CV NEWS FEED // A non-profit is following its pro-life mission by investing in research to benefit women, expectant mothers, policy makers, and medical professionals.
The Vitae Foundation promoted its mission at a booth at the National Eucharistic Congress last week, where Kristie Kempker, senior graphic designer for the organization, passed out cards with prayer intentions related to pro-life issues.
Kempker shared with CatholicVote on July 17 that the name “Vitae” means “Life” in Latin.
Vitae conducts “pro-life research in order to reach women in unexpected pregnancies,” Kemkper explained, adding that the research is also shared with pregnancy centers.
Carl Landwehr founded the Vitae Foundation, which was previously called the Vitae Society, in the 1990s. According to its website, the Foundation’s goal is “making abortion unthinkable.”
Along with its pro-life research, Kempker said that Vitae also has “a guidebook for medical professionals and also policy makers, so that they can know how to talk about the pro-life issue.”
Vitae published a book on women’s health called The Happy Girl’s Guide to Being Whole, by Teresa Kenney, a nurse practitioner.
Kempker explained that Vitae “found through our research that women did not know how their bodies worked, and so we worked with [Teresa Kenney,] a nurse practitioner to co-brand” the book. She added that the book is especially good for upper-high school to college-age women.
According to the Young Catholic Woman, the book also includes information on the risks and side effects of birth control.
The book’s co-editors Leah Jacobson and Megan Drapa said, according to the Young Catholic Women, that the book is written in both an approachable and informative way.
“The book is written as one girlfriend to another, but don’t let her approachability deceive you,” they said. “She is an expert in her field. She is trained in NaPro Technology and is skilled at getting to the root causes of women’s health issues—those same issues that most doctors minimize or are content to just cover up their symptoms.”
Kempker shared with CatholicVote that those interested in learning more about the Foundation’s research can visit vitaeresearchinstitute.org.
