Pictured are Mrs. Suzanne Clendenin, executive of Life Care Pregnancy Center or Carthage, N.C., and Dr. Mike Adams, speaker, professor and columnist."Powerful arguments for life are found in this article."
Dr. Mike Adams, a nationally known columnist, commentator and author, spoke at a Sept. 3, 2015, fundraiser for the Life Care Pregnancy Center of Carthage, N.C. The Thursday evening event was held at the Owens Auditorium located on Sandhills Community College in Pinehurst, N.C.
Attorney Neil Oakley welcomed a crowd of around 80 people, and Deacon Stephen Dozier gave the invocation.
“It is only in You [God] we find true happiness,” Dozier prayed.
Adams, a professor of criminology at UNC-Wilmington, spoke on “Life, Liberty, and Happiness” as related to the Pro-Life movement.
“Our Declaration of Independence is really a very simple document,” he said. “We have certain rights for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. … Jefferson did not have in mind to take away life in order to pursue happiness.”
Adams talked about Roe Vs. Wade, a 1973 Supreme Court decision that, on the basis of the right to privacy, gave women an unrestricted right to abortion during the first three months of pregnancy.
“What an incredibly bad decision,” he said. “It’s a disastrous opinion. It’s very long – about 75 pages – and not all of it is logical.”
Some people inferred in 1973 that defining “when life begins” was “complicated.”
“No, it isn’t,” Adams said. “If you look at the textbooks, there is a consensus that life begins at conception.”
The Supreme Court reportedly took a stand to remain neutral on abortion, he said.
“There is no room for neutrality,” Adams said. “After saying they remained neutral, they turned around and said you can have an abortion. If you have no idea when life begins, you have no right to have an abortion.”
He noted that in cases involving abortions granted for “the health of the mother,” a mother’s listed health concerns include “emotional distress.”
The 1992 Planned Parenthood vs. Casey case was an “even worse decision,” Adams said.
In that case, the Supreme Court affirmed (in a 6-3 vote) the basic ruling of Roe vs. Wade that the state is prohibited from banning most abortions.
“[Justices] Kennedy, O’Conner and Souter – three Republicans – signed on,” Adams said. “Anthony Kennedy said, basically, ‘If you want to pursue liberty and happiness, you have the right to define human beings out of existence.’”
Adams said “the question” is this: “What is the unborn?”
Adams Changed His View of Abortion
“I graduated 734th of 740 in high school,” he said. “I flunked English four years in a row.”
But he turned around in college and earned his doctorate in 1993. That year, he hired on at UNC-Wilmington to teach criminal justice. He was an atheist, at that time, he noted.
“I voted for Bill Clinton in 1992,” he said.
Lisa Chambers visited Adams’ family’s home in 1992.
“Don’t you know Bill Clinton is our first pro-choice President?” she said.
She told Adams about crisis-pregnancy groups and the late Bernard N. Nathanson, an American medical doctor and abortion advocate who changed his mind and co-founded in 1969 the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL). He narrated the 1984 anti-abortion film “The Silent Scream.”
“That lady planted a ‘stone’ in my head,” Adams said. “She planted this thought: What is the unborn?”
Adams had a PhD and hadn’t fixed that conflict, he said, adding that ten minutes with that lady eventually changed him into a pro-life person.
“Eighty percent of what we do is getting people to focus on the scientific question: What is the unborn?” he said.
He recommended “The Case for Life,” a book by Scott Klusendorf (www.caseforlife.com).
Adams Speaks on Campuses
“This is the 86th campus I’ve been on,” Adams said. “If they don’t allow me to show the clip (www.abortionno.org), I won’t show up [to speak].” (Warning: the video shows an abortion performed at seven weeks.)
“An abortion doctor usually won’t perform an abortion until after seven weeks,” Adams said, adding that the doctor is afraid he won’t be able “to get it all out” and might risk leaving parts of the baby that could cause infection in the mother.
The question is “Does a woman have four hands and twenty fingers?” he asked.
When people say abortions should be “safe, legal and rare,” they are “begging the question,” Adams noted.
After abortion became legal, abortions increased by 1.5 million per year, he said.
“They will say there is something different between the adult you are now and the embryo you were that justifies killing you,” Adams said. “They say, ‘They’re human but not a person.’”
He gave this illustration:
“Say, there’s a 10-year-old who doesn’t know how to read or write. You decide to kill her. You argue you shouldn’t be charged with her murder because she is less developed.”
A pregnant woman at Clarion University in Pennsylvania confronted Adams after he spoke at the school. She said something such as, “If I have a child growing inside me and depending on me for development, what right do you have to tell me … [not to abort that child]?”
He gave her this illustration: I shoot both adult conjoined twins. How many charges of murder will be brought against me? She said, “Two.” He said, “Zero.”
He indicated that because the twins were physically connected – reflecting the physical connection of a mother and an unborn child – there should be no murder charge.
Adams lectured at Summit Ministries for the last four years during summer breaks from his job at UNC-Wilmington. Summit’s Student Worldview Conferences (www.summit.org) are intensive two-week retreats designed to teach students (ages 16-22) “how to analyze various ideas that are currently competing for their hearts and minds.” Each summer, seven two-week conferences are held in Colorado, Tennessee and California.
Four years ago in Colorado, Adams met “Dan,” who held that an unborn child is not a human being.
“He changed in four years,” Adams said. “Dan now believes that abortion is OK only in the case of rape or to save a life.”
Dan has come a long way, Adams indicated.
“He saw the videos [Planned Parenthood videos showing a staffer discussing body parts “trafficking”] on Facebook,” Adams said, “and he unleashed profanities on Planned Parenthood. … Most [of Dan’s] progress has been made in the last four weeks.”
Adams said that pro-life advocates should seek “not to impose guilt over past decisions but to provide wisdom for future decisions.”
“Abortion should become not only illegal but also unthinkable,” he said, noting that there are two crisis pregnancy centers for every abortion center in the U.S.
Two Big Challenges Face Pro-Life
Adams sees two problems facing the Pro-Life movement:
First, universities indoctrinate students to accept abortion – and often illegally use funds to accomplish that indoctrination.
Second, churches don’t speak out against abortion.
“I noticed my pro-life pastor never talked about abortion,” Adams said. “I offered to talk [to the church] about it. The pastor declined my offer. I left that church.”
He began attending another church, and a similar scenario took place.
“Do serious research on what you give money to,” Adams said. “Do you send checks to your alma mater?”
We get lulled into apathy and end up funding assaults on our own cherished values, he said.
“If they [alma maters] are involved, withdraw your donations and give them to this crisis pregnancy center,” Adams noted. “And talk with your minister.
Abortion only exists with the assent of the Church in America. … How do you think you’ll be judged after you die? … If your church [doesn’t support pro-life] … take your tithe and give it to this crisis pregnancy center. And you leave that church.”
He condemned advancing sexual liberty as if it were the most important component of our nation’s concerns.
“How can we win this thing?” Adams asked. "It is all up to you, ladies and gentlemen. God bless you all.”
LCPC Sandhills Report
Oakley introduced Suzanne Clendenin, LCPC executive director.
“Thank you for bringing us the truth,” she said to Adams.
Clendenin noted that when LCPC clients are asked “How’d you hear about us,” they most often say “from a friend who’s been to LCPC” or “from the Moore County Health Department.”
The audience viewed a filmed testimonial.
Shown on video was Jennifer, who was 16 years old and pregnant with daughter Juliet when her friend told her about LCPC of Carthage.
“I got so much more than a confirmation of pregnancy,” Jennifer said. “I finally told my parents.”
Her parents took her to a doctor who asked Jennifer, “Are you going to keep this baby?”
“I was 24 weeks; she was fully formed,” Jennifer said about her unborn child.
That baby, Juliet, is now 16 years old.
“It was a hard road,” said Jennifer, who now serves as a nurse. “You can make it.”
Jennifer says she hopes to become a nurse practitioner and says that LCPC needs people to get behind it.
“Thank you, Life Care Pregnancy Center, for what you did for me,” Jennifer said.
Pledges for LCPC
After that video, Neil Oakley said, “Light is the only thing that can conquer darkness. We can choose to be the light. … Now is the time to choose the light.”
Attendees filled out cards and decided on making donations. As ushers moved among attendees, Annelle and Adria Staal sang “Life is Beautiful.”
Annelle and Adria Staal are pictured at the LCPC meeting. Questions and Answers
Oakley brought Dr. Mike Adams back to the microphone for submitted questions from attendees.
Responding to the first question, Adams said that socialist and Marxist views are very different from Christian views.
“It’s a worldview issue,” he said. “Marxists worship themselves and humanity. We worship God.”
Someone asked, “How can Christian high school groups continue to meet on campuses?”
High schools tend to take “viewpoint neutrality” stances, Adams said, adding, “Contact ‘Alliance Defending Freedom’ (www.adflegal.org),” he said.
Someone asked about his thoughts on Donald Trump, a candidate for the Republican nomination for President.
“I like having a guy in the race who just doesn’t care [what he says],” Adams said.
Trump has been “very shifty” over the years on the abortion issue, Adams noted, adding, “I’m a one-issue man. I go to the view of abortion. It’s possible to overturn Roe v. Wade.”
He declined to endorse a candidate.
How can we engage young people in “the cause for life”? someone asked.
“Young people don’t understand marriage,” Adams said. He referred to today’s youth as “Generation U,” meaning that they grew up with “Ultrasound,” an imaging method producing images of structures within human bodies. (Ultrasound images of the unborn have helped persuade some mothers to “choose life.”)
He suggested that Christian college students join serious Christian apologetic groups on campuses – groups such as Ratio Christi (www.ratiochristi.org). Ratio Christi (Latin for ‘The Reason of Christ’) is “a global movement that equips university students and faculty to give historical, philosophical, and scientific reasons for following Jesus Christ.”
He also suggested Summit Ministries (referred to earlier in this article).
Someone asked, “What will be done about Planned Parenthood?”
“The Center for Medical Progress (CMP) … first made headlines in July after it released secretly-recorded footage of employees of Planned Parenthood and StemExpress, a biomedical tissue firm, casually discussing the costs of transferring fetal tissue to a (fake) third party” (news from csmonitor.com).
“A lot of it has to do with the climate set by the President of the U.S.,” Adams said. “He sets the moral tone. … The answer: getting a pro-life President.”
The Rev. Jacob Skogen of Sandhills Presbyterian Church (PCA) prayed as the meeting ended, “Almighty God, … pour out your mercy on the unborn of this land. … We pray this in the victorious name of Jesus. Amen.”
Life Care Pregnancy Center of Carthage is “a
Christ-centered ministry that promotes the sanctity of human life by providing
Christian direction, compassionate care, accurate information and practical
assistance for individuals and families facing crucial decisions surrounding an
unplanned pregnancy or pregnancy related crisis,” says Suzanne Clendenin, LCPC’s executive
director.
LCPC is
located at 261 Niagara Carthage Road in Carthage. For
information, call 910-947-6199 or see www.lifecarepregnancy.com.
------------------------------ Some people who help with LCPC of Carthage are shown in the below photographs.
