Giving Tuesday typically takes place on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving. On that day, consumers are encouraged to support nonprofits like Massachusetts Citizens for Life, who often see a decline during the holidays. This year, the nonprofit world celebrates Giving Tuesday a little early, today in fact, due to the significant impact the pandemic has had on most nonprofit fundraising efforts.

I hope you are able to make a gift to MCFL now to help us during our participation in Giving Tuesday using this secure link: https://www.masscitizensforlife.org/giving_tuesday_may_2020

While the office may be closed, our staff is working from home and busier than ever focusing on a number of our top priorities. Here are two quick examples:

• Fighting Against the ROE Act: though our outreach efforts may have changed, your MCFL team continues to educate the public and legislators alike on the dangers of the ROE Act.

• Candidate Position Outreach: we are contacting every candidate running for public office to get their official positions on issues we care about on record. The candidate’s responses to our survey will be published, so every voter can make informed decisions in their primaries and on election day.

Unlike some nonprofits who receive government funds, MCFL is completely dependent on the generous gifts of our members who boldly stand up for life. If you would like to support our work during these uncertain times, you can make a donation by clicking here.

Thank you for all you do for life! I wish you good health and peace of mind in the weeks ahead.

We continue witnessing miracles during these challenging. Your generosity and support is one miracle we won't forget.

Will you join us at a Pro-Life Christmas Carol this Saturday?

With just a few days until Christmas, many of us are preparing to celebrate life.

But what you may not know, is that this is one of the biggest business times for the abortion business. New mothers in unexpected or difficult pregnancies ask: Where will I live if I have a child now?  What if she comes home from school with the announcement, "Mom, I have to tell you something..."

Your voice outside the Planned Parenthood can give a small new life a welcome he won't receive otherwise. Your voice will give love and hope to a mother who thinks she has no option. 

Will you do whatever it takes? 

Join us 8am-10am, Saturday, December 21st at 1055 Commonwealth Ave. Boston!

If you cannot come, please seriously consider giving to support our work. Donate now at this this secure link.

Your gift gives us the means to be there, to offer gifts of baby clothes and supplies to mothers approaching the clinic, and to reach out to the clinic workers.

Spotlight on Local Resources for Women in Massachusetts

VISITATION HOUSE

Worcester

FRIENDS OF THE UNBORN

Quincy

ClearWay Clinic

Springfield and Worcester Area

Problem Pregnancy

Worcester

Boston Pregnancy Center

Boston/Brighton

Thank you again for forwarding this to a friend, financially supporting our life-saving work, and doing whatever it takes to protect and respect human lives in Massachusetts. At the end of the calendar year, your support is all the more critical as I look ahead to plan for the new year.

Keep an eye out for photo updates and the report on the event after the holidays!

Sofia Infante, Communications Intern

[Director's note: 40 Days began as a religious campaign, and we invite all of our religious members to join on that basis. But the act of abortion is a human rights issue, not a religious one. Many of our secular advocates also participate, and we encourage everyone and anyone to follow their passionate example of outreach and vigil, with or without prayer, during a 40 Days Campaign.]

This year I am looking forward to participating in my first 40 Days for Life, and am grateful MCFL has sponsored the campaign in Massachusetts.

This mission-based campaign reaches women-in-need at ground-zero, and directs people’s attention to the impact of abortion in their own communities. The 40-day campaign, including vigils and witness at an abortuary, highlight the need and offer a life-affirming solution. Here are five reasons why I am already counting down the days until next year’s 40 Days for Life:

• 40 Days fosters a greater sense of community and a shared feeling of responsibility for our neighbor’s well-being

The director of The Lincoln Forum, our Board Chairman Dr. J. David Franks, considers solidarity through the lens of Dostoyevsky's striking concept of love in The Brothers Karamazov. This, and other readings, are part of our Social Ethics and Pro-Life Solidarity Certificate at MCFL. We welcome you to join the conversation that is creating a more just world, in-person, or remotely. If online, use #ReVitalize and #MassProLife to follow along.

Solidarity

By J. David Franks, Ph.D.

To be truly pro-life means to respond to the claim made on us by the other: to be responsible to and for the lives of others. And, somehow, we must know this without becoming sanctimonious.

This is the summit of wisdom, as Dostoevsky has Elder Zosima express it. He speaks of monks in a monastery, but we must see how this truth transposes to the pro-life sentinels of human dignity. We belong to the vanguard not because we are innocent of all the anguish of the world, but because we cannot escape our implication in that anguish.

by C.J. Williams, Director of Community Engagement, MCFL

A religious faith is not necessary to the individual position that abortion is wrong. But the Christian tenet that human lives are inimitable, imago dei, and irrepeatably precious, certainly seems like a good faith-based foundation for it. 

So what are many good apparently faith-rooted ministers doing opposing pro-life laws, and speaking out in favor of taking a vulnerable human life?

This is one great puzzle our Board Chairman explores in his recent article published in The Society of Saint Sebastian.