By Rai Rojas
NRLC Director of Hispanic Outreach

Part Two relays wonderful news about the 2009 NRLC Oratory Contest winner. Please send your comments on both parts to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you'd like, follow me on http://twitter.com/daveha.

"Elections have consequences." This has become a painful and oft repeated mantra for most pro-life Americans.

And as a consequence of the 2008 American elections we find ourselves engaged in an epic battle to keep the most radical of the pro-abortion agenda out of the Healthcare restructuring bills currently before Congress. That herculean effort also includes educating the American population to the dangers of health care rationing which are also a part of current proposals.

But elections have consequences all over the world. Sometimes an election in our very own backyard can be the harbinger of horrible pro-abortion things to come such as in Ecuador with the August 2009 re-election of President Rafael Correa.

Costa Rica Pro-Life President-elect Laura Chincilla

The mood and the story are much different in Costa Rica, the strongest democracy in the region. Laura Chinchilla was elected the next President of Costa Rica by a landslide in an election held on February 7. According to local newspapers, she "handily won each of the seven provinces and 79 of the 81 municipalities." She will take office on May 8.

President-elect Chinchilla isn't just the first female President of Costa Rica, she is also the first President-elect who marched in Costa Rica's version of the March for Life. In November of 2009, she was a huge presence during "The March for Life and Family." The march defended the dignity of every human life against abortion and euthanasia. She campaigned on an unabashedly pro-life platform

Catholic News Agency (CNA) reports that Radio Fides (the official station of the Archdiocese of San Jose) released the details of a phone conversation President-elect Chinchilla had with Archbishop Hugo Barrantes Urena.

"The prelate congratulated Chinchilla adding that he was proud she would become the first female president," CNA wrote, quoting Radio Fides.

Laura, as so many of her followers call her, is a graduate of the University of Costa Rica and has her master's degree in public policy from Georgetown University. She has years of experience in government. Chinchilla's victory is a set-back for pro-abortion forces in Central America

She has continued to make strong pro-life statements since her triumph and promises that are firmly based in her faith. "I am grateful for the gestures of the Catholic Church in the creation of a climate of harmony," she said in her conversation with Archbishop Barrantes Urena. "I will always be appreciative of the Church's advice, which is welcome." She also expressed her commitment to "the defense of the truth and the values the Church proclaims. I will strive to keep them at the center of my administration."

Her pro-life pedigree ensures that this victory wasn't just a victory for the ruling party. This was a victory for women's lives and for the unborn children of Costa Rica. For much too long those who profit from abortion have been using their blood money and international organizations to hammer away at the protective laws of so many Latin-American countries.

President Correa has allowed the Planned Parenthood Federation of America to declare war on Ecuador's most vulnerable and has sent abortion advocates to represent his country at the United Nations. That election is proving to have deadly consequences.

But the election in Costa Rica will have consequences as well. A pro-life woman at the helm of that nation will ensure the continued protection of that country's greatest resource, its unborn children. Pro-lifers the world over should rejoice and offer our best wishes and congratulations to President-elect Chinchilla.

Part Two