Who We Are

Our Mission

Right to Life of Kern County is a nonprofit organization that offers education on life-affirming alternatives to a society afflicted by abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide, and euthanasia. By engaging in public education and grassroots lobbying, we encourage the public and elected officials to uphold policies that protect life. We promote healing hope for anyone injured in heart, mind, and body by participation in such attacks on innocent human life. We seek to effect cultural change to create an environment for life, working within the law to change the law.

Executive Director

Marylee Shrider marylee@rtlkc.org

Staff

Administrative Assistant/Event Coordinator
Judy Goad judy@rtlkc.org

Board of Directors

Richard Garcia, President rachel9911v@yahoo.com
Annie Elrod, Treasurer
Pam Francis, Secretary
Dr. Regina Ng, Director
Joel Torczon, Director
Mike Molatore, Director
Michael Arriola, Director

WHAT WE DO

Students for Life Clubs

Right to Life of Kern County sees a growing Pro Life trend among our youth and believes teens and young adults are among our most ardent defenders of the unborn. To that end, we are working with students and life-minded faculty advisors to establish Students for Life Clubs on our local high school and college campuses. Partnering with Students for Life of America, RTLKC functions as a club-hub providing free educational resources, group activities, and fundraising assistance.

Currently there are Student for Life clubs at Bakersfield Christian High School and Garces High School. Students and advisors from Frontier High School, Mira Monte High School, and Foothill High School have expressed interest in starting clubs on their campuses and we expect to accomplish that by fall of 2014. Our long-term goal is to have a Students for Life group on every high school and college campus in Kern County.

Student Leaders for Life Scholarships​

Right to Life of Kern County established  Student Leaders for Life Scholarships to recognize the efforts of local graduating seniors who are active in promoting pro-life causes. RTLKC awarded its first two Student Leaders for Life Scholarships in May of 2013.

Ultrasound Informed Consent Act

Right to Life of Kern County is currently developing the text of legislation to ensure that women choosing abortion have adequate and accurate information concerning the procedure – its risks, alternatives, and long-term consequences. Ultrasound requirements, now part of informed consent laws in 24 states, help ensure well-informed choice because they allow a woman to see her unborn child as he or she really is, by seeing his or her form and face on a screen and by hearing the heartbeat. Pregnancy centers across the country, including Bakersfield, report that 70 to 75 percent of abortion-vulnerable women opt to carry their pregnancies to term after seeing the ultrasound image or hearing the heartbeat of their unborn babies.
 

This legislation will promote women’s physical and psychological health and advance the state’s important and legitimate interest in protecting life. RTLKC will seek legislative support for the act in the summer of 2013.

Life-Affirming Billboard Campaign

Plans are currently underway for a life-affirming and heart-transforming billboard campaign in Bakersfield, California. Simple but profound slogans and designs developed by a committee of professional marketers and graphic designers will primarily target abortion-vulnerable women and secondarily, all those impacted by abortion. RTLKC expects to launch the campaign in early 2014.