Dear friend, Hello!! I hope that the first few weeks of 2021 have treated you well and that the future looks bright for you and your family. 2020 was a difficult year, but I have great hope in what lies ahead! I’m writing this letter to share my heart with you and invite you on an endeavor that the Lord has set me on in this new year. I believe that you know what’s at the core of my personal mission: a love for our Lord, a love for human life, and a love for the God-given qualities that set women apart from men. It’s these loves that led me into the pro-life movement full-time in 2018, and it’s these loves that continue to motivate me to pursue what is good, true, and beautiful. Over the past three years, God has had me on a journey. It began at Illinois Right to Life – a job I’ll forever cherish and one I’m deeply grateful to have had – and continued at Students for Life of America, where I entered into the role of Director of Government Affairs just six months ago. Of course, the Lord’s plans for us do not always look the way we expect them to! Only a few weeks into this job, a vision began to unfold in my mind for a new organization – one that educates and advocates for these values at the core of my personal mission, but from the perspective of concern for authentic women’s healthcare. In November, I registered Feminae Vero as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the state of Illinois and on Friday, January 15th, I had my last day at Students for Life of America. Here’s a small bit of history for you: As the oldest of three girls, I grew up in a household that deeply valued femininity and fostered the natural qualities in my sisters and me that led us to be soft, nurturing, and maternal. Our parents encouraged the God-given desires on our hearts for beauty, love, and motherhood. They spoke to us honestly about our value and expressed to each of us – with conviction – the mystery of our female bodies and the call to share them only in marriage. So, it was shocking to us, later in life, to discover that doctors we inherently trusted wanted to suppress that which made our bodies miraculous. Acne and other common hormonal issues led us to physicians us, time and again, to begin taking artificial hormonal contraceptives. We were promised clear skin, more predictability, and – of course – unattached sex. Praise God, the values-based household we grew up in raised flags in our hearts and minds. Why would we take a medication to stop our bodies from working the way they were supposed to? The pieces didn’t add up. Fast forward a few years when my sister, Emily, discovered the Saint Paul VI Institute in Omaha, NE. Just like that, there were answers to our longtime questions available at our fingertips. What we’d thought all along was true – putting a stop to a woman’s natural cycle doesn’t solve her health problems. That year, Emily entered into the FertilityCare Practitioner program, led by Dr. Thomas Hilgers, and relayed the information she was learning to Caroline and me. We responded to her lessons with shock and awe – awe at the truly miraculous nature of the female body, and shock at how we’d been misled by the doctors we’d trusted to be experts on our health. As Emily witnessed these incredible truths in Hilgers’ program, I was witnessing truths of a different nature through my time in politics, and more recently, in the pro-life movement. Today, I am baffled by the massive gaps that exist – even within pro-life circles – in what we teach about women’s bodies and the definition of “women’s healthcare.” These gaps, I believe, are largely based in a fear that secular society is not ready to receive the whole truth of women’s health. But how can we honestly advocate for truth if we withhold a significant portion of it? With Democrats in control of both the White House and Congress, we are headed toward an expansion of Obamacare, at best, and socialized medicine, at worst. This also means a further elimination of the already-scarce options available to women who are seeking honest care. For this reason, it’s more urgent than ever to begin 1) educating the public on what women’s healthcare actually looks like, and 2) advocating at all levels of government for laws that allow ALL women to be honestly cared for – regardless of their income, level of education, location, and other eliminating factors.
Education and advocacy are at the core of Feminae Vero’s mission. Feminae Vero is a Catholic organization that educates on the honest treatment of common women’s health issues like endometriosis, infertility, hormonal acne, and PCOS (among many others), and advocates at all levels of government for laws that not only allow for this care, but till a fertile soil where providers can grow and flourish. The vast majority of mainstream medical treatments for women’s sex-specific ailments merely address symptoms without asking any further questions. Women deserve better. It’s time to begin taking a thorough, honest look at women’s bodies and responding to their issues with real solutions. What do I mean by ‘honest’ women’s healthcare? The use of artificial hormonal birth control as a catch-all band-aid for women’s health issues is a classic example of the inadequate treatment that women are subject to within our current healthcare system. Whereas the majority of doctors would prescribe the Pill to treat any number of issues, honest women’s healthcare refers to real treatment through the use of NaProTECHNOLOGY and other problem-solving methods that actually work to identify the problem using women’s biological markers and other hormonal indicators. Once the problem has been identified, physicians are able to take a critical look at what’s occurring and intervene with solutions as opposed to simply treating symptoms. Where does abortion fit into this? If the majority of mainstream doctors were equipped with the knowledge and education to provide honest women’s healthcare, abortion wouldn’t even be an option on the table. While abortion is one of the few sex-specific procedures offered for women and covered by most insurance and state Medicaid programs, numerous studies tie a history of abortion to increased rates of mental illness, substance abuse, suicide, infertility, preterm birth, and many other debilitating ailments that women are suffering from in higher numbers than ever before. Point blank, abortion is bad for women. To suggest that abortion is a necessary medical procedure is to misconstrue what actually occurs in an abortion and to ignore the trauma inflicted on the woman in the process. By discussing abortion from the perspective of an organization most concerned with authentic women’s healthcare, Feminae Vero fills a gap in the pro-life movement and lends a new voice to the argument that women don’t need abortion – in fact, they’re better off without out. Shouldn’t a healthcare organization be secular? Thomas Aquinas famously said that grace builds on nature. Feminae Vero leads with science-forward information but is rooted in the truth about human sexuality informed by our faith. I’ll say again what I said prior: how can we honestly advocate for truth if we withhold a significant portion of it? I am deeply convicted that we cannot remove God from this conversation, because it is in removing God from the conversation that we have descended to this point. Let’s allow the Lord to do His work. Let’s speak truth about how women were made and also about Who made them. I believe that there is also an excellent opportunity here for evangelization. Secular culture has begun to pick up on this notion that women’s healthcare is not what it should be. Women my age who are concerned with hazardous chemicals in their food, make-up, and other household products are realizing the inconsistent thinking of buying organic lettuce and simultaneously popping artificial hormones. To eliminate the opportunity for an encounter with God – who created their bodies and has a plan for their good – is short-sighted. We cannot pretend to be secular in fear of being rejected. Owning our Catholic identity allows us to tell the WHOLE truth about the woman. Can this issue gain political traction? 40+ years ago, abortion was dead on arrival in the American political arena. Elected officials refused to touch it in fear of ostracizing members of their base. Decades later, it is now one of the most-discussed and hotly-contested issues of our generation. This major shift in the political conversation is the result of the relentless activism and prayer of millions across the country since Roe v. Wade was ruled on in 1973. What if the same could be true for women’s healthcare as a whole? We cannot expect to see positive change in women’s healthcare if we don’t show up at the table. It’s time to start having these conversations and pursuing systemic change with courage. So, what are the next steps? As I mentioned at the start of my letter, I am no longer working for Students for Life of America. Over the next two weeks, I plan to raise $20,000 to fund three months of Feminae Vero’s work. Starting February 1, I will be running Feminae Vero and orchestrating the projects I’ve outlined below. In the following paragraphs, I explain in detail exactly what I intend to do in these first three months and why they’re important steps to take. 1. Build a presence on social media and a robust, resource-heavy website. 75 percent of American women ages 18-24 and more than half of ages 25-30 are on Instagram. This sampling alone is an indicator that we MUST have a presence here. Building an audience on Instagram and other major social media platforms is a critical step to reaching our target demographic – both for educational and fundraising purposes. Once they’ve connected with us on social media, we’ll be constantly sending them back to our website, where they’ll have access to science-forward information on honest women’s healthcare. Over these next three months, it’s a top priority to begin building this audience on social media platforms and a resource-heavy website. 2. Develop educational materials for elected officials across the country. Laws begin to change when the people making them have a shift in perspective. It is a top priority to begin putting science-forward educational materials in front of elected officials at all levels of government, so that they can recognize for themselves the laws that need to be changed to allow for honest women’s healthcare. In these first three months, I’ll spend significant time developing materials to educate elected officials on the need for a shift in perspective and the laws required to make honest care accessible for women of all incomes and backgrounds. 3. Build an audience of like-minded individuals to create a base of support. Like any nonprofit organization, Feminae Vero will rely on private donations to pursue our vision. It is critical in these early months to build a base of support that’s passionate about honest women’s healthcare, understands the urgent need for it to be readily available to women of all backgrounds and income levels, and is willing to give generously to the cause. Through personal outreach and social media/online marketing, I will spend these three months building trust with an engaged audience that will provide sustained financial support for the organization and its programs. This is only the beginning! I’ve shared all of this with you and outlined my plans for the future because I believe with my whole heart in what Feminae Vero will do. There are dozens of pro-life organizations across the country educating the public and advocating for the unborn to elected officials, but none of them are taking the approach of leading with educating and advocating for the honest healthcare that women deserve. So, this is where I ask you, my friends, family, and members of the pro-life, pro-woman community, for help. I am raising $20,000 over the next few weeks to fund Feminae Vero for three months. If every friend and family member who receives this letter gives $200, Feminae Vero’s first three months will be MORE THAN fully-funded. Will you consider making a gift to Feminae Vero to help me fund these first three months? If you have further questions, concerns, or want to speak with me in greater detail about Feminae Vero, PLEASE call or send me an email. My cell phone number is 815-768-9632 and my email address is marykate@feminaevero.org. You can make a donation at feminaevero.org or by sending a check to: P.O. Box 577532, Chicago, IL 60657. You can also help by connecting me with others who’d be interested in financially supporting this mission! THANK YOU for your generosity, and for believing in this work that I’m so passionate about. I know that, together, we can do incredible things for women and their health!
Gratefully, Mary Kate Knorr Founder & President