May 6, 2024

Population Research Institute president headlines at Mother’s Day Dinner

REGIONAL
Story and photos by Carolee McGrath

 

SPRINGFIELD – Steven Mosher, author and president of the Population Research Institute, was the keynote speaker at the Massachusetts Citizens for Life (MCFL) Mother’s Day Dinner, held Thursday, May 2, at the Sheraton Hotel in Springfield.

Mosher, the first American social scientist to visit mainland China, witnessed the horror of forced abortions under the one-child policy. He has been fighting against coercive population control since the 1980s.

“I was in China, and I saw what abortion was. I was in the operating room when they were forcibly aborting babies of women when they were 7, 8, 9 months pregnant by Cesarean-section. When you are in the operating room and they are removing a dead or dying baby from a woman’s body, there is no doubt about the fact it was the killing of a tiny son of Adam, a tiny daughter of Eve, so I became pro-life,” said Mosher, a former atheist who converted to Catholicism.

He and his wife Vera have nine children and 13 grandchildren. He has written several books including The Devil and Chinese Communism. Mosher spoke to the more than 150 gathered about the dangers of population control.

“The main message is going to be one of the baby bust in the United States, because we are having fewer children for many, many reasons. Our birth rate is the lowest it’s ever been since the founding of the Republic,” Mosher told iObserve, explaining that the birth or fertility rate is 1.6. The replacement birth rate, or the rate at which population replaces itself, without immigration, is 2.1.

He offered solutions including tax shelters for young couples, and even partial student loan forgiveness for couples who marry and have children.

“If you’re paying half of your income in state and local and federal taxes, you don’t feel like you are able financially to bring children into the world. We can forgive student loans of young couples who are willing to marry and have children. I think that would be a good step,” he said, acknowledging that loan forgiveness is a controversial proposal.

In his talk, Mosher praised MCFL for its work, especially the recent effort to educate people on the abortion pill, which is now used for more than half of all abortions in the United States, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research arm of Planned Parenthood.

MCFL also has asked supporters to sign a petition to protect pregnancy resource centers, which have been the target of lawmakers in Massachusetts since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. A measure which would have placed penalties on so-called deceptive advertising of pregnancy resource centers was defeated in Easthampton last July. Currently, “An Act to protect patient privacy and prevent unfair and deceptive advertising of pregnancy related services” remains in committee at the state house.

“That petition is going to ask our state lawmakers to protect pregnancy resource centers or at minimum to stop attacking them,” said Myrna Maloney Flynn, the president of MCFL.

Representatives of several pro-life centers were present at the dinner including Alternatives Pregnancy Center in Greenfield; Branches Pregnancy Resource Center in Brattleboro, Vt.; and Christina’s House in Springfield, which houses women and children facing homelessness.

“Life can be hard and we need to remind people that God gave purpose to each and every individual no matter in the womb or outside the womb. Everyone has to have the chance to live life,” said Carolyn Martinez, the director of Christina’s House. The mother of three teenage daughters is a graduate of the program.

“This is not just a job for me but a calling from Christ to change lives the same way mine was changed forever,” she said.

For more information on MCFL’s petition and resources, go to masscitizensforlife.org.

A video version of this story will be featured on an upcoming edition of “Real to Reel,” which airs Saturday evenings at 7 p.m. on WWLP-22 NEWS.