We Elected a Pro-Life President!

By Darla St. Martin and Jacki Ragan

After eight long years, America finally has a pro-life man again residing in the White House. The election victory, although fiercely fought, was finally won. Never again will we be able to hear the "my one vote doesn't really matter" excuse.

This year there can be no doubt that pro-life voters swung the election for President.

The Los Angeles Times conducted an Election Day poll that interviewed over 8,000 people nationwide. They were asked, "Which issues, if any, were most important to you in deciding how you would vote for president today?" And 14% said abortion--about 14.7 million voters.They broke overwhelming for Bush. He secured 58% of that vote as compared to only 41% for pro-abortion Al Gore. As columnist Marks Shields put it, "Simply put, that translates into a Bush advantage on the abortion issue of 2.5 million votes in an election that Gore won nationally by more than 540,000 votes." Millions of pro-life people went to the polls on November 7, 2000, and voted for George W. Bush because he was pro-life - - and the election was won by a very few votes. Those millions of pro-life voters were motivated by the hard work and sacrifices of both time and money made by hundreds of thousands of pro-life volunteers across America.

They distributed untold millions of flyers with information about the candidates' positions on abortion.

The pro-life volunteers who lived in "swing states" - - those that either presidential candidate could have won - - bore an especially heavy burden. But they were equal to the challenge.

In every state pro-lifers put up a noble fight for the children. It was a long, tough struggle but they did it for the babies. We can all be proud.

History will remember this election because it was so close, but the right to life movement will remember it because of the valiant efforts of so many thousands of pro-life heroes.

We Did It Right This Time!

This year pro-lifers refused to fall into any of the traps which would have led inevitably to a pro-abortion President.

Pro-lifers refused to believe the pro-abortion media attempts to make Bush look as if he wasn't really pro-life.

Pro-lifers also refused to follow the pro-life Pied Pipers who attacked Bush and would have led the movement into certain failure.

But most of all . . .

Pro-lifers kept their eyes on the final goal - - a pro-life President - - and didn't allow themselves to be sidetracked by either clever enemies or foolish friends. The result was a pro- life President!

Pro-Life Heroes Across America

There were countless people who helped. The following are just a sample of the wonderful pro-lifers who worked ceaselessly.

An engineer from Maryland heard that the NRL PAC staff was working late into the night and sleeping in the office, so he volunteered to come in and help them each night.

A couple who are members of NRLC from North Carolina gave one of the biggest donations the NRL PAC received after they read a description of partial-birth abortion.

NRL PAC Director Carol Long Tobias received word of her beloved father's death and worked through the night without sleep to complete recording radio scripts before she flew to join her grieving family in North Dakota. Her mother comforted her by telling her how proud her father was of the work Carol was doing.

A 90-year-old great grandmother who is an NRLC member from Wisconsin contributed $20 from her Social Security check to NRL PAC, for the babies.

A man from Hawaii lived for weeks with his son in Maryland while he volunteered full-time to help coordinate literature drops throughout the country.

Carloads of college students from Steubenville, Ohio, drove into Pennsylvania to distribute NRL PAC literature the weekend before the election.

A teenager distributing NRL PAC literature in a church parking lot in the Florida Keys rejoiced to hear, through an open church window, a pastor preaching a great sermon on abortion.

From every part of the country came reports of prayers being offered for the election by people of all faiths.

These are only a few examples of the many thousands of pro-life heroes whose faithful prayers and sacrificial gifts of time and money helped win this election.

Everywhere pro-life people, old and young, were giving more, working more, and most of all, praying more than they had ever done in any previous election.

President Bush has already begun helping the pro-life effort, as this issue of NRL News amply shows. As President of the United States, he will give America the leadership to begin building a culture of life.

But we still have our work cut out for us. This is not a time to relax or think we don't have to work just as hard as we did the last six months.

We need to further prepare our chapters to identify pro-life citizens and make every effort to keep the abortion issue in the forefront as we continue the daily battle to protect innocent unborn children's lives.

But remember in all of your efforts to keep President Bush in your prayers. His job is not an easy one and the pro-abortion groups, aided by the media, will hound him every step of the way.

An occasional note to President Bush thanking him for his pro- life views and his efforts on behalf of unborn children, we're sure, would be deeply appreciated.

Darla St. Martin is NRLC's associate executive director. Jacki Ragan is NRLC's state organizational development director.