EDITORIAL
By Dave Andrusko
Lessons From 2002
It would be a huge mistake to allow the disappointing loss in Louisiana's December 7 senatorial runoff to in any way take away from or diminish the marvelous November 5 results. As you'll recall pro-lifers worked overtime to increase our numbers in the Senate by two and in the House by 25, depending on the issue.
Incumbent pro-abortion Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.) narrowly prevailed over pro-life Suzanne Terrell for several reasons unrelated to the abortion issue. What we can say for sure is that Landrieu followed the script written by fellow pro-abortion Democrat Mark Pryor in Arkansas: obfuscate, feint, and be all-things-to-all-people.
Like a football halfback running in the open field, Landrieu cut back, reversed fields, before finally bullying her way past the truth on her way to the end zone. She is no slouch as a candidate.
Pro-lifers worked very hard in Louisiana to clarify, to educate, and to edify the electorate, as you did all over the country last month. In the final analysis we didn't prevail in Louisiana probably because Landrieu successfully clung for her political life to the very popular pro-life Louisiana Sen. John Breaux (D).
There are just a couple of items I would very much like our readers to consider late in December 2002. Next month we commemorate a very solemn occasionthe 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. What can be said that hasn't been said before, besides the very important fact that you must order many additional copies of NRL News's Special January 22 Commemorative Issue (see ad, page 27).
Many things, beginning with what you'll find in three stories: NRLC President Dr. Wanda Franz's column on page three and Director of Education Dr. Randall K. Bannon's story on page 18 which explain and interpret the latest abortion numbers from the CDC; and my story on page 17 that puts into perspective the remarkably positive news from a survey of public opinion taken by the Buffalo News. What do these stories tell us?
That the number of abortions continues to drop, people who reconsider their opinion are MUCH more likely to become more pro-life than pro-abortion, young people "get it"--abortion is wrong, and most people's first instinct when someone they care about tells them they're thinking about an abortion is to say please don't!
A related thought. Over the years some no doubt good-hearted people have counseled me and others like me that we put too much emphasis on information, on "facts." I've never known exactly how to respond.
It is true that people who believe that acquainting people with the reality of abortion--who gets them, why, whom it is whose life is extinguished--strongly affirm the centrality of clearing away noxious myths. But none of us believe education by itself will carry the day, no more than any other single facet of our Movement's multifaceted approach.
We educate, but we also work the halls of Congress and the state legislatures. We educate, but our PAC also works to elect pro-life candidates. We educate, but we also help crisis pregnancy centers help women who find themselves seemingly with no "choice" but to abort.
And "education" itself is complicated and many layered. Ultrasounds were not created to further the cause of our Movement, but that is their effect. Advertisements which talk about installing safety features in their automobiles to safeguard the babies of pregnant women are not underwritten by the pro-life movement. They are an effort by the company to assure families that they care about all members of the family, which has the unintended consequence of reminding us of the schizophrenia that is legal abortion.
Because we know that real live babies are dying each and every day, we are people perpetually in a hurry. That sometimes can lead us into a trap--the illusion that there is some particular initiative we can take that will turn the culture around.
There isn't, however, any magic bullet that will "cure" abortion. If only there were. What we do do is to shore up the natural defenses--the intuitive sense that we protect our unborn children, not slaughter them, for example--and attack abortion everywhere but especially at its most vulnerable spots--for instance, partial-birth abortion. We appeal to people's minds and hearts because we know we need to captivate both.
Which is only to say that in the very early days there were pro-lifers who thought abortion would be relatively easy to roll back. After all, the Supreme Court's decision was a patchwork of legal gibberish sewn together by a justice desperately in search of a rationale, wasn't it? Thirty years later we know better. Many of us have been in this fight for 25+ years and will stay in the battle until our last breath.
But the future is always in the hands of young people. And if anything is clear it's that the generations which have followed the Baby Boomers--especially the 18-29 set--simply do not ascribe to the abortion-is-a-good-thing-for-women mantra.
What that means is that pro-lifers have every reason in the world to anticipate 2003 with confidence. Like an ocean liner, public opinion is gradually turning around. The new destination is a Culture of Life.
Please, go to page 27 and order copies of the Special 30th Anniversary Commemorative Edition of NRLNews. It's an invaluable roadmap for where we've been, and where we're going.
dave andrusko can be reached at daveandrusko2002@yahoo.com.