. NCLN exists to serve clubs and students, not the other way around. In fact, the entire structure of NCLN is based around service. The board provide the staff with support and service; the staff equip and empower the student leaders they work with; and the student leaders, then, serve the target group – their peers – by reaching out with their life-affirming and life-saving message.

Faye: I thought NCLN only worked on the abortion issue. Does NCLN also work on the euthanasia and assisted suicide file? How so?

Rebecca: Yes we do. Abortion is a bigger focus, both for us and the clubs we work with, simply because so many university students are facing the issue so directly. But euthanasia and assisted suicide are also incredibly important issues that pro-life students need to be educated on themselves and then, in turn, educate their campuses on.

We keep students updated on these issues and encourage them to educate themselves and their peers. Pro-life clubs will bring speakers, host debates, and distribute resources on this issue and we’re here to support them in that.

Faye: What can NCLN student mentoring look like?

Rebecca: We know – because we’ve all been there ourselves – that it’s a challenge to be leading a pro-life club on top of all the other commitments that university students have. So we’re available to students on phone/text/Facebook/Skype/email and, whenever possible, in person. With regular contact we can help the leaders stay on top of the goals they’ve made, address obstacles, and develop their own leadership abilities.

When I was a student I really benefited from this kind of support as well as getting to know Theresa Gilbert, who was the Executive Director of NCLN at the time. All of us on staff love to spend time with students, to share our experiences with them and learn from them as well.

Faye: What kind of challenges are pro-life students facing on campus?

Rebecca: What kind of challenges aren’t they facing?

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This week, we’re launching a new series at ProWomanProLife. Over the next year, through a series of interviews, we’ll be introducing you to a number of bright, witty and funny pro-life women. They’ll be sharing stories and facts about themselves and the great work they do.

We kick off the series this week with a three part interview with Rebecca Richmond, who is the Executive Director of National Campus Life Network (NCLN). Check back tomorrow and Thursday for parts two and three of the interview.

Faye: Thanks for the interview Rebecca. Why don’t we get to know you a little before we jump into the nitty gritty? We’ve decided to ask all the women we interview a few get-to-know-you questions so readers can get a peek into your fabulous lives.

How do you spend your time?

Rebecca: Pro-life would definitely be at the top of the list. Working with NCLN goes far beyond a 9-5 job and I also like to be involved with pro-life events or projects occurring in the community.

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From Janet:

I just wanted to tell you about my exciting day yesterday (I actually want to tell everyone, everywhere because I am so excited).

First, a little history…. In 1960, years before I was born, my mother was a scared, single, twenty year old Irish woman, who was pregnant. Her family sent her off to England to a maternity home, where she gave birth that September to a boy whom she called David. She stayed with him for six weeks or so, until he was turned over to his adoptive parents.

My Mom went on to marry and have three more children, and moved the family to Canada. In the late 1990’s, she told me about David. I hugged her and told her how proud I was of her! She had decided to contact the adoption register to try and find her son, hoping that he had also made contact and that they would be “matched”. She had always worried about him, even in her knowledge that she had made the right decision for him.

As it turned out, Mom lost her nerve and couldn’t make the contact. She never even managed to share her news with my sister and brother. Mom passed away on August 21, 2007, which was also her 67th birthday. After the initial shock of her death wore off, my Dad gave me the photos of David that Mom had carried with her til the day she died, and also the forms she had filled in (but never sent) to make contact. I shared the information with my sister and brother, and it was agreed that I would eventually apply to the British Adoption Registry and start the search.

Surprisingly, it took me a while to get up the nerve! I was afraid he might be dead, or maybe autistic (as my son is), or a hundred other things that would make the reunion impossible. I did send the info in, and was notified that “David” had not applied at that end, so no match was made.

About two years ago, “David” did apply, and I received a letter that had me in tears from the moment I started to read. He was well, had a wife and daughter, was prosperous and had enjoyed a lovely childhood with caring parents and an adopted sister! He also took the time to tell me that he understood why Mom did what she did, as times were different then, and that she had done him no harm. He had also found out that Mom had passed away, and saved me the sadness of having to relay that information to him. He offered the chance of corresponding, but kindly said that he would understand if I chose not to, realizing that not all family members might know of his existence, or want to know about him now.

We have emailed and sent photos back and forth, and yesterday I had the absolute pleasure of meeting John “David” (his adoptive parents honoured Mom by giving him David as a middle name!) when he brought his beautiful wife and adorable daughter to Canada to meet our family. While I am saddened that Mom never got this chance, I know she knows all about it now as she watches us.

This has been one of the most exciting weeks of my life as I welcomed my brother as the family he is. What a brilliant ending to the journey Mom started 53 years ago, and how different it could have been if abortion were readily available and advocated for back then.

I don’t believe they are and I plan on studying and learning more about genetic and reproductive technologies over the next year. For now, I’ll leave you with this link to a Christianity Today article. While its focus is on the evangelical church, I think it does contain some general food for thought. I think a robust discussion of these issues needs to take place within the broader pro-life community.

With the Center for Bioethics and Culture, I’m currently working on a documentary about surrogacy, and in our interviews I have sadly heard firsthand stories of the complications of this process—even when everyone starts off with the best of intentions. One surrogate was asked to have an abortion because the child she was carrying had a genetic defect. Another surrogate’s own children were heartbroken that their mother gave away the baby. A woman who served as a surrogate for her brother and his partner is still battling over custody of the now school-aged children. Even Elton John, who celebrated the birth of his children with the help of an egg donor and a surrogate, admits that it is heartbreaking that his children will grow up without a mother.

In response to assisted reproductive technologies and procedures, an uneven patchwork of policies and laws in the U.S. attempt to protect intended parents rather than surrogates or the children they carry. Legislative debates frequently take place with no larger sense of the gravity of this practice or how it might harm families and society.

For example, this year in Louisiana a state senator introduced a law that would allow surrogacy contracts for heterosexual couples. The legislator, who had gone to another state in order to contract with a surrogate to have children, described surrogacy as baking a loaf of bread in an oven, a comparison that—as I’ve mentioned before—belittles the very real issues involved. As human beings created in the image of God, women are not ovens, nor are their bodies simply vessels to be used, sold, rented, or loaned.

Read the rest here.

I like the story of this mama who visited her neighbours to inform them about Canada’s abortion status quo, and ended up receiving donations from a pro-choice woman. Being actively pro-life our in our communities doesn’t require much in terms of time or resources or training. Simply sharing what you know with people around you can make a difference.

I don’t have a lot of spare time, and yet I feel convicted to follow certain passions. One day I decided to just go out and pursue one. Maybe this was simply a bucket-list item, although more likely it was God putting it on my heart: I challenged myself to find time to go door to door in my neighbourhood with the pro-life message. A fundraiser for the Langley Pro-life Society was coming up and I dared myself to ask my neighbours for donations to help bring attention to the plight of pre-born humans.

Read the rest here.

At the time one of the rare friends that knew of what was going on at the time told me to really think, because this would be something I may regret in the future. I remember actually thinking to myself, “No, I’ll be fine, I won’t regret it.”

I do regret it. That one act in fact became my biggest regret, and my darkest secret.

Read the rest here.

I don’t have kids yet, but when I do, I’ll probably heed this advice. I can’t even imagine how data will be searchable in 10 or 20 years from now, or how it will be mined and for which purposes. Creepy, creepy.

In a phone interview with the Straight, Joyce Arthur of the Pro-Choice Action Network said these organizations sometimes present themselves as secular agencies to lure pregnant women, but often have a secret religious agenda to discourage anyone from seeking an abortion or using birth control. Others, she said, will disclose their religious affiliation in fine print, but not in an “up-front” manner.

She also alleged that some crisis pregnancy centres falsely claim that there are links between abortion and breast cancer.

“They’re handing out medical misinformation to women, scaring them and so forth,” Arthur said. “Can they be regulated in some way?”

The Ministry of Health did not make a spokesperson available to respond by the Straight’s deadline. […]

B.C. NDP health critic Judy Darcy told the Straight by phone that she is “very disturbed” about the lack of counselling for pregnant women that offers real choices—”both to consider options, including abortion as a choice, but also counselling post-abortion in a way that is unbiased and that use medically sound information”.

Read the rest here.

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Faye adds: A comment from a friend: “Interesting tactic. Once you know you’re losing ground and politicians have an irrational fear of even discussing the issue, ask the government to regulate your opponents.”

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Andrea adds: To be fair, a winning strategy down south has been government regulation of clinics, which brings their standards up to those of other outpatient clinics. Clinics operating in subpar conditions are thus forced to close. (Hurray.) We are winning this, but we (broadly speaking, North American pro-lifers) are also asking government to regulate. Is that not fair to say?