NCPD's goal is to reverse the trend of women aborting after receiving an unexpected prenatal diagnosis. The abortion rate for these kinds of pregnancies is very high...up to 90% of mothers choose to terminate the pregnancy, and within that 90% are, sadly, Catholic women.

Prenatal testing (in the first trimester) is provided as a normal part of pregnancy care to screen for many conditions. In an alarming number of cases the preferred medical management in the presence of these conditions is abortion. But the term "abortion" is most times not used to describe the procedure; the preferred terminology used is "early induction of labor". This "new" abortion method does not employ terminology or techniques that we have come to associate with the termination of life, making parents, pastoral and family life ministers, and clergy vulnerable to recommending the acceptance of professional advice given them to have a procedure, which none of them recognize is an abortion.

NCPD will host an online web training that can be accessed through the internet or seen live at The Catholic University of America. The panel includes a Catholic bioethicist as the moderator, a Catholic priest and moral theologian, a Catholic OB/GYN, a Catholic parent of a child who survived her prenatal diagnosis, and parish-based ministry leader. Stories of families who have carried-to-term will be featured.

NCPD has partnered with the USCCB's Pro Life Activities Office, and its Chair, Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, in this effort. The NCPD webinar is free to any parish or ministry partner in an NCPD Affiliate diocese, such as the Diocese of Dallas. To Register and for more information visit ncpd.org or contact: Dr. Nancy Thompson at 319.270.6923 or by e-mail at .

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Sponsored by the National Catholic Partnership on Disability and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).