“Pro-Life Journeys” now in paperback

Pro-Life Journeys is now available at Amazon.com in e-book and paperback formats. Later in January, the paperback will also be available from me directly at local events. And if you want to invite me to your event in or near southern New Hampshire, I’d be honored to hear from you!

I’m grateful to the blog’s Facebook followers for their encouraging messages. For those wondering how they can spread the news about Pro-Life Journeys, let me offer a few ideas. This is a self-published book, so I’m working without a net: no editor, no agent, no press representative. Let’s work together!

First and foremost, please read the book! Its Amazon page includes a short preview of the opening chapter via the “Look Inside” tab. For the e-book, you don’t need a Kindle device; you can download the free Kindle app to read the book on whatever device you use. A note for e-book fans: if you’re a Kindle Unlimited subscriber, you already have access to the book. Just click the KU button on the book’s Amazon page.

Like what you read? Let your friends know! Leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads. Do you have a podcast or other media outlet? Let me know if I can be of assistance as your guest. You can follow my site at ellenkolb.com, which includes links to more of my work outside of Leaven. Subscribe to that site’s newsletter for updates on book-related events and special sales.

The book’s final chapter – “The Journey Ahead” – is going to be at the heart of a speaking engagement I have later this week at a private venue. I’d love to share that chapter’s message of practical optimism with your group or class. If you’d like to contact me about your event, you can use the contact form at the bottom of the ellenkolb.com homepage.

Thank you to everyone who has reached out to me with encouraging words. Every blogger should have such readers!

Your tool kit for the 2023 legislative session

You live in New Hampshire, you’re pro-life, and you want your legislators to get the message. Here are the nuts-and-bolts of getting that job done with the help of the General Court website, which covers the state House and Senate. Bookmark this post so you can refer to it during this session.

I will create a separate page on this blog with the same information, so you can find it easily in the blog’s menu anytime.

No other voters in the nation are closer to their elected representatives than those of us in New Hampshire. Twenty-four senators, and 400 state representatives: you probably already know at least one of them for your town. If you don’t, it’s likely a simple matter to meet one. Take advantage of that.

Big change in 2023, reflecting the fact that the House is split 201-198: Most House committees are evenly split, with eight to ten members from each party. I expect some interesting outcomes.

By the way, I usually write “reps” rather than representatives. That does not reflect any disrespect for the position of a House member. It’s a matter of efficiency, not flippancy. When I’m flippant, you’ll know it.

If this information looks familiar, you’ve already got the tools. Let sharpen them.

Ways to communicate

• Face-to-face, neighbor to neighbor. In most states, with smaller representative bodies, this can be nearly impossible. In New Hampshire, it’s essential. Getting to know a rep as a neighbor, as someone whose kids go to the same school as yours, or as a town-team parent will yield benefits that go way beyond the representative-constituent relationship. When neighbor speaks to neighbor face-to-face about a problem, it’s personal.
• Face-to-face, constituent to representative. This is the next best way to build a relationship with your elected officials and thus to get your message across. As important as legislative hearings and floor sessions may be, that’s the tip of the iceberg as far as policy is concerned. Especially where the life issues are concerned, I’d say that 80% of elected officials have already made up their minds on a bill before the hearings ever begin. Private conversations long before the hearings have helped them form and cement their inclinations and beliefs. It’s imperative that you become part of those conversations.
• Phone calls. Keep them courteous and brief. Remember that for state reps, the phone number you see on the House roster is likely to be their cell number or even their home number. These people don’t have offices. Don’t abuse their openness to their constituents.
• Email. State-level elected officials get an overwhelming volume of email – as in “thousands” – when life-issue bills come up. Two things to remember: reps need to hear from you, and they’re not likely to read very far into an email. Properly used, email can get you on the record with a rep. Your subject line has to convey your message in just a few words, such as “from a constituent: please support HB xxx.” Always include your contact information in case the recipient wants to follow up.
• Handwritten letters and postcards. Next to private conversations, this may be the best way to express your concerns, especially if you have a story to tell or detailed information to convey. An email will be a drop in the bucket. A handwritten or printed message delivered with courtesy and compassion will have more impact. Think in terms of how you can make their jobs easier by equipping them with persuasive information and anecdotes.
• Participating in hearings online and/or in person. Sometimes, only showing up will do. A hearing on a critical piece of legislation is going to attract press and social media coverage, and don’t let any elected official tell you they don’t pay attention to that. Believe me, they do. Your presence at a hearing is a message in itself. So is your online sign-in. The pro/con numbers will be read into the record.

The basic legislative website: identifying members

Spend a few minutes exploring the General Court website (gencourt.state.nh.us). “General Court” is simply the formal name for the elected officials in New Hampshire’s legislative branch.

Note that a separate website operated by a non-government group, gencourtmobile.com, is also very handy, and has a feature letting you follow any piece of legislation throughout its process.

• New Hampshire House members page (gencourt.state.nh.us/house/members): you can select your town from a drop-down menu and find out the name and contact information for each of your state representative. Your town or ward might have only one rep or more than a dozen. Make sure you know who they are, regardless of party or voting record. Each and every one of them is accountable to you.
• New Hampshire Senate members (gencourt.state.nh.us/senate/members/wml.aspx): select your town from the drop-down menu to get your senator’s name and contact information. 
• Finding bills: the left side of the General Court homepage will help you look up a bill by its number, a keyword (text), or sponsor’s name. I’ll be covering certain bills in detail on this blog, but with hundreds actually under consideration, you might be interested in others. This General Court homepage is your portal to all of them.
• The House standing committees (gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/standingcommittees.aspx) page will give you a link to each policy committee – Education, Judiciary, Health and Human Services, and so on. That’s where to find the names of each committee member.
• Likewise, the Senate has a committee page (gencourt.state.nh.us/senate/committees/senate_committees.aspx). 

Calendars

The House and Senate calendars, published weekly in printable PDF format, list all the public hearings for the coming week. The calendars are usually available online on Thursday evenings. Each chamber (House and Senate) maintains a digital calendar as well. 

Starting this year, you can subscribe to have the calendars and journals delivered to your inbox as they’re published. Very handy. Look for the “subscribe” links on the House and Senate sites.

Hearings: in person and online

While you need to attend a hearing in person in order to offer spoken testimony, you can listen to hearings online. Click on the House or Senate digital calendar to find the committee or bill whose hearing you want, and you’ll find a link to the livestream.

Testifying on bills, and the critically-important remote sign-in procedure

If you want to give oral testimony to a committee, you need to get yourself to Concord. Your presence, especially with likeminded neighbors, can make a powerful statement even if you don’t say a word. That’s not your only way to testify, though.

You can sign up remotely online to register your opinion to committee members on a specific bill. This is a very important development in public participation, and it was triggered by the need for remote participation during Covid. During a hearing, the committee clerk will read aloud the tally of online sign-ins, pro and con. If a life-issue bill has 600 people registering one way and only 30 registering the other, that’s going to be news. 

Remote sign-in on a bill is available as soon as the bill is posted in the calendar, and you should sign in no later than 30 minutes before the scheduled start of a hearing to make sure the committee clerk has your name.

• Become familiar with the House sign-in form.
• Become familiar with the Senate sign-in form. The Senate site also provides detailed information on how to testify either in-person or remotely.

When you fill out the online sign-up form, you should get a confirmation page with instructions for submitting written testimony if you want to indicate more than simply support/oppose. 

Anyone – whether testifying in person, signing up remotely, or doing neither – can submit written testimony to any committee on a bill being heard by that committee. If you email the committee at its address (remember those committee pages I mentioned above), the message will automatically go to each committee member. You can also use postal mail sent to a committee or its individual members, which might make your message stand out. Every elected official is flooded with emails, particularly when the topic is a life issue.

Submitting testimony that can be read by the public

This is distinct from emailing the committee, as described in the previous paragraph. That can still be done, and your message will go to each committee member. The link in this paragraph will not only send your testimony to the committee but also make it readily available to the general public, where your personal stories and documentation will reach a larger audience.

Here is the link for submitting your public testimony:  http://gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/remotetestimony/submitted_testimony.aspx

Brevity, clarity, charity

Here’s the classic threesome to keep in mind when you reach out to a legislator.

• Keep it brief. If you’re testifying in person, you’ll probably have no more than three minutes. If you have a relevant personal story, talk about that. Your written testimony can be longer, and it can include documentation or data to augment your spoken testimony. Once a bill gets to the full chamber for a vote and you’re contacting each one of your reps, it’s best to be brief once again. Let them know you’re happy to offer more information, but for the most part, they’ll only have time to read a short message. 
• Keep it clear. Your call to action needs to come first: “please support [bill number] or “please oppose [bill number].” Don’t say “vote yes” or “vote no” unless you’re absolutely certain on what motion a committee or chamber is voting on; a “yes” vote on an “inexpedient to legislate” motion is a vote to kill a bill. If you want a bill to pass, say “please support this bill.” If you want a bill to be killed, say “please oppose this bill.” 
• Keep it polite. Regardless of your feelings about a particular rep or the rep’s party, you’re talking to a neighbor whenever you communicate about a piece of legislation. Someday, your courteous message might be the one to spark a constructive one-on-one conversation with a rep who is usually not supportive of pro-life policy. Be courteous, say please, and send a thank-you when a rep gets a vote right. 

Take a State House tour – and allow time to find parking

At some point, take a State House tour! Our State House is on the small side, it could use some tech upgrades, and it is not a modern building. Don’t be put off: it’s a gem. At a minimum, if you’re up there, stop at the Visitor Center on the first floor. The team there can give you a brochure for a self-guided tour, or you can book a tour in advance. Street address: 107 North Main Street, Concord.

If you’re going to a hearing in the Legislative Office Building (LOB), it’s across State Street from the rear of the State House. Street address: 33 North State Street, Concord. 

There’s a pedestrian tunnel connecting the LOB and the State House, which can be handy if you have business in both places. There’s a cafeteria down there at the State House end.

Parking in Concord near the State House can be a challenge. However much time you think it’ll take to get to Concord, add another fifteen minutes for finding parking and then walking to the State House or LOB. The city of Concord has a web page dedicated to downtown parking which includes a map of parking areas along with information on the handy Pay by Phone app (requiring a smartphone). If you don’t use the smartphone app, be sure to bring quarters. The city enforces its parking regulations.

For more information, contact your reps

Constituents who wants to learn more about state government can ask one of their reps, after looking up a representative’s name and contact information. It’s a good thing when a rep realizes someone’s interested in the process. It’s also a good way to initiate a conversation with an elected official, if you’ve never done so before.

Leaven for the Loaf marks ten years with anthology “Pro-Life Journeys”

I started this blog in April 2012. Early in 2022, with the ten-year anniversary approaching, I decided that creating a short anthology of posts would be a nice way to celebrate. The project took much longer than I expected. Who knew a book of less than eighty pages could require a dozen drafts?…uh…pretty much every author I consulted during the process, that’s who. Live and learn.

I’m happy to offer the finished product, in e-book format. Pro-Life Journeys is now available as a Kindle e-book on Amazon.com. A paperback version is in the works, and it will be available on Amazon as well.

Selecting the posts to include was difficult, but I think you’ll agree that the people whose stories I share are worth hearing about again – or reading about for the first time, if you’re new to the blog. For example, I’ve included the story of the families whose persistence led to New Hampshire’s fetal homicide law. There are interviews with people who work in pregnancy care centers. There are stories shared with me by former abortion workers, one local and one nationally-known. Those are just a few of the people you’ll encounter in the book. I take note of a couple of policy debates as well.

I called the final chapter “The Journey Ahead.” What can people committed to the right to life do now, in a post-Dobbs environment? I offer what I hope are constructive thoughts about that.

Pro-Life Journeys distills ten years of posts down to a short collection of stories about memorable people whose words and work can inspire us. I hope the e-book finds a place in your library!

By the way, you don’t need a Kindle tablet to read the e-book. The Kindle app is available via Google Play and the Apple Store for use on other devices.

If you like what you read, please help me share the news! Every self-published book including Pro-Life Journeys depends on readers’ reviews, social media posts, and good old-fashioned word-of-mouth. Let’s enjoy this particular journey as a team.

To all the blog’s readers, thank you for giving Leaven for the Loaf its staying power. Here’s to more years ahead.

Year in review: a surprising #1 spot on the blog

In politically momentous year for life-issue news, the most popular post on Leaven for the Loaf wasn’t technically a “post” at all. It wasn’t even political. It was a page: Pregnancy Resources in New Hampshire.

I wrote about the Dobbs decision and the leak that preceded it, and those posts drew a lot of readers. Likewise for alerts about important hearings in Concord. But the number one thing that readers sought here in 2022, judging from the number of views, was information on the pregnancy care centers and allied agencies providing support for babies and parents alike.

That’s fitting, in a year when we’ve been reminded repeatedly that political victories have their limits. I think when Dobbs pushed abortion policy to the states, it also prompted us to look at what we’re doing locally in terms of service and witness. People are looking for practical ways to help.

Some abortion advocates used Dobbs as an excuse to attack pregnancy care centers. All the more reason to keep those centers going and thriving, in my opinion.

People of the year

My People of the Year are the individuals behind the New Hampshire centers providing abortion-free care. Each staff member and volunteer is critical to the success of a center. The relationships they build with the people they serve do more than any court can do to build a culture of life. I nod to donors as well. Financial support translates good intentions into positive action.

The “do better” award

If I still had a little scuffed participation trophy from my kids’ earliest years on the town soccer team, I’d haul it out and re-purpose it here.

My “Do Better” award goes to the 2022 political candidates who talked about inflation when opponents were talking about how abortion limitations threatened women’s lives. You know who you are. The voters sure do.

Coming in 2023

Pro-Life Journeys, an anthology from the first ten years of Leaven for the Loaf, will be published within a few days on Amazon. I’m very excited to share stories from some of the most inspiring people I’ve written about, who deliver timeless messages. Watch for more information in the next Leaven email newsletter, coming out the first week in January.

Leaven for the Loaf will be covering legislation in Concord, keeping you updated on what’s happening and how you can affect the outcome. I’m especially keen to report on the effort to pass an amendment to the state constitution that would give abortion constitutional protection. It’s a budget year, and budgets involve more than numbers; recall that’s how the Fetal Life Protection Act was finally passed in 2021.

Because of the razor-thin GOP majority in the New Hampshire House, leaders of the minority were able to persuade House leadership that a 50-50 split of committee seats was a good idea. Look forward to some interesting outcomes in Judiciary, for example.

I intend to report on more pregnancy care centers and their services. The leaders of Pathways in Littleton and Options in Rochester have been generous with their time when I’ve visited them. They left me with a new understanding of how to serve a community.

Are you planning a pro-life event in your area? I’d like to hear about it and possibly cover it for the blog. Send me an email at ellenkolbnh@gmail.com.

My speaking schedule for 2022 will kick off in a couple of weeks at a private event in Hollis. May I help you as a speaker for your event or show? Send me an email and let’s discuss it.

On a personal note

Readers who have been kind enough to follow my writing across several blogs on unrelated topics can now keep up with the whole darn thing at ellenkolb.com. I guarantee it’ll be the only site you’ll see from an activist pro-life New Hampshire Catholic hiker who can’t stop scribbling. I hope you’ll join me there and subscribe to the site’s own newsletter.

May God bless you abundantly in the New Year!

Thirty minutes to look back, then turn the page

I often spend the morning after an election at a local coffee shop or diner. I invite politically-minded acquaintances. There’s one rule: whatever happened on Election Day, we take 30 minutes to crab and moan about any results worth crabbing and moaning about. Once the 31st minute hits, the post-mortem is over. We look to the future.

No one joined me this week. I still have my 30 minutes to go.

Quick review of this week’s election results: Members of New Hampshire’s federal delegation, abortion advocates all, were re-elected. New Hampshire’s enormously popular self-described pro-choice governor won big, in one of the most impressive results in the state, making him even more influential in the NHGOP than before. The 400-member New Hampshire House went from 213 Republican seats to just a shade over 200, depending on how recounts go. The New Hampshire Senate is narrowly Republican, short of the number needed to override any veto the governor might take it into his head to issue. The Executive Council is 4-1 Republican, with none of the Republicans getting more than 53.2% of a district’s vote.

Dobbs: mishandled

“…please, GOP, don’t screw this up by dodging Dobbs.” That was my plea in June after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. “Look for apocalyptic pronouncements from [Democrat] candidates about how Dobbs undermines women and threatens the Republic.” Check.  I added at the time that if Republican candidates tried to shift focus to inflation and the economy, they’d get what they deserved.

They sure did.

The Democratic Party up and down the ticket used abortion as its leading message, warning that women’s rights were at risk. No mention from them – or from Republicans, for that matter – of New Hampshire’s pro-life women. Federally, Republicans went with inflation as the main reason to vote GOP.

Here at home, how many Republicans did you hear talk about the risk to medical conscience rights if abortion-friendly candidates win? How many Republicans vowed to stand firm against public funding of abortion, including within Medicaid? How many talked about our state’s failure to report abortion statistics, which is a women’s health issue? With a slim majority, will New Hampshire Republican leaders decide that the time isn’t right to oppose the proposed state constitutional amendment that would make the direct intentional termination of human life a “right”?

I learned in 2011 and 2012 not to put faith in GOP majorities, large or small, where the right to life is concerned. The New Hampshire senate in that biennium had a 19-5 Republican majority. Can’t get much more impressive that that. You know what came out of that session? Parental notification and a ban on partial birth abortion. Good news. But I remember what failed in the Senate back then, too, after House passage: a prohibition on public funding of abortion (tabled), a Women’s Right to Know Act to require informed consent for abortion (Inexpedient to Legislate), and a post-20-week abortion limitation (interim study).

My 30 minutes are up.

The 31st minute and beyond

I thank God that pro-life work doesn’t depend on who’s in office. Grassroots work will yield results in the long run. If no group dedicated to constructive action already exists in your church or town or group, now’s the time to start one. Don’t wait for someone higher up the organizational chart to give you permission. Better that you work alone than not at all, but working with a group helps provide structure and encouragement for constructive work.

Here are few ideas, and this is hardly a comprehensive list.

Pregnancy care centers around the state offer abortion-free care for women and their families. They need volunteers, staff, and board members. They need advocates in the community who tour the facilities, get to know the workers, and then share the good news with others, one conversation at a time, including conversations with elected officials. The centers need resources not only for direct aid to vulnerable clients but also for facility security.

Eugenic abortion was written into New Hampshire law this year, signaling a troubling better-dead-than-disabled policy preference that has implications across the life-issue spectrum. Learn to tell your story, if you’ve carried to term a child with a life-limiting diagnosis. Learn to tell your story if you’re living with a disability or living with a terminal illness. Show how we can help each other choose life. Your story could help someone realize that there’s a human cost to embracing the direct intentional termination of human life.

I hope voters within the pro-life movement have learned that being in thrall to politicians who say they’re pro-life, and then express contempt for anyone who disagrees with them, yields only Pyrrhic victories.

Write thank-you notes to the people you know whose work helps build a culture of life. I’m going to be writing a few notes today, to pro-life reps who will be leaving office soon. They must have felt isolated at times.

Nonviolent public action doesn’t depend on majorities. Join vigils. Pray and work. If a march is constructive, be part of it. Come to hearings, and bring a friend.

I’ve been all over the state to speak about constructive civic engagement for pro-life Granite Staters. If I can be of assistance to you in your area, let me know.

2023, here we come.