Dear Friends,

If you were able to attend the annual Rose Dinner raising money for WVFL Educational Trust Fund, thank you for contributing.  This year, our guest speaker was Melissa Ohden, survivor of a failed saline infusion abortion performed in Iowa in 1977.  She was found in a closet in the hospital, where she had been left to die.  Two nurses, instead, brought her to the intensive care unit, where her life was saved.  Hear her Rose Dinner presentation at our YouTube channel.

At the dinner, we also saw the video, “The Voice of John.”  This video begins with the story of a nurse working at “a teaching hospital” in Morgantown, WV.  She tells of finding a baby boy in a closet and being told that it was an abortion, and he must be left to die.  The only thing this nurse could do before he died was to baptize him with the name of John.  She vowed that she would be his voice, since he had no voice of his own.  Sadly, John did not live to tell his story as Melissa has been able to do.  We must remember that the horrors of abortion exist very close to home, in our own community.

Our next Rose Dinner will feature Cal Thomas, Fox News contributor and syndicated columnist.  He will speak on Friday, March 28 at Lakeview Golf Resort and Spa.  The reception is at 6:00 p.m. and dinner begins at 7:00 p.m.  Tickets are $50 each or $1,000 for sponsoring a table of eight with other levels of sponsorship available.  Put the date on your calendar.

We also heard from our lobbyist, John Carey, about our efforts to educate our legislators on the opportunity they have to pass legislation to opt-out of abortion in the health care exchange here in West Virginia.  We must gather petitions to demonstrate to our legislative leaders that the people of the state don’t want to pay for abortion in their health care.

If you were one of those signing the petitions, I want to thank you for making your voice heard.  There is still time to be part of this important pro-life effort.  Please continue to collect signatures on these petitions from all your friends and family and at your church and prayer groups.  We will continue this effort in the 2014 legislative session.  You can now sign the petition online by 1) visiting our homepage, 2) downloading it from our webpage, or 3) signing it electronically to the right of this post.  Please send the signed petitions to us at WVFL, 25 Canyon Road, Morgantown, WV, 26508 so they can be presented at our February 11 Rally in the lower rotunda of the Capitol.  Make plans now to join us there for what we hope and pray will be the largest gathering of pro-lifers EVER seen in the halls of the State Capitol!

Sincerely, for life,

Wanda Franz, Ph.D., President