By Dave Andrusko

Part Two is a warning from NRLC to the House about the "public plan" and abortion. Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you'd like, follow me at www.twitter.com/daveha

Like millions of other viewers, over the last couple of years I have stopped watching NBC's Law & Order. Can't speak for anyone else, but increasingly I've found the story lines that are "ripped from the headlines" to be dull, boring, and--worst of all--utterly predictable.

Last week NRLC received a letter about "Dignity," tonight's episode. I didn't happen to see the letter until recently. But I probably would not have bothered to open it had it come to me first, based on the program's two previous treatments of the abortion issue.

But then there is the last line of the letter from the executive producer: "At the very least, it ["Dignity"] will confound those who thought they had us pegged." As I watched an advanced copy of the program today, I realized that truer words have rarely been spoken.

Since I want you to watch I will only briefly discuss the contents.

The show obviously is pegged to the killing last summer of abortionist George Tiller. As NRLC wrote at the time, we unequivocally denounced this act of violence as both morally wrong and contrary to every principle we espouse.

In this space I wrote, "When some deranged person talks him- or herself into believing that an act of violence is justifiable, it not only plays into the hands of abortion advocates, it also does untold damage to the cause of life to which so many of us have dedicated our lives."

But what makes the Law & Order episode so riveting is that virtually every pro-life argument you knew you would never hear on a network program is a part of "Dignity." More important, it occurred to me as I listened in utter astonishment that each of these observations could have been presented in a way that was artificial, forced, or (as so often is the case with network portraits of pro-lifers) something that you would expect from an idiot. None of that was the case. These were real flesh-and-blood people, not caricatures.

Just one other thought, something else "ripped from the headlines," in this case the undeniable pro-life bent of a number of recent opinion polls. It is presented as a given that the country is becoming pro-life!

Be sure to take the time to watch Law & Order tonight. You will be as pleased as you are surprised.

Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. 

Part Two