Experience, Elections, and Enthusiasm Promise Bright Future
By Dave Andrusko

Conversations with Mary Balch are like the very best seminars I took in graduate school. Invariably, the professor would combine breadth of experience, empathy for his or her students, and a zest for the subject matter.

Whenever I ask NRLC's Director of State Legislation, she always graciously blocks out time in her ultra-hectic schedule to review what transpired in the state legislatures in the prior year and offer a look ahead to the coming session. As we talked just before Christmas, Balch was eager to talk about past experiences and future prospects.

"In several states it's like we made the playoffs but not the Super Bowl," she said. Commonsense legislation passed both the state house and the state senate only to be vetoed by a pro-abortion governor.

Balch's experience shone through as she put this into perspective. "While this is a short-term disappointment, temporary setbacks often result in medium- and long-term gains," Balch explained. "For example, when a governor vetoes a woman's right to know measure or stands in the way of passing bills calling for safer, more sanitary abortion clinics, or stops an unborn victims of violence bill from becoming law, it just shows the average citizen how radically out of touch he is with mainstream voters."

Such popular-with-the-public pro-life bills did pass in several other states, she added. Which is not surprising, given what NARAL's annual "Who Decides" report concluded a year ago.

Referring to 2003, NARAL maintained, "The nation's overall grade for women's access to abortion dropped to a dismal D." The reader is informed that what NARAL called "anti-choice lawmakers and judges" are "attacking the fundamental right to choose from every angle."

Balch cautioned that while, according to NARAL, "the sky is always falling," nonetheless, "they were right that the number of protective laws had jumped dramatically from 2002 to 2003." That trend was maintained in 2004 and "will continue in 2005," Balch explained.

So how bright is the future? "Very bright," she responded. "We now have more states where pro-lifers are a majority in both houses and have a sympathetic governor to sign pro-life bills."

What was often missed in the nearly endless post-election analyses is that President Bush had long coattails. Pro-life voters, attracted to the ballot box by Mr. Bush, also pulled the lever for local and state pro-life candidates.

As a result, in some states, already existing medium-to-good legislation can be tightened and improved, Balch said. In other states, new types of legislation can be introduced.

An example would be laws that require abortionists to tell women having abortions after the 20th week that their baby is capable of experiencing pain. States that have web pages would post this information. If they have brochures that abortionists are required to give to women, that information would be included there as well.

One of the big fights will be to stop cloning of human embryos to be used as medical fodder for biotech corporations.

Balch's most interesting insights centered on the kind of new legislators coming on board and on the dynamics of the Movement's grassroots.

"The Democratic Party is correct to be agonizing over its future, and not just at the national level," she said. The party's hostility to pro-lifers has pushed more and more of them out of the party.

"A number of 'Old Democrats' have become 'New Republicans,' Balch said. "They are very comfortable voting for the kinds of legislation pro-lifers are promoting."

This change is part of a large picture. It remains true that in some states, such as West Virginia, there is not only room for pro-life Democrats, but they are assuming a higher profile.

But as the John Kerrys and the Tom Daschles and the Hillary Clintons enforce a rigid pro-abortion orthodoxy on their fellow Democrats, more are fleeing to the Republican Party, Balch said.

Beyond this political realignment at the top and in the states, at the grassroots level "pro-lifers have grown increasingly savvy," she said. For example, after a bill passes one house, pro-abortionists are legendary for "losing" bills in the closing days of a session. Pro-lifers and pro-life leaders in the state houses are much better at ensuring that such parliamentary gimmicks no longer work.

Not widely known is that the Movement is also the beneficiary of two different kinds of experience, she explained.

"When I became involved in the 1970s, the Movement was being invented, so to speak, on the fly," Balch said. She explained that veterans like herself learned what worked, and why, and what didn't work, and why, the hard way: "trial and error."

Newer, younger pro-lifers come into a more established Movement, "one that has a foundation" made up of the 50 state NRLC affiliates, thousands of local groups, and the national office in Washington, D.C. "They can learn so much from what we went through," Balch said. "They profit from our mistakes but also bring a fresh perspective to passing protective legislation and to thwarting anti-life proposals."

This combination of a broader cadre of office holders, experienced, veteran pro-life leaders, and energized newcomers who often are coming straight out of college "is a potent coalition," Balch said.

"It is no wonder pro-abortionists see pro-lifers lurking everywhere," she said. "We are!"