News

Go Mobile Clinics at County Fairs

Our new mobile pregnancy clinic will be at the Gibson, Vanderburgh, and Warrick county fairs. Our nurses will be there to offer information and answer questions from 4-8 pm everyday of each fair. The clinic will be open for mothers who need space for breastfeeding and diaper changing.

Indiana Supreme Court Upheld SB 1 Abortion Ban!

Indiana’s 2022 Special Session featured the Senate Bill 1 (SB 1), which terminated the licenses of Indiana’s Abortion Clinic and banned all abortions expect for in the case of rape and incest up to 10 weeks post-fertilization and for lethal fetal anomaly for up to 20 weeks or viability (which ever one comes first). SB 1 also decrees that abortions must happen in a hospital and it protects mothers who choose abortion from becoming subject to criminal penalties. 

On September 22nd, 2022, a pregnancy resource center and a collection of abortion providers requested a temporary block on SB 1. The block was granted, allowing abortion access while Indiana litigation continued. 

On June 30th, 2023, the Indiana Supreme Court dismissed the block and upheld the ban. The ban will become finalized on August 1st. Plaintiffs have until then to request a rehearing. 

The Special Session also included Senate Bill 2 (SB 2), which dedicated over $80 millions to the Hoosier Family First Fund, Safe Haven Baby Boxes, and organizations that . The Bill also supports expanding Medicaid coverage to include donated breast milk and a $3000 state tax exemption for each adopted child!

These rulings are will make a positive and impressive impact on families in Indiana. SB 1 will limit the number of abortions, and SB 2 will promote resources that support and ease the burden of raising a family. These two bills are huge markers of progressive towards creating a culture that values life!  

Gibson South Students for Life Voted Best New Group of Year!

A local Students for Life chapter from Gibson Southern was nominated and voted for Best New Group of the Year.

At the start of the 2022-2023 school year, a group of students from Gibson Southern High School started their own Students for Life chapter. Since its creation, this group has been active in the pro-life community by organizing item drives, volunteering at local pregnancy centers, and attending marches in Indianapolis and Washington, DC.

In late May, the group announced their qualification for top 3 Best New Groups of the Year. Voting for 1^st place was open until June 15^th. The winner was announced during the National Celebrate Life Day festivities on June 24^th, the one-year anniversary of the Dobbs ruling, in Washington DC. The Gibson Southern group won the 1^st place award due to their commitment to creating a pro-life community.

Two active members pictured below receiving the award: Lilly Schmitt (center left) and Aleks Parmer (center right). Schmitt and Parmer are co-presidents of the Gibson Southern group. Parmer is also the 2023 Right to Life of Southwest Indiana Oratory Contest winner. She will be presenting her speech at our annual Banquet on August 10^th.

Knoxville Baby Box Saved its First Life on May 27th, 2023

Tennessee’s first Baby Box was installed in a Fire Station on February 17th, 2023. It has remained open, but empty, 25 hours a day, seven days a week, until just past midnight on May 27th, 2023. Three crew members from the station responded immediately to the silent alarm and found an uninjured baby boy. They called 911 to transport him to the hospital for further health evaluation.

The Baby Box remains open 24/7 to shelter infants.

This story is a testament to the life-saving ability of the 153 Safe Haven Baby Boxes in American. We celebrate the opportunity this child has been given to experience an abundant life!

A Silent Crisis: The Lived Experience of Post-Abortive Women in the African American Church

On Thursday, June 22nd, Dr. Ebone Barnes, Ed.D presented her interesting and insightful research into the dynamics between post-abortive women and their church. Her research highlighted the importance of church’s role in post-abortive healing. Dr. Barnes’ experience illustrates the hurt and confusion that so often accompanies a woman’s experience after abortion.

If you would like to view Dr. Barnes’ PowerPoint, please contact Meredith Dixon at mdixon@rtlswin.org.

Indiana List of Legislators

Please contact your Legislator and ask that they do all that is possible to keep abortion out of Indiana. Ask them to protect pre-born babies from death by abortion, and their mothers from a destructive and regrettable decision.  

Below is a sample script for the emails – please call your legislator as well with the same messaging. 

I am a voter, a member of Indiana Right to Life of Southwest Indiana mobile advocacy team, and I live in your district. I’m asking you to use this summer’s special session to pass new pro-life laws in Indiana.  

Now that Roe vs. Wade is reversed, Indiana can pass legislation to fully protect unborn babies, and provide care and support for pregnant mothers. I believe that by addressing both of these issues, our state has a unique opportunity to prove that Indiana is a state that loves and values both the life of the mother and the baby.    

We simply cannot wait until the next legislative session to get this done – too many babies would die waiting for the state to take action.  

I want you to know this is very important to me.   Please respond to let me know you will support passage of new pro-life laws during this summer’s special session. My hope is that I can count on you to be a staunch supporter of life, and someone who will vote for a bill that protects all life to the greatest extent – both born and unborn – which would be that there’s only a life of the mother exception in any legislation that you vote to support. It is my firm belief that Indiana should continue demonstrating the strong value it puts on life without prejudice.

Thank you, and I look forward to your response.

Indiana State Senators

• Jim Tomes – District 49
  • Phone: 800-382-9467
  • Email: Senator.Tomes@iga.in.gov

Pro-Life Resource for Children

Thanks to our friends at Focus on the Family, a great resource has now been created to age-appropriately talk to your child about life! The resource is called Valuing Life From the Start: Age-Specific Lessons for the Whole Family. Find this and other valuable life resources here.

What You Should Know About Girl Scout Cookies

What is the concern about funding Girl Scout Councils and GSUSA?

Girl Scouts approves girls partnering with Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers and activist organizations to earn Girl Scouts’ highest award, the Gold Award, “to make the world a better place.” Awarded projects include:
o A series of high school presentations in collaboration with NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) for “getting rid of abortion stigma and misconception” by “activists who have had abortions who were interested in sharing their stories.”
o A high school health fair which included Planned Parenthood among “the booths from various health organizations in order to educate students on what good health care is and to promote healthy habits for them to live long, happy lives.”
o “A Young Women’s Health Expo…to highlight research on reproductive health, “invited girls to “come meet your local health care centers.” The Expo featured abortion providers Planned Parenthood and Equality Health Center, who advertised abortion services and offered free condoms to those in attendance. The ACLU was another presenter “educating young [girls] and their rights to repro and economic justice.”

Download the entire article below.

Cemetery of the Innocents

Most Southwest Indiana residents who travel I-69 north through Vanderburgh County have seen one of the most visible depictions of the need to eradicate abortion, the Cemetery of the Innocents that sits on the Durchholz family farm.   Since the 90’s the Durchholz’s, extended family and friends have helped maintained this plot of sacred ground. 

Right to Life spoke with Angie (Durchholz) Lasher about the history and impact the Cemetery of the Innocents has had on the community.  The idea originated from Mike Fichter, former Vanderburgh County Right to Life’s Executive Director (Right to Life of Southwest Indiana’s predecessor) and Bill Butterfield were looking for a farm whose location would have the greatest visual impact. The Durchholz farm ground was the perfect spot and the family agreed.

In the early days of the Cemetery, 4,000 wooden crosses representing the number of daily abortions in the U.S. were used.  The crosses were placed each year after harvest and then gathered back up and stored until they would reappear later in the year.  The undertaking of this project called for a lot of extra help through the years from Mark Ikoff helping to make the grid for the crosses to be lined up, to John Lasher and Albert Sturgeon keeping the area mowed, to Chuck Wigger helping install the vinyl signs by the interstate and many more.

In 2009, the family decided to divide the crosses and donated 2,000 to a Gibson County farm owned by Sylvester and Pat Elpers, who would display the crosses on his property on Hwy 41 just south of the I-64 junction to have double the visual impact.  The Durchholz’s decided to have a more permanent installation and created 2,009 crosses using PVC pipe that fit over metal rods in the ground for each cross. 

Donations from the community helped to complete the project in a unique way.  For each donation, a certificate containing a baby’s name was spiritually adopted and inserted into a capped compartment of the cross; and, it remains there to this day.  A ceremony was held for the community with Father Chris Forler presiding to bless the field.  

Tending to the Cemetery for all of these years had become part of the fabric of the Durchholz family, but Lasher says there was one time she started to have doubts about keeping the project up and made it a matter of prayer asking God if it even made a difference.  Unbeknown to Lasher, a regular passerby of the Cemetery on his way from Louisville to Evansville, Wayne Carroll, a songwriter, was so moved by the Cemetery’s presence and message that he wrote a song called, “4,000 Crosses” about the experience. Carroll recorded the song and sent CD copies to Right to Life.  On her daughter’s 18^th birthday, Lasher received a package filled with CDs of Carroll’s song “4,000 Crosses” and the answer to her prayer!  God was using the Cemetery of the Innocents to make an impact in the hearts of people who saw it, and she now held it the proof in her hands. 

“The main thing I hope the Cemetery of the Innocents would accomplish is to help those who pass by start thinking about the babies and hopefully have their hearts soften,” says Lasher.  “This type of project affects the whole community and helps to educate in a five second window about the effects of abortion and will possibly start conversations that change hearts within the cars that pass by.”

Right to Life of Southwest Indiana and the entire region would like to thank Angie Lasher and the entire Durchholz family for standing (and maintaining, mowing and spraying for weeds) for life in a very public way.   

Covid-19 Vaccine Comparisons

The following document lists multiple Covid-19 vaccines by company and notes if aborted fetal cells have been used. Source: Children of God for Life Website.

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Reserve Your VOTE PRO-LIFE SIGN & Stand For Life in Your Own Front Yard

Governor Holcomb orders halt to elective and non-urgent invasive surgeries; abortion clinics included in new emergency orders

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Indiana Right to Life applauds Governor Eric Holcomb for including abortion clinics in new emergency orders related to the Covid-19 pandemic.  Governor Holcomb’s orders call for a halt to all elective and non-urgent surgical procedures in Indiana. 

“Governor Holcomb’s new orders make it clear that abortion clinics are not exempt from complying with the suspension of elective surgeries,” states Indiana Right to Life President and CEO Mike Fichter.  “In a time of crisis and severe medical equipment shortages, abortion clinics must not be allowed to use up precious medical supplies that Hoosiers need during the current health emergency.”

Indiana Right to Life will urge state and local authorities to monitor Indiana abortion clinics closely to ensure compliance with the orders.  

Governor Holcomb’s emergency orders go into effect tomorrow. 

The OB-GYNs Who Play Politics With Women’s Lives

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Bill underscores the humanity of each aborted baby, requires abortion clinics to fully inform women considering drug-induced abortions

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