Marian Helper Winter 2015-2016

THE APOSTOLATES WANT TO HELP YOU SPREAD DIVINE MERCY The Divine Mercy Apostolates represent four unique lay outreaches of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception. They bring the message of Divine Mercy to communities throughout the world. For more information, call 1-866-895-3236 or visit TheDivineMercy.org/ministries. of Guadalupe, and a crucifix hangs in every room. The centers’ mission statements say his practices follow the Church’s teachings on abortion and contraception. Dr. Delgado believes that spiritual, physical, and psychological health are all intrinsically connected. As such, doctors must play a role that’s part pastor. “Both doctors and priests also have a special kind of privilege, on the grounds of confidentiality, to ask the questions that are sometimes difficult for people to con- front,” he said. In 2000, he used his pro-life initiative to found COLFS, which offers supportive counseling, free ultra- sounds, free pregnancy tests, and a variety of other free medical services to women in unplanned pregnancies. “It’s dedicated to being strongly pro-life, along with focusing on the emotional, physical, and spiritual health of members of the community,” Dr. Delgado said. “I wanted to create an organization that would help women navigate the difficult waters in crisis pregnancy situations.” Dr. Delgado said COLFS is the “flip-side” to Planned Parenthood because it provides a holistic and healthy look at sexuality and reproduction. “Everything we do is in the context of natural law, which is God’s design of how to view our sexuality,” he said. “Many people have told us they feel pressured at clinics to have abortions. Most of the time when women chose abortion, it’s because they felt cornered.” In 2012, Dr. Delgado said he received a call from Texas about a woman who had taken the abortion pill but immediately regretted the decision. The woman had taken mifepristone, the first drug used in Mifeprex medi- cation abortions. She had yet to take the second drug used, misoprostol. Dr. Delgado said he directed her to a local pro-life doctor and prescribed injections of proges- terone, the “pregnancy hormone,” to inhibit the effects of the mifepristone. “I started thinking about my years of experience with progesterone and how I’d used progesterone to try to prevent miscarriage,” Delgado said. Shortly after, Dr. Delgado published a report in the Annals of Pharmacotherapy, in which he treated seven pregnant women with injections of progesterone after they had taken mifepristone. Six of the women reported successful births. Once this study was published, Dr. Delgado said he ha d abortionpillreversal.com c reated to make infor- mation about Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) accessible to women on a global level. Their hotline, he said, gets 40-60 calls per month from people with both general questions and women seeking the option to get the progesterone treatment. “The goal of this treatment method and website is to pro- tect and preserve innocent life while simultaneously protecting and preserving the dignity of the mother,” Dr. Delgado said. The treatment’s success rate, he said, is about 60 percent — with 120 babies born after APR treatment. (Eighty women who underwent the treatment are cur- rently experiencing successful pregnancies, he said.) His second study, published at the end of September in the Annals of Pharmacotherapy , will include this data. While the APR is sometimes covered by insurance, Dr. Delgado said when a woman cannot afford the APR, they help her find local organizations to help cover the treatment. “We wouldn’t deny this treatment based on an inability to pay,” he said. “Even when local organiza- tions are not available or can’t cover the costs, we step up to help.” S ave the date ! The 12 th Annual Divine Mercy Medicine, Bioethics, and Spirituality Conference will be held May 4-5, 2016, at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Continuing education credit is available for participants. For more information, visit TheDivineMercy.org/worcester. MH