NRL News
Page 3
April 2009
Volume 36
Issue 5

THE CALL TO BE PRO-LIFE
By Wanda Franz, Ph.D.

In April, the National Right to Life Board meeting was held in Washington, D.C. It was the election meeting which we have every two years in the spring. The Board granted me the honor of being elected for the 10th time as president of the National Right to Life Committee.

When I think about what this means, I am filled with awe and humility at the opportunities I have had to serve the pro-life movement. With this election I embark on my 19th year as president of NRLC. This year also marks 30 years of service as the Board representative from NRLC’s West Virginia affiliate. (NRLC is the only pro-life grassroots organization that elects its officers in this manner.)

All these years sound like such a long time; but time has gone quickly. Quickly, because being in the pro-life movement is simply a part of my life. I can’t imagine not being part of the movement. It would be incomprehensible to be on the outside, looking in, without serious engagement in the most important moral issue of our day.

For me it all began when my family lived in occupied Germany after World War II. (My father was a U.S. Army officer.) I was particularly affected by what we all learned about the Jewish Holocaust. It was hard to believe that the Germans had been a party to such horrors. Millions of Jews (and others) were killed in organized killing centers. Beyond that unspeakable horror, it was also the exploitation and starvation of the prisoners, the cruel “medical” experimentation, and other abuses that weighed on the mind. How can a supposedly civilized people engage in such cruelties?

The common German excuse was that they “didn’t know” about the Holocaust. This simply didn’t ring true. They certainly knew about the “final solution” because the Nazis talked about that. They certainly knew that Jews disappeared from their communities—and never returned. They certainly knew of the anti-Semitic bigotry all around them. What they didn’t want to know was how horrible it was for the victims. Degradation, pain, and killing centers are hard to think about. They supported a “solution for the Jewish problem”; they just didn’t want to think about what that would mean. Everything was done in a very neat and sterile way so the average German could avert his eyes from the reality of genocide.

Like many others, I was consumed with a desire to understand how it could have happened. How did the ordinary, good people of Germany allow it? As a child, I had many “discussions” with God over this. In the end, I came to the conclusion that once the Germans classified some lives as “life unworthy of life,” then all lives were at risk. The weak and the vulnerable were then easy prey for the strong.

It was obvious that this horror had started small. First, the disabled and mentally defective lost their inherent right to life. Then so did the Jews and, eventually, anyone who disagreed with the government’s policies. In the beginning, it would have been hard to imagine that killing disabled people “for their own good” would lead to millions of bodies being fed into incinerators. In fact, the infamous gas chambers were first used to kill the mentally and physically disabled—the “useless eaters.” However, once people got used to the idea of killing innocent people, it was easier to bring about the killing of more and more different kinds of people. Of course, once the Nazis had consolidated their power, it was difficult to speak out against the killing of the innocent without risking persecution.

I felt so strongly about this then, that I promised God that I would work against such a thing ever happening in America. I would oppose it at its origins, when it might still be possible to stop it; not after it was well entrenched and opposition was difficult, or even useless. Of course in the back of my mind, I thought that in America it would never be possible to decide that an innocent, living human being had no right to life. It would just never happen in America. Well friends, it did happen here.

I had been active in the pro-life movement for many years before I remembered those events of my childhood and tied them to my work to save lives and oppose America’s anti-life policies. My experience in Germany made me very sensitive to any policy that can dehumanize us and abortion is clearly one that does. It was the most important factor in motivating me. However, there were many other factors that would later facilitate my pro-life work. I became a public speaker as part of my youth work. I got lots of training organizing meetings and activities. I worked temporarily inside the medical establishment and learned that doctors can have just as many moral limitations as any other person. And my graduate work informed me about human development.

For me, my work with the National Right to Life Committee is a calling—a ministry. Many events in my life prepared me for it. These could only have occurred because God had a role for me. I am truly grateful that I have been called to do this work, even though it is frequently difficult and frustrating. God is the author of life. Our role is to help in its individual creation and protect it for the greater glory of God.

I encourage you to search your hearts to see how you have been called to help create a culture of life in our country. If you have been called, and you accept the ministry, I can promise you that your work will not be easy or simple. I can also promise you that fulfilling your gift of ministry will give you the greatest joy and satisfaction you can imagine. If you refuse to take up your calling, it will nag at you until you do find your place in the pro-life movement.

May God bless and encourage all of you who are working in the pro-life vineyard.