NRL News
Page 1
April 2009
Volume 36
Issue 5

NRLC 2009:
The Next Phase of the “Stop the Abortion Agenda” Campaign
By Dave Andrusko

When I sat down with Jacki Ragan, my first question to the woman who wears many hats for NRLC was about how to gauge the amount of grassroots pro-life opposition to the policies of Barack Obama, the most pro-abortion President in the 36 years since Roe v. Wade launched the all-out war on unborn children. But Jacki, wearing her convention director’s hat, politely insisted I first remind our 360,000+ readers of a simple, but pivotal truth.

“The next phase of the ‘Stop the Abortion Agenda’ campaign will be unveiled June 18–20 in Charlotte, North Carolina,” Jacki said. “Trust me, if you want to be trained in the quickest, most thoughtful manner possible to help erect a roadblock to the abortion agenda, the Blake Hotel is the place to be.” (See the ad on pages 14–15, and stories on pages 13 and 17.)

At the point Jacki put on her director of state organization and development hat to answer my initial inquiry. “Our grassroots people are on fire,” she told me. What is the evidence to back that up?

“We are being deluged with ‘stop the abortion agenda’ petitions,” Jacki said. “Pro-lifers are taking them everywhere like-minded people congregate and obtaining hundreds of thousands of signatures.” (You can download the petition at www.stoptheabortionagenda.com, e-mail Jacki at JRagan1@aol.com to have them sent out to you free of charge, or you can call her assistant, Luis Zaffirini, at 202-378-8842.)

“But as many as we have, we need more,” she said. Unfortunately, Obama and the pro-abortion leadership in the House and Senate will attack every pro-life protective law in existence and attempt to make abortion not only part of health care “reform,” but also ratchet up the pressure on pro-life physicians. “These petitions tell the congressional leadership that this radical pro-abortion agenda is way out of step with the American people.”

What else? I asked. “The number of hits on the www.stoptheabortionagenda.com web page grows every day,” she said. “And not only are calls coming in almost non-stop on NRLC’s general phone line (202-626-8800), my assistant, Luis receives almost as many calls on his direct line (202-378-8842).”

Another way the pro-life army is growing, Jacki said, is that people are sending in the e-mails addresses for their colleagues, friends, and family members. “After they have gotten permission, grassroots people are sending in the email-addresses of at least five pro-lifers, sometimes a lot more,” she said. “This is pretty much cost-free to us and allows us to contact an enormous number of people quickly.” She quickly added, “If you haven’t sent in your own e-mail address, send it me at jragan1@aol.com.”

Resources are the name of the game, of course. There are many to be found on the www.stoptheabortionagenda.com, at www.nrlc.org, and at www.nrlchapters.org, where you will find, among other items, a number of church bulletin inserts. This brought us full circle back to the NRL Convention.

“I can’t begin to tell you how important it is for every pro-lifer to come to Charlotte,” Jacki said. “Defeating the abortion agenda is at the heart of the 72 workshops, five general sessions, the prayer breakfast, and the closing Saturday night banquet.”

In addition to all this, she said, there is a separate three-day “Teens for Life” convention. Photographer Michael Clancy, who captured the unforgettable fetal-surgery shot of Baby Samuel Armas, will speak at their banquet.

“Obama’s first 100 days are just the opening onslaught against the unborn,” Jacki said. “We must appeal to the common sense of the American people to help us ‘stop the abortion agenda.’”