Dear Friend,

Will it make a difference?

It’s the question all of us ask when considering making a significant year-end donation to a cause. Will my money actually help someone in need?

The answer is an emphatic and measurable “yes” where the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network is concerned. Because not only do we deliver hands-on support to women and children in crisis when and where it’s needed, we’re the only organization in America doing the work we do. Without us—without you—exploited surrogate mothers and the children they carry are literally without advocacy. 

therm-32560Moreover, any contribution you make today will be doubled by our matching gift campaign if we raise $100,000 before the end of the calendar year. As I write, we’ve raised $32,560. Can you please help us reach our target as we face a growing demand for our work?

Take the last two weeks of November for example: A pregnant surrogate mother of triplets in California was paralyzed by a decision no one should have to make. At 17 weeks of gestation, the man paying for her surrogacy ordered her to abort one of the three healthy babies. His lawyer effectively threatened to bankrupt her and her own children if she didn’t “selectively reduce,” which she did not want to do.

The mother had no idea where to turn, until she came a across a news article about some of our work. Within 48 hours we had arranged an expert, pro-bono legal team to represent her. We set up a special web page to collect donations for her and other exploited mothers, and we generated national and international media attention about her case, giving her important leverage going forward.

Had we not been there for her, the mother almost certainly would have been forced to abort against her will.

But the story’s not over: A day after the first dispatches about the case hit the newswires, a second paid surrogate mother of triplets reached out to us in virtually the same situation, after reading the news about the first mother. We are now working with her, too.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. With the dramatic proliferation of commercial surrogacy in this country, thousands of commercial surrogate moms are no doubt undergoing trauma right now.

At the same time that we’re working with many of these mothers in need directly, we are also driving a national conversation to prohibit commercial surrogacy, a practice already outlawed in Canada and much of Europe and Asia. We are working with opinion leaders, reporters, and advocates on a daily basis to drive home the truth about third-party gestational surrogacy and the damage it causes surrogates and surrogate children.

Without your help, we can do none of this work.

We are focusing on four major national battlegrounds in 2016: New York, Texas, Minnesota, and the District of Columbia. These are the places where the fight is hottest, and we are on the ground educating the public there and nationally about what surrogacy actually involves. And everywhere we go, we are showing our award-winning feature films, Eggsploitation and Breeders?, which chronicle the unforgettable real life stories of the bona fide exploitation of American women.

Will your year-end donation make a difference?

At the Center for Bioethics and Culture it will. We are where the rubber meets the road on commercial third-party reproduction and the wreckage it causes in individuals, families, and cultures. We’re the only force in America that can stop it.

We know you are pulled a thousand different ways this time of year. We know you have limited resources. But still we ask that you make the most generous contribution possible to this cause today because we simply have to be there for women in crisis and to fight back against a multi-billion dollar surrogacy industry that treats women like breeding animals and children like commodities.

If we’re not here to do the work, the work simply won’t get done.

A million thanks in advance for everything you’re doing for us and for all those we serve.

Yes, you can make an actual difference in 2016 and beyond. And so can we, thanks to your generosity and commitment.

With warm wishes for the holiday season and eternal thanks,

Jennifer

P.S. You can read about some of our recent efforts here, here, here, and here.

P.P.S. Don’t forget that any gift you give today will be doubled thanks to our matching gift campaign!

You make our work possible

The Center for Bioethics and Culture is a non-profit 501(c)(3) public benefit educational organization. All gifts are tax-deductible.

Author Profile

Jennifer Lahl, CBC Founder
Jennifer Lahl, CBC Founder
Jennifer Lahl, MA, BSN, RN, is founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. Lahl couples her 25 years of experience as a pediatric critical care nurse, a hospital administrator, and a senior-level nursing manager with a deep passion to speak for those who have no voice. Lahl’s writings have appeared in various publications including Cambridge University Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the American Journal of Bioethics. As a field expert, she is routinely interviewed on radio and television including ABC, CBS, PBS, and NPR. She is also called upon to speak alongside lawmakers and members of the scientific community, even being invited to speak to members of the European Parliament in Brussels to address issues of egg trafficking; she has three times addressed the United Nations during the Commission on the Status of Women on egg and womb trafficking.