Dr. Jean Garton to Speak at NRLC '2000

By Dave Andrusko

The roster of all-star speakers for NRLC '2000 continues to grow and now includes renowned author and lecturer Jean Garton. Dr. Garton will speak on June 29, the opening day of the three-day convention, which will take place in Arlington, Virginia, moments away from our nation's capital.

"Pro-lifers new to the movement best know Jean for her exquisitely written essays in National Right to Life News," said Convention Director Jacki Ragan. "Most of the rest of us were introduced to her talent when we read the original Who Broke the Baby?, one of the two or three most valuable pro-life books ever written."

The invaluable service performed by the first edition of Who Broke the Baby? was to demolish what were the then-reigning pro-abortion slogans. These included everything from "Every woman has the right to control her own body" through the denial of fetal personhood up to and including such flatliners as "Every child a wanted child" and "No one knows when life begins."

With her 1998 revision, Garton updated her devastating critiques of these pro-abortion "arguments," and took the occasion to dismantle some of the catchier reformulations such as the thrice-sacrilegious profanation that "Abortion is between a woman, her doctor, and her God."

Dr. Garton is such a powerfully persuasive pro-life advocate that few know that in the early 1970s she was "pro-choice." As she wrote later, she was "seduced" by the word "choice."

But she was instructed always to use euphemisms and misleading rhetoric, which led her finally to comment, "It seemed to me a strange kind of truth that required deception to promulgate it."

A crisis of confidence ensued and "I realized I either had to change my mind or continue to change reality by disguising the truth."

Pro-lifers often make mention of "telling the pro-life story." When done well, we mean by this the gift for conveying the unvarnished truth about abortion in such a manner that it breaks through or goes around the defense mechanisms people employ to live with the grim truth that abortion maims, mutilates, and mangles defenseless little babies.

Books such as Who Broke the Baby? rekindle our faith our ability to articulate the reasonableness, the unassailability of the case for life. A model for pro-life debaters, Garton gently grips the labels of her audience in many ingenious ways.

She has received countless awards. In 1985, the Religious Heritage Foundation chose her as the American Church Woman of the Year. Currently the National Conference Director for "Women of Hope," Mrs. Garton served as national president of Lutherans for Life (which she co-founded) from 1978 to 1995. In 1999 she addressed the Second World Congress held in Geneva, Switzerland on the topic of adoption. Dr. Garton has written for publications too numerous to list.

She was a founding member of the National Pro-Life Religious Council for which she has served both as Vice President and Secretary. Dr. Garton resides with her husband, the Rev. H.W. Garton, in Benton, Arkansas. She has four children and six grandchildren.

Editor's note. You can find transcripts of a number of Dr. Garton's Radio Broadcasts "Speaking of Life" at www.lutheransforlife.org/garton/speakingoflife/index.htm