Reflections on a Great Convention

It's not often that everyday experience so tidily reinforces the thrust of something one is the process of writing. Here I am, a third of the way through an editorial the point of which is how NRLC's convention reinforced for me the importance of reaching out to new allies, and I'm talking with one of the brightest intellectuals in the academic firmament.

He's articulate, thoughtful, and blessed with a dry wit. And he's unabashedly pro-life! Over the years I had read some of his writings outside the abortion context but it was only in the last couple of months that I was informed he was not a rival in the abortion battle but a companion. A mutual friend suggested we talk after my new acquaintance (overly) praised some of my work.

On reflection, the 30th annual NRLC convention held in Pittsburgh reminded me how, in one sense, our battle plan never changes. We must (a) energize those already identified as friends to the unborn; (b) "fish where the fishes are" - - go trolling for new supporters in waters where they are likely to congregate; and (c) keep an eye out for an occasional pro-lifer in forums where you wouldn't necessarily expect droves of pro- lifers to be assembling because, well, you've got to start somewhere!

Any number of workshops and general sessions "preached to the choir," inveighing them, in turn, to also preach to the choir back home. People who travel hundreds, even thousands of miles (and who typically pay for the trip out of their own pocket) to attend a convention are hard-core by any definition.

They were reminded that they have been chosen by the Author of Life to work tirelessly on behalf of His children. And even as speakers encouraged them to personally press on, the audience was also asked to go back to their local chapters and encourage like-minded souls to do...likewise.

But what really resonates as I look back on June 27-29 is the enormous unrealized potential that exists out there if only we have the courage to be creative and the willingness to meld the best of the old with new and innovative ways. It may sound odd to use the word courage when all that is demanded is, for example, to talk to your pastor whom you already know to be in your corner. But sometimes familiarity breeds temerity.

The workshops on working with the Hispanic and African-American communities were brimming with urgency. These are naturally pro- life communities. As Rai Rojas, NRLC's director of Hispanic outreach, put it, Hispanics don't like abortion.

Each community - - indeed, different components within each of these two communities - - must be dealt with in a manner that respects where they are currently coming from. And that includes addressing their stereotypes, both of the issue itself and of pro-lifers.

There is an answer to each objection that exists to a more vigorous involvement - - for instance, the widespread sense among many Black men that abortion is a "white" problem. Pro- lifers just need to know those answers and what kind of individual can best present those responses to skeptics.

At the same time we also must keep reminding them of certain very unpleasant truths. For example, that, proportionately, black women have triple the number of abortions of white women. That, whereas in 1972, black women had 23% of the total number of abortions, now they have 36%. Considered objectively, those grim truths might well lead the average African American to believe that the largest provider of abortions in the United States (Planned Parenthood) does not have the best interests of the black community at heart.

To be sure, half-digested generalizations about pro-lifers can be tricky to overcome, keeping productive change at bay. But if we band together on those principles we agree on - - that abortion is wrong and an evil that exacts a woeful toll - - we can in time fashion a full-fledged partnership.

One other thought, sparked by my conversation of earlier today. Granted, much of academia is not with us. But I guarantee that if you listen patiently, there are sounds of fissures in even the most seemingly unassailable bastions of pro-abortion orthodoxy.

This is very significant because I suspect at some level even pro-lifers subconsciously half-subscribe to the notion that to be against abortion and euthanasia is to be fighting a rearguard battle. You know the one about "turning back the clock."

If by this is meant that the "elites" see us as "vestiges of human development that the world would soon transcend" (to borrow from author John Stackhouse in another context), this is surely true. But just because they anoint their backwards-looking prejudices as the wave of the future doesn't mean we have to fall prey to their intellectual arrogance.

Truth be told, the values you and I champion are as revolutionary, progressive, and avant garde as you can ask for. Consider what we treat as non-negotiable.

That irregardless of surface dissimilarities - - race, creed, disability, or stage of development - - we are all members of the same human family whose right to life and legal protection cannot be taken away by government, majority vote, or the courts. Our core conviction is that we are important not for what we can do (as Nigel Cameron told the convention) but simply because we are.

There is a huge reservoir of pro-life sentiment bottled up. We just need to uncap it.

That is your job and mine. And what a privilege it is!

dave andrusko can be reached at dha1245@juno.com