Welcome to CV4Life!

CV4Life (AKA Chemung Valley 4 Life as well as Chemung County Right to Life Inc.), serving Chemung, Steuben, and Schuyler counties and beyond, promotes the dignity of all human life thru service, education, action and prayer.

The phrase “Womb to Tomb” captures the focus of our group. We believe that God created all human life, in His own Image.  We believe that the story of Cain killing his own brother along with God’s response in Genesis 4:1–18, that clearly, God was unhappy in the deliberate taking of human life.  Later in Holy Scripture, God gave the 10 Commandments, one of which is “Thou shalt not kill”.  We believe that applies to both ends of human life, from abortion in the womb to euthanasia of the elderly and terminally ill, and “inconvenient”.

Activities include the participating in National March for Life in Washington, DC as well as locally in the Life Chain in October, 40 Days for Life in Spring and Fall, regular prayer vigils at Planned Parenthood offices, evening lectures on life topics, a booth at the Chemung county fair in August, and other various activities.

In the mid-20th century, the development of amniocentesis marked a major breakthrough in prenatal medicine. In 1956, Fuchs and Riis published a landmark study in Nature demonstrating that fetal sex could be determined by analyzing cells in amniotic fluid—specifically through the presence or absence of the Barr body, a marker of female chromosomes. That same year, British geneticist John Edwards first proposed the possibility of diagnosing hereditary disorders before birth.

These discoveries quickly led to medical applications: prenatal management of Haemophilia A began by 1960, and Duchenne muscular dystrophy by 1964. While these advances were initially used to help parents prepare for children with serious genetic conditions, the implications quickly widened.

As science enabled earlier and more detailed knowledge of a developing baby’s sex and genetic health—including conditions like Down syndrome (Trisomy 21)—this information began to influence deeply personal and ethical decisions. Combined with the rise of the sexual revolution in the 1960s, society saw the emergence of what many now call the abortion revolution. For some, pregnancies were terminated not only due to serious medical diagnoses, but also based on the perceived inconvenience of the pregnancy—or even simply because the baby was the “wrong” sex.

At the time, the lack of visual access to the womb made it easier to justify abortion through phrases like “just a clump of cells.” But that narrative began to collapse with the arrival of ultrasound technology in the 1970s, which for the first time allowed people to see detailed images of the unborn child.

One of the most striking turning points came from Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a prominent abortion provider and co-founder of NARAL. When he began using ultrasound during abortions, he saw in real-time how the unborn child reacted—flinching, recoiling, even appearing to feel pain. This led him to a profound change of heart. He went on to produce The Silent Scream, a film that exposed the reality of abortion through ultrasound footage and helped awaken the consciences of many.

For those of us who became life-long pro-life advocates, this combination of science and visibility—once used to justify abortion—became the very evidence that revealed the humanity of the unborn and the tragedy of abortion.