By Jacki Ragan, NRLC State Organizational Development Director

Like all of you, the last few weeks have been immensely busy for NRLC but satisfying beyond words. Like you, we work on behalf of the powerless and the neglected. Late, late into the evening, knowing that what you and I do is making a difference keeps us going more than any jolt of caffeine.

This campaign has gone on so long it almost seems as if it started in the last century. But in a curious way, this long-drawn-out campaign has served a very important purpose. We know with utter clarity that John McCain and Sarah Palin make a powerful pro-life team. Likewise, for all his efforts to hide his voting record and his remarks, Sen. Barack Obama heads a ticket that would give the Abortion Establishment everything it wants, and more.

At this late date, we will not grow weary. I know with utter conviction that each and every pro-life citizen across this great nation will do their part.

I know with equal certainty that with the exception of talk radio, every major communications medium will do everything in its power to persuade you your efforts are pointless, that those of us for whom abortion is enormously important can't make a real difference.

Don't listen to them for a second. They say it only because they know that if the American public genuinely knew how radically pro-abortion Barack Obama really is, he could never had gotten this far.

Even at the eleventh hour--especially at the eleventh hour--there is much that you can do. Let me first suggest what you can do as an individual.

Volunteer your time and talents (as an individual, not as a chapter member!) in a pro-life candidate's campaign (stuffing envelopes, ringing doorbells, raising money, assisting on position papers, staffing telephone banks, distributing yard signs and bumper stickers, etc.). There are countless things that need to be done.

Campaigns are chronically short on help. You can give that vitally important assistance. Also, encourage pro-life teens from your community to volunteer as well.

As an individual, volunteer to assist your right to life political action committee in making local "get-out-the-vote" calls and distributing literature the weekend prior to the election. Since these calls ask the pro-lifer to vote for specific pro-life candidate(s), this activity must be done as individuals and not as your chapter.

Let me next offer a list of chapter DOs and DON'Ts.

Make sure you (and your pro-life friends, relatives, and neighbors) are registered to vote. Contact your local or state election board to determine if there is still time and what is needed in order to register to vote. Please don't delay. Never, ever believe that your one vote won't make a difference!

Contact your state National Right to Life affiliate to see how you can best assist in the efforts it is planning. If you do not have the number of your state affiliate, please contact the NRLC State Organizational Development Department and we can get it for you (202-626-8800, ext. 142). It is important to coordinate your activities with your state affiliate to maximize pro-life efforts. They are likely to have information that you lack. Working together always accomplishes more.

If your local newspaper is anything like mine, there will be a blizzard of back and forth "letters to the editor" the last couple of weeks before the November 4 election. Your letter can help to explain the importance of pro-life issues to the community.

Make sure that all pro-lifers in your community know their elected officials' stands on the abortion issue (which are determined through position papers, voting records, candidate questionnaires, etc.). If you do not have this information, contact your state office. This information can be distributed by your chapter and can also be distributed in pro-life church bulletins.

Also important are the activities that your group MAY NOT engage in as a chapter. As a chapter of your state NRLC affiliate, the chapter is probably recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(4) organization. In order to safeguard your chapter's non-profit status, please use great caution and participate only in those activities permissible for your chapter.

The chapter may not use its funds to expressly advocate the election or defeat of a candidate for local, state, or federal office. There are NO exceptions to this.

The chapter may not make a contribution (this includes financial or anything of value, such as lists, materials, etc.) to a candidate or campaign.

The chapter may not publish its own political advertisement in its local RTL newsletter. Political advertisements must be purchased by a candidate or political action committee and carry a proper disclaimer. The chapter may publish the stands or positions of candidates but must avoid editorial comments encouraging citizens to VOTE PRO-LIFE in the same newsletter.

The chapter may not make a contribution to a political action committee.

And, finally, when in doubt ... either ask ... or don't do it! Your chapter is too important to the Right to Life Movement to risk it.

One last very important note. Don't assume that just because someone you know is pro-life, he or she understands a candidate's true position on the abortion issue. Public opinion poll after public opinion poll shows that a significant percentage of people don't know that Sen. Obama is pro-abortion and that Sen. McCain is pro-life.

Make a commitment to personally educate at least 25 people and then ask each one of them to get the message to 25 more people.

There is a famous saying that could stand as the pro-life movement's founding motto:

Pray as if everything depends on God, and work as if everything depends on us.

Leave no stone unturned, no person uninformed. Standing strong and working together, we know we will make the difference!

The babies are counting on us!

Part One