Sarah Nelson - Pregnant in College

  I have a say because my parents chose life for me.  They also chose it for my 4 brothers and 2 sisters.  I grew up in a house of love and compassion and caring, of shared sacrifice and commitment to each other.  My parents showed us every day with their example how to be good people, how to be kind and generous, and why it is so important to choose life.
       We routinely had discussions about the Church and its teachings and why we as Catholics believe and practice certain things.  Which is why I find myself incredulous that any of this is even possible.  How is it possible that our government is telling a religion what it can and cannot do?  In what universe does the United States government tell its citizens how to practice their religion? And tell them, sorry, I know you think this contraception thing is wrong, but we're going to make you do it anyway.
       At the age of 20, in the middle of my junior year of college, I found myself pregnant and unmarried.  According to Planned Parenthood, I was the perfect candidate to have an abortion.  Why should I ruin my life and future by having a baby I wasn't ready for?  I should have an abortion and finish college, have a career, and save a baby for later when I was ready, emotionally and financially.
       But, I chose life.  And because of the way that my parents raised me in the culture of life, in a family where life was so important, I never hesitated.  The thought of having an abortion did not pass through my head, not even for a nanosecond.  Of course I was going to have a baby.  The father of my daughter was the love of my life, who I was already planning on marrying, so we just did it sooner rather than later.  Our beautiful daughter was born a month after our wedding.  We were young, we were inexperienced, we didn't have much.  But we loved each other and our daughter.  We took a leap of faith.  My husband worked hard to make a good living, and we have since added 5 more children to our family in the last 8 years.
       People often ask me if I know what causes children, don't I know what birth control is, am I trying to get a reality show? The answers are yes, yes, and no way!  I am just a person who is choosing life.  Choosing to be the best mother I can to the children that I have been blessed with.  So that they grow up and know how to choose life also.
       A lot of people may think that I shouldn't have an opinion because I did something against the Church's teaching by getting pregnant before I was married.  But, that's the beauty of our faith.  I commit sins, just like everyone else, but I also believe that I can ask for forgiveness in the sacrament of Reconciliation and receive absolution.  And the Lord's mercy and love cannot be outdone.  Even though a child can be conceived outside marriage, every child should have a chance at life.  Every child deserves to live, to learn, to have the opportunity to grow and love and experience everything that life has to offer them.  Every child is a gift from God, a miracle to be treasured.  And that is why we must all choose life.

Our First Video Response - Christine

Carrie - "Hearts Changed and Lives Saved"

Because my conception was the result of a failed contraceptive effort, and my parents did not
abort me, I am alive today, and I have a say. I consider myself a lucky to be alive because at the time,
my non-Catholic parents were fervently “pro-choice” and “pro-contraception”. My parents received
post-baccalaureate educations and were climbing the corporate ladder as medical professionals at a
prestigious pharmaceutical company. My mother had even championed for the building of a Planned
Parenthood affiliate in a rural Indiana County. At the tender age of twelve, it was disclosed to me by my
mother that I was the result of a maladjusted diaphragm, and that even though I was the result of
an “oops”, she and my father loved me very much, and were thankful for me every day. That was then,
and I am here today because I have a lot to say.

I was raised by my married parents who had a lukewarm relationship, at best. We lived in
a privileged, professional, educated, contracepting, and surgically sterile home. This home was also
filled with pornography, adultery, promiscuity, fighting, alcoholism, sadness, grief, anxiety, fear, and
the disrespect of using the other spouse for self-fulfilling needs. The marriage was ultimately devoid
of love and ended in divorce, after 21 years. My only sibling and I were separated, each going to live
with a different parent. We had many toys, nice clothes, ate the best food, drove nice cars, and took
extravagant vacations in our own private airplane. I was miserable and lonely because each parent was
married to their job, keeping them away from us for up to 80 hours per week. I wanted for nothing,
except pure joy and love.

Much like Planned Parenthood, my mother believed that to be a feminist and to become equal
with men, she needed to turn off the very part of her being that made her female, her fertility. Planned
Parenthood’s definition of equal rights for women extends to human sexuality, seemingly to say, “You
can’t be fully equal to a man, unless you are able to have sexual relations without consequences as
well”. But are we really granted sex without consequences when choosing to contracept? Does
without consequence include the risks for blood clot, heart attack, stroke, cancer, disease, unintended
pregnancy, ectopic pregnancy, abortion, depression, anxiety, and death? When did Planned Parenthood
try to rewrite history and do everything they could to change the procreative to recreation?

Men and women are not the same. They are intended to be complimentary. You cannot have
one without the other. If you have two boxes of cake mix, but no more ingredients, you still do not
have a cake. Planned Parenthood is trying to free women, but in all actuality, they are actually shackling
them with chains to a lifetime of depression and despair, devoid of pure love and joy. One thing that
can give women this love and joy is to celebrate their fertility with a loving and committed husband.
This mutual respect will compliment and honor the other giving each human a sense of well being that
cannot be compared.

I can say that I know this because I have lived both sides of the coin. Early in my adult life, I
was well on my way to a failed marriage and unsatisfactory life, as I saw my marriage ending just as my
parents’ did. I had one relationship with a man for several years before we ultimately married. We
used various forms of contraception prior to and after we wed. We carefully planned the arrival of our
first child after our educations were completed and careers began. In an effort to salvage our already
crumbling marriage, we joined The Catholic Church and gave serious thought to The Church’s teaching of human sexuality. The miracle is that hearts can be changed. It was my mother, who after the divorce
became Catholic. It was at her urging that we considered it. I now have a husband that practically
pleaded with me to cease all contraceptives, use Natural Family Planning, and to begin to fully give
ourselves to one another. What happened was initially surprising, but now I can clearly see. We began
to replace fighting and discord with joking, laughing, playing and loving. For the first time in my life I
knew what real happiness and joy was; I was no longer lonely. It was the perfect marital love that I had
been looking for my entire life.

I may have been an “oops” in the eyes of many, but I can say with all honesty that each of my 4
children are not. Because I chose a different way of life for myself and my family, I have a say. Without
choosing to follow this very precious philosophy that has been upheld by Catholics for nearly 2,000
years I would not know the respect, love, and joy that I now know. I am adored and cherished in a way I
never thought possible, all because of a mutual respect for one another in a relationship where husband
and wife are willing to give all to the other. My femininity is celebrated, not shackled, and I feel free.

Currently, I am free to live as I believe but this may not continue to be the case for my children,
but it isn’t too late. I am grateful for those who consider what I have to say and hope that hearts are
changed and our freedoms regained.

Joe Brochtrup

I have a say because my parents chose to have seven children.  It would have been more but for miscarriages.  They sacrificed much but one of the most appreciated by all of us siblings is their choice to pay tuition (at a group rate, thank God) at a Catholic school in Houston for all 7 children for all 12 years, grades 1-12.  The School Sisters of Notre Dame and the Carmelites had significant influence on our lives. 

We have a say in many ways but one of the most important is political activism, voting if nothing else.  (It goes unspoken that living our lives per our convictions is the most important).  As I grew up, my parents seemed to be in the minority as they supported conservative philosophies and candidates, while many around us supported candidates and parties that saw it as the government's job to minister to the poor and disenfranchised.  Certainly they have a role there but we have now seen the light at the end of the tunnel and unfortunately it is a freight train of government confiscation of our religious liberties coming straight at us.  I pray that the bishops and the lay Catholics have awakened because the biggest mistake would be to think that all we have to do is convince this HHS secretary that this ruling is a violation of religious liberty.  The complete law that many Catholic leaders supported is full of "as the HHS secretary shall determine".  And do not be deluded into thinking that end of life decisions will not be an issue if the new health care law is allowed to stand. 

If the game is on and the Catholic Church is going to really fight this intrusion of government in our religious lives, I stand by you as I walk to the ballot box to vote out every politician that voted for the health care reform law.

Hope to see you there.

Thanks and God Bless You for fighting this fight.

Kari Hollowell - My Pregnant Sister in Law Has Her Say

I, too, have a say thanks to the love of two people who have been married for 41 years: my parents. Witnessing their love throughout my life and modeling my marriage on that love is the 2nd greatest gift they could have given to me, next to the gift of my life.

What offends me most about Cecile’s urging of her own “I have a say” challenge is that women are the only individuals who should be speaking out about their bodies and what right those bodies have. Fortunately for me, God has placed a respectful and abundantly loving man in my life, a man that brought me closer to my faith, a man that showed me what it means to truly respect the gift of sexuality by waiting for me and respected that I waited for him. If the pope didn’t have a voice, if our church leaders didn’t have a voice, if our priests didn’t have a voice, and if my husband didn’t have a voice, I might have used my voice in just the way Cecile wanted.

Last time I read my Health books, it takes both a man and a woman to bring life into this world. Not just a sperm and an egg, but a man and a woman. And a man’s voice should carry just as much weight as a woman’s, especially when he chooses life. Because the ability to bring life into this world is the most precious and beautiful gift that God could ever bestow upon us.

The birth of my daughter was a transcendental experience, and I eagerly await the birth of my second child. God placed those two little blessings in my life, but my husband and I both have the chance to say yes. And we have the blessing to say yes every time we embrace as husband and wife. Thank you, Matt, for having a say and for giving me the strength and the courage to show me that I can have my say too.

Michelle Lynch - Mother of 16

    I have a say, and I say I am proud to be a Catholic woman, a member of the Church which speaks up for those who are denied a voice.  As the 3rd in a family of  7 children, one of whom died shortly after birth, I have a say because my parents were open to life.  My younger brother and sister are alive because my parents remained open to life despite the difficulties presented by Rh incompatibility before the finding and implementation of Rhogam therapy.  As the mother of 16, five of whom have died before birth, I have a say, and I say that each and every one of my children has been a precious gift from a loving God, despite the sorrow we have endured at each loss.  I have a say and I say that the daughter who was stillborn at 20 weeks was not a parasite, nor a blob of tissue, but a beautiful baby, and no one will ever convince my older children who held the body of their tiny sister to say hello and goodbye that an unborn child is not a person.  I have a say and I say that I grieved for each of the 4 children I miscarried.  Their lives were not of no consequence .  Their lives, no matter how short had significance.

    I have a say, and I say that there is no love without sacrifice and service.  I say we are aborting the very lives that have the most important lessons to teach us, the lessons of compassion and love with no strings attached.  I say we are becoming a society that has lost the use of reason all the more as we have become less and less compassionate.   I say it is time to stop this insanity of  calling enslavement to uncontrolled sexual desires "freedom".  True freedom is being able to choose that which we ought to do. 

   I have a say, and I say that I love all of my children, despite their flaws and sins, as I must...as my Father God has loved me despite my flaws and sins.  I say that being loved despite my sin does not mean that my sin is not sin from which I must repent.  I say it is not hatred or "phobia" to call a sin a sin, but rather an act of charity, for if we do not recognize our sin we will not repent from it.

   I have a say and I say that yes, many Catholic women have used contraception, many due to the well meant but wrong advice of their confessors, but that does not change the constant teaching of our Church that the use of contraception is intrinsically evil.  I also say that the 98%  dissenting of all Catholic women touted in the MSM is a very skewed and manipulated number.  Only 30% of the women in the survey who self identified as Catholic attended Mass weekly.  Any woman who was not sexually active was not included, thus leaving out all of the single women living a chaste life.  Any woman who was pregnant or trying to achieve a pregnancy or  who was postpartum was left out, thus leaving quite a number of the faithful young married Catholic women living chastity in their marriages.  Also left out were any women over 44 years old.  And thus it is reported that 98% of ALL Catholic women have used contraception...yet my math adds things up to say that percentage should be less than 89% of  the women included in the survey which used contraception, as it showed 11% used no birth control method. And the survey ignored the existence of faithful Catholic women!  I say it is time for the truth to be told! I further say that it does not matter in the least, as far as the rightness of the HHS contraception mandate goes and the matter of freedom of religion and conscience how many women fail to live up to the Church's teaching, it is still the teaching and it is still the truth and we cannot to provide contraceptives, sterilizations and abortifacient drugs to others.  I say it is time to stand up for the truth and expose the lies that are being perpetrated before it is too late for our country to survive.  I say it is time for our priests and bishops to proclaim the truth from the pulpits loudly and clearly and without fear.

Dan Hollowell - "The Audacity of Life"

"The Audacity of Life"

Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood once said that "the most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it." Unfortunately for the founder of Planned Parenthood, such a perverse mercy was never awarded to me.  Unfortunately for the founder of our country’s only government
approved genocide provider, I have a say.

As the fourth of eleven children born to a loving mother and a dedicated father, my life was not as lavish and filled with the bells and whistles that many Americans expect; however, my life was filled with joy and happiness that many Americans do not understand.  I never had a new Nintendo with which I could play the newest video games.  I had my brothers, with whom I could play a wide array of games in our backyard.  I never owned a pair of Air Jordan’s to wear during my basketball games.  I had my older brother’s shoes which helped me to learn that it is not the equipment that you use that makes you successful.  I could type until my fingers bleed about how my parents’ love of each other and of God have made my life better in spite of any inference that could be made by Planned Parenthood’s founder Margaret Sanger, but honestly, I do not have the interest, time or mental dullness to debate the joy and love that I have experienced in my life against the misguided ideologies of a racist, bigoted old bat.

My parents said yes to life.  My voice, my say is in tribute to their sacrifice and out of respect and understanding for the temporal hardships that they may have endured to raise me as a man. I will use
my say to demonstrate, support and carry on the love and wisdom shown by my parents in their acceptance of life.  I will have children, and if I am able to pass along 10 percent of the lessons and faith that my
parents have passed onto me, then my children and their children will continue to testify to the love that is life.

I would like to thank my mother and my father for understanding the role of parents in a world that is led by those that would seek to corrupt and belittle the selfless efforts of my parents.  I have a say because my parents had the courage to choose life.  I enjoy my say because my parents chose life again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again.