`Hasta siempre`

Hi guys!!This is my last blog on EMC this summer!After seven wonderful weeks is time to back to Spain.

I want to thank everyone, may be is the same as everybody says but I think that every goodbye that we made came from the heart, because all things that we have learned this summer we are going to remember for a lifetime and we will need to help in Spain all the women who want an abortion.

Firstly I want to thank Chris Slattery for helping in this way to all those women who need it and for giving us the opportunity to help too.

Secondly I want to thank all of those people who every day are in the office, because that is the hardest work and you do it with an incredible love, and moreover because all those weeks spent with each of you have been wonderful. So thank you very much!

And of course the incredible peers I have had this summer and the good friends I have made that I hope will last forever!

Thank you very much!!

Your choice is what it matter

The choices people make in life do not always portray their real convictions. Most often, people choose what they would do with their life based on other people's conviction. Some people change their mind on their own conviction because they have been persuaded by others to do that which ordinarily they wouldn't have done. Unfortunately, their life is based on the dictates of others.

An abortion-minded woman walked into the Brooklyn office on monday. Her boy-friend later joined her. After watching our videos, she decided (and was convinced) not to abort her baby again. But she has only one problem: she is completely dependent on the boy. We spoke to her at length and convinced her to keep her baby. The counseling and explanation we gave her made her change her mind. She will also pick a job through us (coupled with our free benefits); and this too made a lot of impression on them. I wish the boy's conviction will not later prevail over hers.
Please pray with me that she may discover her self esteem and stand by her conviction to keep her baby.

World Youth Day (Part II)

Awesome, incredible, perfect...These are some of the adjetives that would define the WYD in Madrid these days.

Despite the fear that existed about WYD, everything turned out even better than it was expected, because more than a million and a half young people were in Madrid supporting the Pope. In fact, it has been the highest concentration in the history of Spain! A lot of people used to say that we were a few, but as spanish people always sing: "Esta es la juventud del Papa" that means in english: "this is the Pope´s youth",and once again we have shown that many of us follow the Pope.

These days have been very hot, except the last one which unfortunately rained, but it did not matter because the most important thing was to be with the Pope supporting his cause. The only negative thing was the "indignados", a few group of people who were against the Pope´s visit and they tried to bother doing demonstrations complaining of the expenses that cost this event.

However, everything were wonderful, even all of us that were in the lifehouse followed the WYD here in New York and it gave us strength to continue fighting for our cause, the fight against abortion.

So thank you very much Benedict XVI!!

World Youth Day (Part I)

Yesterday it began WYD in Madrid. An ocassion of the Pope to visit thousands of youngs gathered to welcome him. We are in New York, so it's impossible for us to be in Madrid sharing this moment near to the Pope.

Pope's visit has caused much criticism from many people who were against Catholicism, saying it costs to the State and leaving the rest of the Christian world enjoy this special moment near the Holy Father. But the reality is that the state is not going to cost anything because WYD will cost 50 million euros will be funded 70% by the participants and 30% for corporate sponsors . In return, the event will 100 million euros in benefits in Spain. The state paid more than 25 million euros in VAT by WYD.

There is much expectation about what can happen these days because this is a call to us of the Pope for standing up for Christianity and we can not stay silent. So, although we can not be physically present in Madrid, we can also help by being here in New York.

Priests for Life

Last Wednesday we were at Priests for Life, an organization directed by priests who give their lives fighting aganist abortion. The thing that most impressed me was the great organization of everyting and the large amount of people that they help.
When we was there, we filmed some video clips telling our experiences here, working at EMC. Because of being nervous, I was unable to speak in front of the camera, I regret that a lot, because it was a great oportunity to help this cause.

That's why the next day, while I was working at Jerome Av, I seized the opportunity to give a tutorial about abortion in the office, with this tutorial, I hope I made up for my mistake at Priests for Life. I hope that the tutorial will be great. I will tell my experience in the following blogs. Wish me luck.

Working on the sidewalk

Most of the days since we arrived to the internship, we have worked in passing informatives brochures out. Those brochures, in spanish and english, talk about the abortion procedures, consequences, alternatives, and stories of girls that were happy to keep their babies.

Usually we just give them to the women that are walking on the street. Most of the times we have a table near us, with a DVD player with abortion videos, or fetus models of different ages. The table help us a lot, specially by attracting people who ask us about what are we doing.

The best part comes when those people talk with us in a very friendly way, and give us support. It's very encouraging to meet this people and talk with them during a while. It's always great to feel supported by even more people.

You don´t know what you have until you lose it

During these months in the EMC internship, I have seen at Dr. Emily's clinic many women who regretted an abortion they just had. Just in the moment after an abortion they realize what they have done, and many of them leave the clinic crying.

In this moment we can´t do anything for babies because they have died. We can help them get ahead, talk about how they can redeem their huge mistake, but the reality of the situation is already done.

I think that something like that happens to everyone, varying degrees because abortion is very serious, but when you lose your father, or your mother, or friend...sometimes these problems make you stop talking to those people you really love and out of pride or fear you don´t ask for forgiveness. The fear in those womens who are pregnant is to face the guilt and not have babies, so the solution is not abortion, because that only makes things worse.

We must fight for those womens to overcome this fear that makes them surrender to the problems that having a baby involves, because we know what will happen next. We need to encourage them to strive for the most precious thing in the world: life.

Never take enything for lost

The last monday I talked with a women who was 16. She was twenty weeks pregnant and she didn´t want to keep her baby, because she said that she wasn´t prepared.
During three hours, Maria, Nacho and I were talking with her about other solutions to keep her baby like adoption but she didn´t want keep him. Also she said that her boyfriend didn´t know that she was pregnant and she didn´t want him to know, because she was pregnant from another man.
Everyone could see that she was a teenager because the answers she gave were very childlike.
After we talking with her during all this time, we thought she was going to have an abortion because she didn´t seem willing to have the child.
However, just today Liz told us that this girl going to have her baby. I couldn´t believe this after what had happened but it was a incredible joy.
Since this happened I realized that always we must have hope in what may seem impossible, because with God´s help everything is possible.

A Brother, a Gift

The other day, Nacho and I were in the Bronx, and we talking with a woman who wanted an abortion, she had a son that was five. She wanted an abortion because she can´t maintain other child because she didn´t have a job, but the worst of her problems was that the father of her kid was her friend and he was already married. She was very scared about what God would think of her.

Then, not only did we give her solutions for her economic problems but we also told her something that she didn´t know: by aborting her baby she is not taking away her problem; first of all because the baby is not a problem it is a gift.We let her know that having another baby would give her son the possibility of having a brother, something incredible. Having a brother is a reality that cannot be compared to any other. From our personal experience (Nacho and I are brothers) we can say that having a brother is the best thing that could happen to you, because a brother is not only a brother, he is your best friend, someone that you can trust, the person that first comes and helps you whenever you have a problem. To sum up the crying shoulder that we all need at some point, sooner or later.

Ignorance

These days I have been talking to women about their situation with abortion, and most of them said that their parents, boyfriend, or friends didn´t want them to keep their babies. They said that the reason they wanted them to have an abortion is this, not for personal problems, not for lack of money, not for her health… And it is very bad that this people who supposedly have to help to keep her baby, they do just the opposite. They only think about themselves and the problems that they could have if this babies were born. They don’t think about what they want to do or what they could suffer with abortion.

The other day at Emily´s a women had an abortion. She was with her mother, her boyfriend and her boyfriend´s mother. I couldn´t believe what happened: While the girl was crying with her boyfriend because she had an abortion, her mother asked the boyfriend´s mother why her daughter was crying, incredible. It was in that moment when I realized that a lot of people have no idea what abortion is and the consequences that it has. And worst of all do not want to learn or be helped.

Poker Face?

The other day we were playing poker after work and I realized something: poker players are like some of the women I've met Some of them sit at the table and risk what they have until the very end, no matter what happens. Those are the women that get pregnant but are not afraid to carry their pregnancy to the end, so they are the winners. But the reality is that most of the women are like those players that wanna play but don't wanna take risks, they fold as soon as they can and then they are upset and sad because they haven't won.

What I wanna point out is that in life, like in poker, if you don't risk, you don't win. The thing that women need to know is that obviously risking is risky, I mean, in poker you need to risk and so you call and you raise and finally you win. There are some moments when you really think you are gonna loose, that you have no chance of winning but at the end you are the winner, the happy one. In abortion that would be the one that even if she is afraid of losing (not her money but her friends, job, etc) she keeps trying and fighting for her baby until he is born and they end up being the happy ones. On the other hand the woman that risks but gets scared and folds does not win, she's the sad woman, the ones that aborts and ends up with nothing. She may have kept her money but she has lost the possibility of winning, or, what is worse, of meeting her child.

If you play poker, risk it.

Don´t be Afraid

Usually, we say that the problem causing women to want to abort is that they are under pressure from their parents, boyfriend and people around them. All these people tell them that to have a baby so young is very complicated and the best thing to do is abort.

But I think that this thought is common because these days you hear it all the time: pro-choice people are talking about it being women´s rights and saying babies are not human , etc. That's why much of society thinks this way, and it's really intolerable when you know the truth.

In my opinion the real reason why this happens is that we, pro-life people, don't do enough to fight against that problem: the murdering of babies. We are very afraid to say something because people may think less of us, and we are unable to overcome that fear, so everyone says nothing. Therefore, the only ones who are being listened to are pro-choice.

That's why I think that the first step against abortion is ourselves, because if we are silent, the women who are thinking of abortion are overcome by the pressure of society. So as Pope John Paul II said: "Don´t be afraid".

God Bless America

Last week I went to Philadelphia and Washington D.C. Although I spent just one day in each place, I could have enough time to learn about the history of the US and its independence. I could discover also how hard the Fathers of America fought against Great Britain to achieve the freedom and the rights that they were looking for.

They fought for many rights such as freedom and life. These rights were above all at that time, but today they seem to be forgotten because of many laws, like the abortion one. The Fathers of America assured a good life to every american citizen. The unborn children are also American citizens and they had the right to live. But with abortion, they are not given this right and few will defend them.

That’s the reason why we work to defend to the most weak and young American citizens. I'm from Spain and I working to defend American citizens. We are sure that the Fathers of America would be proud of us. God bless America.

A great reason for coming to US

Hi I´m Carlos, I´m studying Architecture at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, a city of Spain. I am the seventh of a family of twelve children.

Since I began to study in Pamplona I have been a member of an organization like this, so when a friend of mine told me about this internship in New York I thought it was a great opportunity to support this cause.

My parents always showed me the importance of the right to life, and whenever I can, I tried to fight for this cause.

I arrived last saturday but I will stay here until september, so I hope to learn a lot from other people and I will try to help as much as I could.