Chapter Profile
Lynchburg Chapter of Virginia Society for Human Life Nation's First Local Chapter Celebrates 30th Anniversary

By Holly Miller, NRLC Field Coordinator

Lynchburg, VA - - Thunderstorms lit up the May 22 Lynchburg skies much as they had 30 years before when local pro-lifers held the formational meeting for the first local chapter of the first statewide right-to-life organization, Virginia Society for Human Life (VSHL). Who could have imagined back in 1971 that there would even be a need for a chapter 30 years later? Who could imagine "celebrating" when abortion is still legal three decades later?

But there is reason to celebrate, as current Chapter Chairman Kip Smith pointed out, because for 30 years, these dedicated volunteers have consistently kept respect for life at the forefront of the community's mind, educated their friends and neighbors on the life issues, and contributed to the success of pro-life candidates and legislation at both the state and local levels.

Nearly 100 local, state, and national pro-lifers gathered at Lynchburg College's Burton Student Center for the anniversary dinner and program featuring Virginia's Attorney General Mark L. Earley as the keynote speaker. (Mr. Earley subsequently resigned his position, having won the Republican Party's nomination to be Virginia governor.)

Rev. Carl B. Hutcherson, mayor of Lynchburg and pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church, welcomed the guests on behalf of the city and gave a stirring defense of life at all stages and for the protection of the innocence of children. The Honorable Geline B. Williams, National Right to Life's chairman of the board and co-founder of VSHL, was the mistress of ceremonies.

Clearly, the highlight of the event was the keynote address by Attorney General Earley. Earley was the primary sponsor of many successful pro-life bills while in the state Senate, including a parental notification bill and a ban on partial-birth abortion. Virginia's partial-birth abortion ban was subsequently invalidated by last summer's U.S. Supreme Court ruling Stenberg v. Carhart. As attorney general, Mark Earley and his team were successful in numerous court challenges defending the parental notification law.

His background as an attorney and a Virginian was evident in his address as he recalled the Declaration of Independence. "It is no mistake that the first inalienable right enumerated was the right to life. Unless one has the opportunity to live in a society that deems life worthy, that deems life valuable, no other liberty can be imparted," proclaimed Earley.

He went on to recall the lessons of history from slavery and the Jewish Holocaust, then asserted, "When history has been suffered, it has been when the value of human life has been diminished."

Earley also reminded the attendees, "Our task is to be faithful in upholding the sanctity and dignity of human life."

Few pro-lifers display the virtue of faithfulness better than the five dinner attendees who participated in the organizational meeting 30 years earlier. One of those chapter organizers is Brenda Fastabend.

In the spring of 1971 Mrs. Fastabend said she called Geline B. Williams in the hopes of finding a capable right-to-life spokesman to participate in a radio interview with a Lynchburg station. Mrs. Williams obliged, but also suggested that Mrs. Fastabend organize a meeting while she was there because VSHL needed a chapter in Lynchburg. Over dinner prior to that first meeting, Mrs. Fastabend inquired as to how many chapters VSHL had, to which a gentleman on the VSHL Board of Directors replied, "Congratulations, you're the first!"

In the 30 years since its formation, the Lynchburg chapter of VSHL has continued to build a membership of active pro-lifers as well as public support for pro-life laws and leaders. So congratulations are in order again to the Lynchburg chapter for its unwavering commitment to the unborn and vulnerable over the past 30 years. This group of dedicated individuals has demonstrated our mission as pro-lifers to endure until no more children die and no more women cry.