By Dave Andrusko
From the very first day more than 22 years ago when I assumed the helm at NRL News, it's been my intent to treat our faithful readers not only as collaborators in defending innocent unborn life but also as an unparalleled source of information and inspiration for the "right to life newspaper of record." Rest assured, your ongoing input has helped keep the newspaper fresh and ahead of the curve in every phase of the ongoing battles.
I mention this for a couple of reasons.
First, because of you, the good ship NRLC is seaworthy, ready for all the tests a presidential year inevitably brings. Yet I can't help but think that our counterparts are piloting a vessel that is leaking water from every porthole and scupper. To change metaphors, reading their speeches and their presentations, it's like they're living life in a fallout shelter anxiously awaiting "the Big One."
Now how much of this End Times rhetoric is (more-or-less) sincere? Put another way, what proportion - - some/much/all - - of this is hysteria manufactured merely to bring tons of moolah into their coffers?
My guess is that the answer is some of each. The Abortion Lobby's the-sky-is-falling mantra has always made Chicken Little sound like Conan the Barbarian. It banks on its supporters falling for the same-old same-old. Judging by the money pro-abortion groups expend on ultra-expensive print and electronic advertising, this time-tested formula is continuing to induce anxious supporters to reach for the checkbooks.
But that is not to say it's only a cynical attempt to shake down their nervous nelly contributors. If you heard NARAL President Kate Michelman's recent speech to the National Press Club, or read her comments made on the occasion of the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, or skim NARAL's annual "Who Decides?" overview of state legislation, what's clear (although obviously not framed this way) is that pro-life initiatives are driving wedges along all of abortion's fault lines.
For the Abortion Lobby the basic dilemma is simple: what is (to them) an egregious infringement on abortion "rights" resonates just fine with most of the American people. That is why our Movement has steadily moved the yard markers down the field, legislatively making first down after first down. (See stories, pages 23 & 26.)
If you examine just a couple of the "top five categories of anti-choice legislation" from NARAL's "2004 Who Decides? A State-by State Report on the Status of Women's Reproductive Rights," you see why the Abortion Lobby is desperately treading water.
#1. "Restrictions on minors' access to reproductive health service." Give me a break!
The American public has NEVER bought into the self-serving Planned Parenthood insistence that our children are safe only when they are in PPFA's tender clutches and endangered when their parents know about a contemplated abortion.
#2. "Measures allowing individuals and entities to refuse to provide abortion and family planning services." NARAL calls these "Refusal Clauses." It is in a snit because some legislatures consider coercing consciences to be a moral abomination. Do most people really believe that the Abortion Establishment ought to be free to ride roughshod over everyone else's principles?
The second reason I mention your support and involvement is that because of you, we are clearly winning the battle for the future. Had I been a Kate Michelman or PPFA's Gloria Feldt and witnessed the arena-rocking enthusiasm that preceded the March for Life January 22, I suspect my blood would have run cold.
Over 17,000 young people crammed into the MCI Center (Washington's home for its professional basketball and hockey teams) to participate in the "Youth Rally for Life." Not only can they shout and scream and sing with the best of them, these young pro-life champions sent a message the entire Media Establishment managed to miss: the "pro-choice" movement is losing the ultimate contest - - the contest for the loyalty of the next generation of Americans.
Please read this edition carefully and pass it along to as many of your friends and family and colleagues as you can. On page 10 there is a form on which you can write the names of people who, after receiving a complementary copy of this paper, hopefully will join our readership.
It is a very good time to be a pro-lifer. Because of you, we have what the first President Bush once famously called "the Big Mo."
Dave Andrusko can be reached at daveandrusko@hotmail.com