Categories
Little People of America

Running for Office

LPA President ave
President Angela with Board member

Election season is in full swing in American politics. When I look back 20 years I am reminded of the time I was persuaded to run for national office. No, not as a representative of the people in the United States, but as a Vice President of Little People of America (LPA). March 31, 2004 was the day I announced my candidacy, one day before the April 1st deadline.

My husband, Robert, completely got my attention when he said I should run for president. I was reluctant to run for any office. It meant shelving any work on our marriage memoir, Pass Me Your Shoes, for more than two years. Also, after six months

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of unemployment, I was finally in the running for two jobs. I couldn’t imagine taking on the LPA presidency at the same time as starting a new job.

I could see the need for an elected officer who would temper passion with patience, value staff and volunteers, work cooperatively as a team member, and promote a fair and equitable process. After much prayer and discussion with Robert, my dilemma about running for president was resolved when Jacob stepped forward as a presidential candidate. But I did put the book on hold and decided to run for VP of membership. Although I had never been on the LPA Executive Committee, I had board experience as parliamentarian, a District 4 proxy, and an administrative assistant during Robert’s two terms as president in the 1980s.

Jacob and I recruited Rachel as a senior vice-presidential candidate who shared our campaign values of respect, integrity, accountability, and inclusiveness. Our motto was, “Vote for people who value people.” We held campaign meetings in online chat sessions. Supporters distributed our flyers at spring regional meetings and we built a campaign website called lpa4people.org. The campaign took off as we posted our platforms, biographies, endorsements, and commentaries. We prepared for a contested election and were surprised when the likely contender announced he would not be running for office.

I received good advice from a former LPA President, Gerald Rasa. He recommended defining, prioritizing, and resolving issues; including people in the process and praising them for their work; and conducting myself with humility. Gerald’s advice hit the mark as I entered a turbulent time in LPA leadership. There were so many issues to resolve! In my two years on the Executive Committee, four different people served in the office of President! I dubbed this as the Presidential relay. I ran the last leg after the board voted me in as President on November 13, 2005.

As President until July 2006, I determined to finish the work the original Executive Committee began in 2004. In pursuit of Solomon’s wisdom, I added his words as part of my email signature paragraph. For example, in February 2006, my 220 outgoing emails closed with this quote:

Pleasant words are a honeycomb,
Sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
∞ Proverbs 16:24, New American Standard Bible

            LPA primarily runs on volunteer hours. It’s important to support and encourage those willing to serve.

This post is a condensed version of excerpts in Chapter 4, Galvanize the Group and Heal the Breaches and Chapter 7, President Angela: Last Leg of Relay in book three of my memoir trilogy: “ALWAYS AN ADVOCATE: Champions of Change for People with Dwarfism and Disabilities,” https://angelamuirvanetten.com/always-an-advocate/

Categories
FAQs

What’s It Like To Be Little?

ICU wall phone

Goodreads, the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations, was a natural place for me to post details on my dwarfism memoir trilogy. In the Ask the Author section a self-professed genuinely curious person posed the question, What’s It Like To Be Little? She prefaced her query with “You don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to because I don’t want to be offensive.”

Even though I didn’t take offense, I worked hard not to cause offense with my answer. I thought it was an odd question given that my writings discuss what life is like for a Little Person and she wrote her question on

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a web page which made this clear. So I politely said: your curiosity which inspired the question is what prompted me to write my memoir. The best way for you to find out what it’s like to be little is to read one or more of the books in my dwarfism trilogy. I put the onus back on the questioner to find out what it’s like.

Typically I see my days playing out as for a person of any size. That’s because my environment has been modified so that I can function independently and interact with people who are accustomed to seeing me. I can reach almost everything in my custom built home, drive  a modified vehicle, and mostly go to places where people know me.

But this month has been totally different. For three weeks in March my husband Robert has been in the Emergency Room, Intensive and Progressive Care Hospital Units, and an Acute Care Rehabilitation Hospital. This experience has reminded me that being little is distinctive.

It starts in the parking lot where I drive the entire lot looking for a disabled space with an access aisle on which to lower the ramp of my Wheelchair Accessible Van. It continues when I proffer my photo ID card to hospital security and need help to get it scanned. Speaking up when someone jumps the line can cause an angry response. And ICU visitor access is delayed while I find someone to reach the wall phone to request entry.

Communicating with medical personnel is challenging when they stand too close and talk over the top of me. I had to ask the ICU critical care doctor pressing me for consent to intubate Robert to talk to me face to face. He willingly came down to my level—first by crouching and then by sitting on a chair.

Watching Robert in a hospital bed that could not be lowered enough for me to greet him with a kiss or help feed him his meals was frustrating for both of us. But in the rehabilitation unit they located a bed that lowers enough for me to sit on the bed and reach Robert.

Successful people with dwarfism are adept at requesting accommodations that level the playing field and advocating for acceptance and environmental changes.

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Categories
Dignity

Florida Law Against Dwarf Tossing Defended

scale

Despite being called one of the ten worst inventions of the millennium—alongside the Spanish Inquisition, advertising, and nuclear war—dwarf tossing threatened to return to Florida in 2001. Dave the Dwarf, a Tampa radio personality, filed a lawsuit asking a federal court not to enforce the 1989 Florida law that banned dwarf tossing in licensed establishments.

The lawsuit claimed that the law was unconstitutional and irrelevant to any valid public purpose. The plaintiff pleaded the right to start a dwarf-tossing business. The radio station used the litigation to launch a successful media stunt and was shrewd

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enough to pit Little People of America (LPA) against Dave the Dwarf even though the named defendants in the lawsuit were the Florida governor and Division of Alcoholic, Beverages and Tobacco. The station titillated its audience by negatively portraying Dave as a piece of luggage to be tossed and LPA as a militant group interfering with his right to work.

Although the lawsuit was dismissed in February 2002, there was no hearing or ruling on the constitutionality of the law. Rather, the judge found he had no jurisdiction to hear the case because the agency rules to enforce the dwarf-tossing law had been repealed. As a result, the radio station planned a dwarf-tossing event. LPA in Florida resisted exploitive activity reminiscent of circus sideshows and put pressure on the state to publish enforcement rules before the event.

Meanwhile, John Stossel’s “Give Me a Break” segment on ABC’s 20/20 program aired on March 8, 2002. My husband and I naively believed that Stossel would fairly present both sides of the dwarf-tossing debate. He did not. After watching the 20/20 segment, I was so incensed that I sat up until the early hours of the morning writing a response called, “John Stossel Compromises Dwarfs in Name of Freedom.”

People encouraged us to keep fighting for the right thing and stand up for our beliefs. Barbara Walters—an acclaimed broadcast journalist—won the praise of many viewers when she nailed Stossel’s libertarian view by comparing the dwarf-tossing law to society’s ban on suicide, prostitution, and drug dealing.

Emboldened by the Stossel report and the judge’s dismissal of the lawsuit, the Tampa radio station planned a dwarf-tossing event for April 5, 2002. The Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco responded to my complaint about the planned event on LPA’s behalf and warned the bar that dwarf tossing violated Florida law.

The bravado ended when the radio station cancelled the dwarf-tossing contest. But the DJ was livid and threatened to sue the state of Florida again. Thankfully, his plan was stymied when the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that became effective on August 21, 2002. The penalties for violating the dwarf-tossing law included license revocation or suspension, a civil fine not to exceed $1,000, or both.

Image credit: Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

This post is a condensed version of Chapter 12, Give Me A Break in “ALWAYS AN ADVOCATE: Champions of Change for People with Dwarfism and Disabilities” by Angela Muir Van Etten, https://angelamuirvanetten.com/books/

Categories
Transportation

Relief In Sight for Anguished Airline Passengers with Wheelchairs

cry

More than 10,000 wheelchairs and other mobility devices are mishandled or damaged every year during air travel! The United States Access Board is a reliable source for this appalling statistic. Tears, injuries, missed vacations and events, and irreparable harm cannot be compensated with apologies, loaner wheelchairs, delayed and inadequate repairs, or flight credits. So finally after years of intensive advocacy by disabled travelers and disability organizations, relief is in sight.

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On February 28, 2024, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to strengthen 14 CFR Part 382, the rule implementing the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA). The safety and dignity of passengers whose mobility depends on wheelchairs and scooters is proposed in the following rule provisions:

  • Mandating annual, hands-on training for airline staff and contractors who (1) physically assist passengers with transfers to and from aircraft seats, aisle chairs, and personal wheelchairs, and (2) handle passengers’ wheelchairs.
  • Outlining actions that airlines must take to protect passengers when a wheelchair is damaged during transport.
  • Allowing passengers to choose the company that will repair or replace their wheelchair if it’s mishandled with the airline covering the costs.
  • Clarifying that (1) airlines must provide prompt, safe, and dignified assistance to all passengers with disabilities; and (2) damaging or delaying the return of a wheelchair is an automatic violation of the ACAA.
  • Making it easier for DOT to hold airlines accountable for failing passengers who use a wheelchair.

Comments on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking must be received within 60 days of the date it is published in the Federal Register (publication is imminent at https://www.federalregister.gov). Comments can be filed on www.regulations.gov, giving the docket number DOT-OST-2022-0144, the Regulatory Identification Number (RIN 2105-AF14), and agency name i.e. the U.S. Department of Transportation.

If you’re perturbed that the NPRM doesn’t go far enough, remember that regulations must stay within the boundary of the statute which authorizes them. So this is a good time to also promote passage of the Air Carrier Access Amendments Act of 2023 (H.R. 1267 and S.545) which U.S. Representative James Langevin has introduced every year since 2015. The bill which has yet to gain traction in the United States House or Senate would do the following for airline passengers with disabilities:

  • Expand protections and require airlines to meet minimum accessibility standards for safe and effective boarding and deplaning, seating accommodations, accessible lavatories, and stowage for wheelchairs and assistive devices.
  • Require the DOT to prescribe regulations setting minimum accessibility standards for new and existing aircraft, airport facilities, websites, and kiosks.
  • Establish a procedure for filing disability-related discrimination complaints with the DOT.
  • Assist passengers through a toll-free hotline or other electronic method.
  • Authorize the Department of Justice (DOJ) and aggrieved passengers to bring civil actions for discrimination against an air carrier.
  • Mandate the issuance of fines to airlines that violate the laws protecting people with disabilities in air travel, and to refer patterns of discrimination to the DOJ.

Want relief? Submit comments and get your congressional representatives to support the ACAA Amendments.

Photo credit: Markus Kammermann from Pixabay

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Categories
Little People of America

VOTING RIGHTS HISTORY: Women and Little People

Constitution

Individuals with dwarfism are represented by people of all ages, body shapes, skin colors, national origins, cultures, religions, and genders. As such, we are a microcosm of society with diverse values, talents, economic status, politics and opinions. Perhaps this is why February 27, 1922—the 102nd anniversary of the United States Supreme Court defending women’s voting rights under the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution—stands out to me. Little People of America’s (LPA) heritage also includes defenses to freedom of expression and voting rights.

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As an alien, female, dwarf immigrant to the U.S., I was scorned when I expressed an unpopular opinion at an LPA Board of Director’s meeting. One Director blasted me for delaying the board’s progress, another accused me of stifling discussion and energy and attributed this to my being from New Zealand. I put the record straight with a heritage and values email:

In 1893, New Zealand was the first self-governing country in the world to grant the vote to all adult women. I therefore come from a rich heritage of debate and democracy. There are three books sitting next to my computer monitor: a Bible, a dictionary, and a copy of the U.S. Constitution. Please never mistake a plea for civility as a call to stifle discussion or energy. However, I strongly believe that the First Amendment freedom of speech comes with responsibility and is not a license to disrespect or discredit people.

When I first emigrated to the U.S. as a permanent resident alien in 1981, LPA had two classes of disenfranchised people—noncitizen aliens without student or employee status and average-size parents of children with dwarfism. For several months, I fit into the first nonvoting class as one who was neither employed nor a student. Consequently, I was ineligible for membership and unable to vote. Thankfully this inequity was corrected in 1982 when the membership approved a proposed bylaw amendment to allow permanent resident aliens to become LPA members with the right to vote regardless of their employment or student status.

As a Past President of Little People of New Zealand (NZ), I was surprised to learn that average-size parents of children with dwarfism were nonvoting members of LPA. In NZ height was not a criteria for membership. In some LPA chapters, parents’ opinions were not sought or welcome. Parents were frequently relegated to the back of the room. In many chapters, parents were limited to servant roles of providing transportation to a meeting, setting up, and cleaning up after a meal.

This all changed in Robert Van Etten’s second term as LPA President (1984-1986). Robert successfully promoted a bylaw amendment giving the vote to one average-sized parent living in the household of a child with dwarfism.

So what voting rights do you appreciate?

Photo credit: Venita Oberholster from Pixabay

The examples given in this post are drawn from Chapter 2, “President Robert: The Second Term” and Chapter 7, “President Angela: Last Leg of Relay” in ALWAYS AN ADVOCATE: Champions of Change for People with Dwarfism and Disabilities by Angela Muir Van Etten. https://angelamuirvanetten.com/always-an-advocate/.

Categories
Medical

Emergency Calls

First Responders

Medical emergencies, life-threatening situations, or crimes in progress can all trigger emergency calls. Depending on our country of residence, we call three digit numbers—000, 211, 911, or 999—to request help.

My first experience calling 911 was in 2017 when my husband Robert was in respiratory distress at the Little People of America’s 60th anniversary banquet in Denver, Colorado. Just as our meals were served, Robert’s breathing became so labored he was unable to eat. He returned to our hotel room to use his C-PAP machine, but this wasn’t enough to stabilize his breathing.

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Providentially God placed all the right people around Robert—the family sharing our banquet table included a respiratory therapist, nurse, and nursing student! All three joined hotel security staff in our hotel room to assess Robert’s breathing. The therapist even had a Pulse Oximeter to read his blood oxygen level. And indeed it was low enough for him to need oxygen. It was time to call 911!

Robert used the hotel’s portable oxygen tank until the ambulance arrived to take him to the Denver Health Medical Center and admitted to the ICU. The medical consensus was that the most likely cause of Robert’s breathing trouble was the cumulative effect of being in the Mile High City for a week. As a sea level resident of Florida, Robert was classified as a flatlander, and would be fine once he got back to sea level. And they were right. He used a portable oxygen concentrator for the flight home and, as predicted, he was fine soon after touch down in West Palm Beach, Florida.

All credit goes to God for taking care of us both during this stressful time. “God’s angel sets up a circle of protection around us while we pray.” Psalm 34: 7, Message

If this incident had happened 50 or so years earlier it would have been harder to call an ambulance. There was no coordinated 911 number and you had to know the local number of the emergency service you needed—fire, police, or medical. Also, the emergency number was often the same as the non-emergency number, meaning a busy signal was common.

In the United States (U.S.), the first 911 call was placed on February 16, 1968. However, it has taken years for this emergency number to go nationwide. Coverage has only increased gradually —17% in 1976; 50% in 1987; almost 93% in 1999 and 99% in March 2022. So as we appreciate this wonderful service, let’s bone up on some useful 911 facts:

  1. If you’re not sure about your location, 911 can usually track cell phone callers.
  2. Although texting to 911 is available in select areas, it’s better to call so operators can gather more information.
  3. Amazon Alexa can not directly call 911, but Google and Siri can call via voice command.
  4. You can call 911 even if your phone does not have a current service plan.
  5. In an average year, around 240 million 911 calls are made in the U.S.

Image by F. Muhammad from Pixabay

https://pixabay.com/photos/first-responders-ambulance-3323385/

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Categories
Awareness

Share the Love of Books

Book

February 14th is for sharing the love of books and reading and, of course, for sharing love with your valentine. It’s hard to miss Valentine’s Day, but how did I miss International Book Giving Day? It’s been active since 2012 and is celebrated in 44 countries, including the United States. Whatever the reason for missing it in the past, now I know to use it to increase access to and enthusiasm for books.

As a child, my siblings and I didn’t go to bed with square eyes from watching too much television, rather we went to bed with a book to read. Little did we know how much this contributed to our language development, critical thinking ability, social cues, emotional intelligence, and imagination. When Amy Broadmoore, the United Kingdom co-founder of Book Giving Day, noticed how many children didn’t have books to read, she made it a goal to get as many new, used, and borrowed books into the hands of children as possible.

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So how do people celebrate Book Giving Day? Here’s a list of ideas:

  1. Gift a Book: Select a new or gently used book that you love or think someone else would enjoy. Give it to a friend, family member, coworker, or child in your community. To gift books on dwarfism, check out my website for ideas:

2. Donate Books: Local libraries, schools, shelters, foster homes, orphanages, thrift stores, or community centers are typically ready to accept book donations. You can also donate to non-profit organizations that focus on sharing books with people without access to them, such as: Books for Africa, Book Aid International, the Book Bus, the Prison Book Program, and Kids Need to Read.

3. Organize a Book Drive: Gather books from your community and organize a book drive. Encourage others to contribute, and then distribute the collected books to those in need.

4. Leave a book somewhere: You may “accidentally” leave a book in a doctor’s office waiting room, on public transit, and other places for someone else to pick up and read. You can inscribe the book on the first page to show whoever picks up the book it’s theirs to read and pass on to the next person.

5. Organize or join a book exchange program (for children or adults): It’s not only about handing out books; you can also trade them. See for example, Bookmooch which allows people to receive used books in exchange for donating their own books.

As for me, I commit to gifting one of the books in my dwarfism memoir trilogy (winners choice as to which one) to the first person who emails me this week at angela@angelamuirvanetten.com to report celebrating Book Gifting Day in one of the five ways listed above. 

Photo credit: Image by GraphicMama-team. https://pixabay.com/vectors/book-character-glasses-show-1773756/

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Categories
Motivation

Get Up and Never Give Up

board

February is an exciting month for football fans, but figure skating is more my style. I often wonder at how skaters get right up after they fall and continue skating. Apparently it’s one of the first lessons skaters learn. Indeed, Scott Hamilton—American figure skater and 1984 Olympic champion—counted 41,600 skating falls.

Building on this experience, in 2017, the U.S. Figure Skating founded National Get Up Day on February 1 as a day to share inspiring stories of perseverance and the power of never giving up. So today I’m sharing a snippet of the story of what it took for Little People of America (LPA) to break the six-inch reach barrier for ATMs.

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In 1993, Nancy Mayeux—a parent of children with dwarfism—led 700 LPA members in a letter-writing campaign to the federal Access Board in response to their call for public comments on the height of ATMs. In a devastating blow, the Board declined the requests to lower the operable parts on ATMs from 54 to 48 inches.

One year later, unwilling to give up, LPA applied for membership on the ICC/ANSI A117.1 Committee on Accessible and Usable Buildings and Facilities, a private organization that produces a model building code making public buildings and facilities (including ATMs) accessible to people with disabilities. LPA’s application was approved and I was persuaded to represent LPA on the Committee.

In March 1995, the Committee rejected LPA’s proposed changes targeting the six-inch reach barrier as unsupported by statistical data. Despite this setback, LPA gathered data on height, arm extension, eye height, and vertical reach at the July 1995 national conference. And the data showed that at 48 inches about 80% of people with dwarfism could reach ATMs and everything else activated with a push, pull, or turn.

When the data was presented to the Committee in February 1996, it resulted in the biggest code change in 20 years! LPA’s 48-inch proposal was added to the second draft of proposed code revisions. However, the proposal still needed to survive public comments and negative ballots on the final draft of the ANSI Access Code in the next three meetings: October 1996, April/May 1997, and October 1997.

At the Spring 1997 meeting, there was pressure on Committee delegates to withdraw their early votes supporting 48 inches. After a five-hour battle and the longest debate on a single provision in the whole three-year revision cycle, the room was quiet as the votes were carefully counted: 13 in favor of 54 inches, 18 for 48 inches, and seven abstentions. But the fight was not finished.

In October 1997, a surprise fifth and final debate on LPA’s proposal was scheduled. Once again I had to justify the reasons for lowering the unobstructed side reach from 54 to 48 inches. But when the final vote was taken, the victory was more decisive—22 votes for 48 inches, eight votes for 54 inches and only two abstentions.

As a result of LPA’s “get up” actions we learned that change is possible with preparation, perseverance, persuasion, and prayer.

Photo credit: Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

This post is a condensed version of Chapter 15, Breaking the Six-Inch Reach Barrier, in “ALWAYS AN ADVOCATE: Champions of Change for People with Dwarfism and Disabilities” by Angela Muir Van Etten. https://angelamuirvanetten.com/always-an-advocate/.

Categories
Accessibility

Are We There Yet?

Subway
stairs down to New York City subway

The impatient query of children traveling in the back seat of a car—Are We There Yet?—can just as easily be applied to Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance. Thirty-two years after the January 26, 1992 ADA effective date, the answer is “no, we are not there yet.” Violations abound.

1. Sidewalks and Curb Ramps

The lack of a good sidewalk network still deprives wheelchair users with mobility impairments from using public transportation due to access barriers between home and transit stops and from transit stops to their destination. In recent years, multiple locations across America provide a fraction of the curb ramps required by federal law—Atlanta (30%); Baltimore (1.3%); Oregon (9%); and Boston (less than 50%). Los Angeles estimated it would cost $1.4 billion and take 30 years to comply.

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2. Trains

Train systems built before the ADA are not wheelchair accessible and, according to the Federal Transit Administration, about 20% of transit stations nationwide still do not have elevators or ramps. For example, only about 25% of New York City subway trains are served by elevators and these are frequently broken. And despite an historic settlement with the Metropolitan Transit Authority on April 24, 2023, it will take until 2055 for at least 95% of train stations to be made accessible with elevators and ramps.

3. Taxis

A family of three people with disabilities traveling with two power scooters, a bunch of stools and suitcases tell how hard it was to get a taxi from a public transportation terminal to a hotel. Upon placing calls to cab companies that advertised service to disabled people, the first two companies denied service and hung up on them. A third company declined saying they don’t pick up from the airport and only transport people to and from doctor appointments. It took “sweet talk” and a private pay fare of $75 to convince the company to accept the ride. Sadly, this experience is more the rule than the exception not only for this family, but for many others with disabilities.

4. Hotels

After reserving an accessible hotel room, there’s no guarantee it will still be available when the disabled guest arrives at the hotel or if the room will even be accessible. In 2022, the United States Department of Justice resolved two such cases:

  • In U.S. v. Hilton Worldwide, Inc. (HWI)—after ten year of litigation—a Consent Decree ordered HWI to institute a reservations policy for accessible guest rooms that will hold open two non-premium accessible guest rooms as the last rooms sold at each hotel.
  • In U.S. v. Badrivishal LLC (owner and operator of the Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites in Columbus, Ohio), the hotel must ensure that its rooms, including bathrooms, that are required and advertised as accessible to people who use wheelchairs are, in fact, accessible.

5. And so much more
What can you add to the list of ADA violations that need to be addressed?

Photo Credit: Image by Foundry Co from Pixabay

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Categories
Character

The High Cost of Protecting Life

sanctity of human life

One thing we can all agree on is that we live in an intensely polarized society. Our various views on “life” being one of the most divisive issues. On one hand, people see life as an invaluable gift from God that is worthy of protection despite beginning at an inopportune time or being imperiled by disability or poverty. On the other hand, people see life as a choice to be made by women in control of their own bodies without regard for God’s hand in creating life and making humans in His image.

Sadly the discourse on “life” issues often demonizes those with opposing viewpoints. Rather than lose friends or create enemies, we sometimes retreat from expressing our opinion. But we need to boldly share our perspective while respecting those with a different belief.

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I was praying for such courage when in the midst of a highly emotional discussion on abortion at the 2022 Little People of America (LPA) national conference. In a post Roe v. Wade world, the group was intent on getting LPA to advocate for abortion rights for women with a pregnancy where it was known the baby had a terminal genetic condition and would only live a short-time after birth. Although the group did not agree with my pro-life position, at least they listened.

Organizations with a pro-life mission, such as crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), are a special target of abortion advocates. They are often attacked for providing care and resources to women facing difficult or unexpected pregnancies. For example, Planned Parenthood has described CPCs as “fake clinics” with a shady, harmful agenda based on lies, misinformation and propaganda about abortion. But this is a distortion of CPCs mission and practice. In 2022, a survey of pregnancy centers disclosed free services to women, men, and children, including: pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, parenting education programs, prenatal care, linkages to vital community and public health resources, and baby diapers, wipes, formula, clothes, and more. CPC refusal to offer or refer women for abortions does not make the clinics fake.

In 2015, the State of California passed the Reproductive “FACT” Act which forced life-affirming pregnancy centers to display information, including a phone number, on how women can obtain a free or low-cost abortion. With help from the Alliance Defense Fund, the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) sued California Attorney General Kamala Harris in federal district court, alleging that the Reproductive FACT Act violated its First Amendment rights to free speech and free exercise. In 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) agreed with NIFLA’s allegations. In NIFLA v. Becerra, SCOTUS found that the California law was an unconstitutional content-based regulation requiring NIFLA to advertise abortion—the very practice they were devoted to opposing.

After SCOTUS’ June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization found that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t contain a right to abortion, CPCs have been subjected to violence and vandalism requiring 24-hour security, anti-graffiti paint on buildings, reinforced doors, and bulletproof walls. Please pray for the protection of “life” advocates.

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