"These are young people for whom legalized abortion has always been a fact of life. But to them, abortion is also a crime, a violation of human rights far more heinous than slavery. They talk about abortion as a holocaust. And by opposing it, they see themselves as contemporary freedom riders, a courageous counterculture they believe will ultimately prevail over injustices just as the civil rights movement helped put a stop to segregation."
"A New Generation Rising Against
Abortion,"
New York Times, Jan. 21
It's
nice to be able to say that when obliged to write something different on
the occasion of the silver anniversary of Roe v. Wade, reporters
were far less prone to reach into their threadbare bag of stereotypes to
pull out the familiar cast of unappealing, goofy pro-life characters. All
in all, if the average reader weren't careful, after reading many of the
published accounts he might come away thinking pro-lifers aren't half bad
people.
Am I exaggerating the deficiencies of past coverage to make the more even-handed
coverage of events surrounding the 25th anniversary of Roe look better
than it actually was? No, not at all. Look at it this way. Think back over
past years and ask yourself how often your stomach turned queasy as the
time for the annual January 22 "feature" stories approached.
How customary has it been for you to see you and your colleagues caricatured
(at best) as a motley assortment of grim-faced sour-pussed men and women
- - preferably men and better yet dressed in clerical garb? With that familiar
sinking feeling, you knew the not-so-subtle purpose of highlighting this
unrepresentative cavalcade of cheerless, uncaring folk was to forewarn readers
that anything these oddballs say is not to be taken seriously. Not
fun.
And while there were hatchet jobs, overall it was as if reporters this time
around put on 3-D glasses bringing into focus a Pro-Life Movement which
had been nothing for them but a blur. (Change was so much in the air that
even the Christian Science Monitor stumbled on to the existence of
crisis pregnancy centers and the rebirth of maternity homes.) As stereotype
smacked into reality, something like the following interior monologues may
have transpired.
Lo and behold, there actually are pro-lifers under the age of
90. (Oh my gosh, those are teenagers out there, many of them boys
and girls of color!) And, can I possibly believe that countless numbers
of men and women have actually devoted their lives to assisting women who
are under enormous pressure to abort?
Aren't these people supposed to be bitterly vindictive, judgmental, unforgiving
souls? So why are women who've had abortions, men who've coerced them into
unwanted abortions, abortionists, abortion clinic owners, and single moms
welcomed at a pro-life rally?!
Come to think of it, what in the world is the plaintiff in Roe and
a guy who supervised an abortion clinic that operated 8:00 a.m. to midnight,
seven days a week, 120 abortions a day, doing on the same the podium as
the president of the March for Life?
I wish someone would please take away all those signs with scissors on them.
I don't think I want to know everything - - at least not about this partial-birth
abortion stuff.
The natural question is, In another month or two, will things revert to
the same old same old? I don't believe so. To unthinkingly dismiss the complexity
of the Pro-Life Movement once a reporter has personally come to know the
fascinating stories of individual pro-lifers requires a will to disbelieve
that most honorable reporters do not possess.
Besides, our pro-life kids won't let them. As one office wit put it, their
actions send a clear message: "This is not your old man's Pro-Life
Movement."
Don't get me wrong. When it comes to all the absolutely essential activities
that make NRLC one of the 10 most influential public policy groups in Washington,
D.C. - - electoral politics, lobbying, grassroots organizing, and the like
- - these wonderful young people shoulder more than their fair load.
But by modeling their core beliefs, they also prod the consciences of other
youngsters by arguing with them, counseling them, befriending them, loving
them. Their energy, creativity, and spontaneity make them ideal ambassadors
to high school and college campuses, and to that most exotic of all lands,
the offices of the local newspaper. (See
story, page 11.)
The times they are a changin'. Look at the upward ticks in the opinion polls,
congressional votes, The banner years we're having in state legislatures,
the great response to the Volunteer Identification Program, and -
- best of all - - the too-small but still steady decline in the carnage.
Perhaps the best evidence of all that the logjam on abortion has finally
been broken is the stunning fact that the following statement can appear
- - as it did last month - - in the pages of Newsweek. "One
of the dirty secrets of abortion is it's really gruesome, but nobody would
look at the pictures," said Cynthia Gorney author of the new book,
Articles of Faith. "With partial-birth, the right-to-life movement
succeeded for the first time in forcing the country to look at one awful
abortion procedure."
dha