Kelly M. Rosati is the senior director of the Sanctity of Human Life Division at Focus on the Family, which includes the Option Ultrasound™ Program as well as the Adoption & Orphan Care Initiative. An attorney by training, Rosati was the executive director of Hawaii Family Forum for 10 years where she advocated for Hawaii's children and families in the Legislature and media. She and her husband, John, were blessed to adopt all four of their children from the foster care system.
1. What does Sanctity of Human Life month mean to you?
This is the time that we take to urge the entire Church to remember that each and every life is sacred and made in the image of God. And we want to celebrate life, and this month is a perfect opportunity to do that.
2. Focus on the Family works with many pregnancy resource centers and medical clinics. What exactly do they do?
Pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) and medical clinics (PMCs) provide an environment for a woman, facing an unplanned pregnancy, that is free of judgment, that provides unconditional love and that meets her where she's at. They provide accurate information to help her assess her choices and to help her understand that she does have options besides abortion. Abortion can so often seem like the simple and easy way out. This young woman is fearful. She is confused. She is scared. And the volunteers and staff at PRCs and PMCs across the country help her assess her options.
3. How has Focus on the Family been involved in working with these centers through its Option Ultrasound program?
Since 2004 Focus on the Family has been so blessed to provide ultrasound machines and sonography trainings to qualified pregnancy medical clinics all across the country. We've done 467 grants in 49 states and one international placement. And, as we've done those placements, we've collected data to find out if our intuitive sense about ultrasound making a difference; if we could actually verify that with numbers. And the great news is that we can. We know that since 2004, 72,000 babies have potentially been saved through Option Ultrasound. We also know that, because of ultrasound after counseling, we've had 60 percent more stated decisions for life from those women than we would have had with just counseling alone. And that's why we're so committed to ultrasound technology, and why we're so committed to the pregnancy medical clinics that use this technology day in and day out, again, to serve women and to save lives.
4. Tell us about personal feedback you get?
One of the most gratifying things about our jobs is that almost every day we get to hear stories of young women and girls who are in a desperate situation, who thought they had no way out, who were determined that abortion was the solution, who walked into a pregnancy medical clinic, who saw her baby on that ultrasound for the first time, and who said things like, "What was my biggest fear is now my biggest joy."
5. How could someone get involved with a pregnancy center or clinic in their area?
For people who want to do more than take 30 seconds and jot down their thanks and do more than pray for those clinics and those centers, what we're asking them to do is consider being a VIP. VIP stands for: "V" for volunteer. Consider volunteering in one of your local pregnancy resource centers or medical clinics. "I" stands for invite the representatives of those groups to come to your church to do a presentation. Your church will be blessed and your whole community will be blessed. And then "P" stands for pray, then provide financial support.FOR MORE INFORMATION
More than a thousand people have sent thank you notes to pregnancy centers as part of the Sanctity of Human Life Campaign. We encourage you to send your own note.
