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NRL News
Decision 2008: The Difference a Pro-Life President
Makes My son is now 23 years old, 6'2", and about twice as big as I am. But it seems like only yesterday I was picking up him from soccer practice on a frigid November night 15 years ago. David, although only 8, knew that pro-life President George H.W. Bush was the underdog in his fight against two pro-abortionists: Gov. Bill Clinton and businessman and gadfly Ross Perot. He took one look at my face and quietly asked who had won. I told him Gov. Clinton. As I wrote at the time, we grabbed a quarter-pounder and ate in silence. I could tell he was thinking. After a while, David asked a question which no doubt crossed the minds of many pro-lifers that night: “Dad, do you think God has a plan if Clinton wins?” I explained that God is in control of everything, but that we must remember that there are a great many things that God permits to happen that are not in His plan for mankind. I inquired of David, if he could think of a reason God would allow this defeat for the babies. He paused for a minute and then responded, “To see if pro-lifers will stay on the job?” The memories of that night—the devastation so many of us felt yet the courage that millions of grassroots pro-lifers displayed in taking up the gauntlet when all hope seemed lost—are forever burned into my memory. It is no exaggeration to say that the next eight years were the ultimate gut-check for pro-lifers. Clinton, as slick as they come, won the presidency a second time four years later. During his two terms in office, there were many times our backs were pressed up against the wall. But I am proud to say that pro-lifers never blinked, never wavered, even in the first terrible year of the Clinton presidency when pro-abortionists ran the House and Senate, buoyed by strong majorities in both chambers. Bookies place odds on almost anything. But passage of the radical “Freedom of Choice Act” (FOCA) was such a “done deal” that even Las Vegas would have taken a pass. How could FOCA not be enacted when the pro-abortionists wielded every lever of power and the media insisted FOCA would merely “codify Roe”? But FOCA didn’t pass, thanks to a brilliant strategy created by NRLC that worked because of an amazing grassroots lobbying effort by people just like those reading these words. To this day, it remains a shining example of what “people power” can do. As we look ahead to the presidential election, compare the records of President George H.W. Bush, President Clinton, and President George W. Bush. The conclusion is inescapable: who occupies 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue makes a life-and-death difference. That knowledge is the beacon that will guide us over the next 10 months, especially on the inevitable dark days when we will need encouragement. Pope John Paul II introduced a powerful idiom and idea into our conversation: the “culture of life.” From the very beginning, President George W. Bush vowed to do all in his power to create such a culture, a society where all children are welcomed in life and protected in law. The summary on page 11 illuminates the point that the policies and principles championed by President George W. Bush are as different from President Clinton’s as day is from night. But what is not so easily captured is how President Bush’s courage forestalled what could have been a catastrophe: a wide-open federal spigot out of which flowed millions of dollars to fund experiments harvesting stem cells from helpless human embryos. The President drew a line in the sand in his first televised speech, August 9, 2001. As a result of his refusal to buckle under, six years later we hear talk of the “end to the stem cell wars.” Why? Because a lot of researchers (some of whom already had serious qualms about scavenging stem cells from human embryos) put their energies into finding other methods. One of the lead scientists, Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, recalled for the New York Times the time he looked into a microscope at a fertility clinic. “When I saw the embryo, I suddenly realized there was such a small difference between it and my daughters.” he told Gina Kolata. “I thought, we can’t keep destroying embryos for our research. There must be another way.” In November two teams of scientists reported that they had reprogrammed ordinary human skin cells into stem cells. One scientist gushed, “This work represents a tremendous scientific milestone the biological equivalent of the Wright Brothers’ first airplane.” There are a number of very helpful stories in this special edition of NRL News to equip you to do your job more effectively—to do more with less—and more enthusiastically—because you’ll know people just like you are ensuring that our Movement continues to grow its grassroots. This is a great time to be a pro-lifer. Why? Because there is a plentiful harvest just waiting for us and the babies. I have no doubt that we will have more than enough workers. Will you be one? |