The following story appeared in the October 22 Idaho Catholic Register.
Junior and senior high school students in the Praire Faith Formation Program planted 150 crosses at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Cottonwood. Each cross represents 10 babies of the 1,500 aborted in Idaho each year. The crosses were built by Steve Lamont and Deacon Ryan Uhlenkott. (Photo courtesy of Tri-Parish Catholic Church Facebook page)
By Emily Woodham
Staff Writer
Although the pro-life movement has been striving to dismantle Roe v. Wade for nearly 50 years, the circumstances women often face with an unplanned pregnancy have not changed, said Lisa Stover, donor relations director for LifeSiteNews.com.
Stover spoke at an afternoon tea at-tended by more than 100 to raise funds for the Treasure Valley Teens for Life at Our Lady of Rosary Parish on Oct. 9.
Stover asked those attending to consider what it would mean for the pro-life community to achieve its goals for abortion to be illegal. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Texas Heartbeat Law in September, which made abortion illegal in Texas if a fetal heartbeat can be detected, gives hope to the pro-life movement, Stover said.
On Wednesday, Dec. 1, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case from Mississippi. Stover said that there is a possibility that the case will overturn the historic Roe v. Wade decision made in 1973, which made abortion a federal right, overruling state legislation.
“I think it means that we, as pro-lifers, need to do our part to help provide tangible and sustainable solutions to the situations that lead women to get abortions,” she said. “Are we doing everything that we can right now to create a community that values and supports life? Whether abortion is legal or illegal should not determine how much help we provide to those facing unplanned pregnancies. If and when abortion becomes illegal, we must work even harder to ensure that men and women have the resources and support that they need to choose life.”
Treasure Valley Teens for Life raised $5,000 at the event, which will go toward a trip for 11 members to go to the National March for Life at Washington, D.C. on Friday, Jan. 21. The group is halfway to its goal of $10,000.
Stover helped start the TVTFL in 2015, when she was regional coordinator for Students for Life, a national organization that supports groups in schools and colleges. She also helped start and mentor the Knights for Life at Bishop Kelly High School in Boise.
Stover was raised in an evangelical family in Idaho. While at Boise State University, she threw her faith “out the window,” she said. “I was at this point in my life where I was so numb to right and wrong. I would do things that I knew were wrong, but they didn’t feel wrong anymore,” she said.
Through the faithful efforts of Catholic friends at the St. Paul Catholic Student Center at BSU, she came back to her Christian beliefs joining a Students for Life group. Her convictions about the sanctity of life led her to learn more about the Catholic faith, coming into the Church in 2014.
In 2016, she and her husband married at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Boise. Soon after their wedding, they relocated to Virginia, where she was crowned Mrs. Virginia of 2019. They moved back to Boise, with their three young children in July of 2020.
“We live in a broken world with a lot of broken people and that’s the reality,” Stover said. “I think that we can all agree even with abortion advocates, that these circumstances that women may find themselves in are difficult and horrible. It’s important that we express our compassion and concern for them in each case of a situation or circumstance, whatever it may be.”
Circumstance does not, however, determine the right to life, she said. “Abortion is just providing a Band -Aid to that situation and circum-stance. Over 50 percent of abortions that happen are repeat abortions. That tells us that whatever situation or circumstances a woman found herself in the first time she had an abortion, she’s still in it.” Abortion is not the solution, she said.
“I think that human beings are innovative and creative enough to come up with better solutions to the situations and circumstances that women find themselves in when they are abortion-minded, than to resort to killing the child. We can think of a better solution to that, and we must,” she said. The abortion industry, she said, is focused on the bottom line of making money, while leaving women with physical and emotional scars. Women have also died in often under-regulated abortion clinics, she said.
“We need to call our legislators; we need to show up; and we need to be there, because this isn’t an issue that we can win behind the keyboard,” she said. “When one-fifth of our generation is missing, it’s not enough just to believe that abortion is wrong. We must take a stand, and continue to take a stand, even when it feels hard and discouraging. If not you, then who’s going to do it? With your unique sphere of influence, who but you would do it? When there are thousands of babies being killed every single day at the hands of abortionists, if not now, then when?”
Stover currently does fundraising for LifeSite-News.com and speaks on the apologetics of the pro-life movement. She and her family are parishioners at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.
To find out more about TVTFL or to donate for their March for Life trip, go to tvt4life.com.
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