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The Pro-Life Week in
Review By Dave Andrusko There is a lot going on today at "Today's News & Views" and "National Right to Life News Today." Part of it is something that has become our tradition--ending the week with a quick précis of some of the many topics we've addressed this week.
Let me begin by reminding you of the existence of this additional blog--"National Right to Life News Today"--which can be found at www.nationalrighttolifenews.org. Generally speaking, it is posted several hours after TN&V, providing a "second edition," if you will. The goal is to provide another pro-life internet venue for the many, many people who come to the homepage of NRLC--www.nrlc.org--and to offer additional material that people can pass along via their social networks. Let's start with the Kagan nomination. From the moment Elena Kagan's name was announced, the skids were greased for her confirmation to sit on the Supreme Court. It's easy to see why pro-abortion President Barack Obama selected her: Kagan has turned sidestepping questions into an art form. Kagan was pressed this week on her heretofore unknown role in altering the public position of the influential American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists on partial-birth abortion. Her memory conveniently vague, Kagan disputed the interpretation -- i.e., she argued that she was just trying to get ACOG to say what it had said before in other venues and really thought. Materials from the Clinton Presidential Library suggest otherwise.
With pro-abortion Democrats packed like sardines on the Senate Judiciary Committee, there was little chance the truth would come out. Many stories this week focused on NRLC 2010, National Right to Life's high-powered three-day educational gift to the Movement. With upwards of 1,000 activists from all over the country coming to pro-life territory (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) to listen to a bevy of top-flight speakers, all the ingredients were in place for a memorable time. We also talked a lot about Nebraska's landmark "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act." Its potential to reorient the abortion debate is well known to our opponents. You can see why they would be nervous when you hear Mary Spaulding Balch, NRLC's State Legislative Director, summarize the thrust of the law in just nine words: "You don't kill unborn children capable of feeling pain." The law, basing its conclusion on an enormous body of medical research, sets the demarcation at 20 weeks. It'll be very interesting to see whether they take the law to court. Veteran New York Times Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse has co-authored a new book. Greenhouse, who now writes an online column for the Times and teaches, is pro-abortion to the last corpuscle. But based on the interview she gave to Terry Gross of "Fresh Air," there could well be enough original source material to make my purchase of "Before Roe v. Wade: Voices that Shaped the Abortion Debate Before the Supreme Court's Ruling" a good investment. And, as always, we discussed polling data, euthanasia and assisted suicide, and developments overseas. If you were too busy to keep up, take the time to go back to the archives. I will not be posting on Monday, but I will be reading and responding to your emails. Please send your thoughts and comments--always VERY much appreciated--to daveandrusko@gmail.com. Have a happy 4th of July and please remember what it stands for. |
