July 11, 1935 - November 13, 2003
By Wanda Franz, Ph.D., President
National Right to Life Committee
We all mourn the loss of Thomas W. Strahan. He died suddenly, of a heart attack, in his home on the evening of November 13, 2003. Tom and his wife, Carol, had spent the evening at a fundraising dinner for the local crisis pregnancy center in Minneapolis. The funeral service was held at Bethlehem Baptist Church on November 18. I was able to attend the service in Minneapolis representing all of Tom's friends at the National Right to Life Committee.
I first met Tom at a Project Rachel meeting. A group of researchers had gotten together to talk about ways to improve the research output on post-abortion issues. There were a number of ideas for projects that could be undertaken by our recently organized group, the Association for Interdisciplinary Research in Values and Social Change. However, everyone was already very busy and no one wanted to take on any more work - - no one except Tom. He always had the most enthusiastic energy for work that might help save lives.
I learned that Tom was a lawyer who had been working for the Rutherford Institute putting together an annotated bibliography on post-abortion issues. He had the most wide-ranging and thorough understanding of the damage done by abortion of any individual I know. He continued to expand his bibliography over the years. It has recently been published as Detrimental Effects of Abortion: An Annotated Bibliography with Commentary by the Elliot Institute.
In 1986 we began a wonderful working relationship with Tom. He slowly began to take over the work of the association and the organization has developed the stamp of his special skills and abilities. He was the editor of the association's Research Bulletin. He was responsible for identifying pro-life researchers who could come to present their findings at the association's annual paper presentation. The quality of these meetings was due largely to his very effective work in identifying speakers.
His legal training combined with his fascination with research produced a creative output that continually amazed me. He had the ability to find issues that would make excellent research topics. He noticed very early that women who had abortions had significantly higher rates of smoking following their abortions. Since smoking was becoming known as a dangerous behavior that had been widely litigated, it was logical that any activity that increased smoking behavior should be viewed negatively.
As a result, he produced a number of literature reviews for the association newsletter on this topic. Many of the newsletter articles he wrote were driven by this same approach: to demonstrate that abortion produced effects that even the liberated abortion culture would find offensive.
He was responsible for developing the positive approach of viewing childbirth as beneficial to women's bodies. He collected together the data on the positive impact of pregnancy and lactation on a woman's protection from many forms of cancer, especially breast cancer. He was able to make the case that the abortion culture is responsible for encouraging women to engage in behavior which is naturally damaging to their health. I believe that this is an important medical message that should have wider attention.
Tom was very concerned with the obvious fact that maternal deaths from abortions were not being correctly reported. He began a project of searching through death certificates to see the way that "causes of death" were being listed for women who were known to have died as a result of abortion. He found a wide
variety of approaches to the terminology used even though the cause of death was known to have been abortion. He wrote up the results of his findings for the last newsletter we published before he died.
Tom published a number of law review articles. He frequently attended the meetings of Faculty for Life and presented papers at its conferences. He contributed to a number of research projects. Tom worked well with everyone and left a large number of friends behind who will miss him.
It is impossible to replace Tom Strahan. He made an absolutely unique contribution that could never be copied. Tom was working on the most recent issue of the Research Bulletin when he died. We want this issue to be a memorial to him. It is the last one to be published under his direction and it is being done in his memory. We do not know what form our future publications may take, but we know they will never be like the ones Tom produced.
We know that the Association for Interdisciplinary Research in Values and Social Change will be a different kind of organization without Tom. We hope to be able to continue its work. I know that is what Tom would want. May he rest in peace.