Life After 40, a Right to Life of Michigan educational campaign showcasing the growth and development of unborn babies, came to a close on January 22, the 40th memorial of Roe v. Wade. For 40 weeks, a fact about life before birth was shared every week on the Right to Life of Michigan website, blog and social networking profiles. The posts encouraged people to be a voice for those without one by sharing a factual snippet each week about the reality of life in the womb with their social connections.
An unborn child spends 40 weeks preparing for birth, and protectors of life have worked for 40 years defending the most vulnerable members of our human family. The campaign was designed to educate, but also to inspire prolife people to renew their commitment to a culture that values life at every stage.
The campaign also focused on reaching out to other prolife groups offering print and radio ads for use. Several groups outside of Michigan also joined in the campaign. National Right to Life highlighted Life After 40 on its blog and in its quarterly newsletter.
For one family in Fowler, Michigan, Life After 40 took on special meaning. The Bremer family discovered that they were expecting twins on Week 10 of the campaign. They used the fetal development facts to follow along with the twins’ development.
Alison Bremer, a self-proclaimed prolifer-from-birth, followed the campaign from the beginning. Her husband Mike, their three other children and family all enjoyed the weekly report on Ruby and Lula, the Life After 40 twins. Fetal development is a unique process, however, the twins didn’t exactly follow the schedule.
“They were a little ahead because there were two of them in there,” Alison said. “They didn’t slow down at the end because they were probably fighting for space.”
Ruby and Lula were born on New Year’s Eve. If facts of life after birth were part of Life After 40, the current weekly fact would report their favorite activity—looking at each other while lying in their crib. For the twins, the schedule was a little off and Ruby and Lula didn’t resemble any of the babies used in the Life After 40 print ads—or even each other for that matter.
“They don’t look anything alike, which is a good thing because we can’t mix them up,” Alison said.
Ruby and Lula were baptized on Jan. 20, Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. While prolifers were mourning the 55 million unborn children lost to abortion that Sunday, they were also celebrating the lives of those children saved, many of whom are alive thanks to their dedication these past 40 years.
If you would like to learn more about fetal development, visit our Fetal Development web page.