NRL News
Page Back Cover
December  2006
Volume 33
Issue 12

Growing the Grassroots
By Dave Andrusko

When a Movement is not the beneficiary of loads of money, it makes up for this with “people power.” Without question, the network of pro- life citizens in communities around the nation is the underpinning for the Pro-Life Movement and the reason it flourishes against pro-abortion foes with access to virtually limitless resources.

Jacki Ragan is NRLC director of state organizational development. In an interview with

NRL News in late November, she explained that following the 2006 mid-term elections, pro-lifers had called her office to say they had come away from the disappointing results more determined than ever to have a “presence” across the nation.

Ragan explained that the first thing she asked her callers was if there was a NRLC chapter in their community. “Most weren’t sure. I just asked for their zip code and in a minute I could tell them yea or nay.” (NRL News readers should call 202-378-8842.)

“While the Pro-Life Movement is large, this is a huge nation of 300 million people,” she said. “That means there will be plenty of locations that need someone to start a chapter.”

That someone, Ragan said, “can be you.”

Many might balk at that, she conceded, but that was because they misunderstood what was required. The biggest hurdle most people need to get over is a sense that it is either incredibly complicated or all-consuming to start a chapter.

“It is neither,” Ragan said. “We have everything you need to get a new chapter started and we ask only what time you can give.”

“Organizationally, you don’t need to start from scratch; you don’t need to re-invent the wheel,” she explained. “We have a large inventory of successful ‘starter programs’ that can be mailed out to you in a jiffy.”

Ragan will be contributing a column each month to NRL News. “It’ll be a great place for me to share new ideas and to respond to questions that have come to my department in the previous month.”

Asked if she had any final words, Ragan smiled and said, “Pray as if everything depends on God, and work as if everything depends on us.”