NRL News
Page 2
July/August 2009
Volume 36
Issue 7-8

Your Noble Service in the Greatest
Human Rights Struggle on Earth

“The National Right to Life Committee is the flagship, the largest and most effective action oriented voice, among an eclectic, dedicated group of pro-life NGOs. Your Washington leadership isn’t just talented and committed; it is seasoned, mature and tested.

“At the state level, you constitute the backbone of our movement and put troops in the field, in a selfless expression of love for the disenfranchised and powerless, absolutely based on the core principles of nonviolence and malice towards none—even for those who actually dismember or chemically poison children to death and euphemistically call it choice.”
     Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), speaking at the closing banquet of NRLC’s 37th annual convention

The drive from the suburbs of Washington, D.C., to Charlotte, North Carolina, is not a long one—seven or eight hours—but the atmospheric change is so stark it’s hard to believe you’ve traveled fewer than 400 miles. A number of friends and colleagues have moved to the Carolinas, and it is easy to see why.

Even the grimness of the business we were about—crafting an increasingly detailed and sophisticated battle plan to thwart Obama’s Abortion Agenda—could not take away from the city’s charm or friendliness, or how much we enjoyed the ambiance. All of the over 1,000 attendees at NRLC 2009 owe a debt of gratitude to Barbara Holt and Holly Gatling, representing the host states of North Carolina and South Carolina, respectively.

Every NRL national convention offers a treasure trove of educational materials (you could easily come away with the equivalent of your own pro-life library) and interpersonal delights (you meet old friends and make new ones). Alas, too few people know about a diamond in the rough—the annual meeting of the Association for Interdisciplinary Research in Values and Social Change.

Meeting the night before the convention officially begins, the Association brings together pro-life scholars to exchange ideas from scientific and social science disciplines. This year’s session was particularly engaging, featuring Priscilla Coleman, Ph.D.; Michael New, Ph.D.; and Rosemary Crock, Ph.D.

The broader intent of the NRL Convention was to remind pro-lifers not just of the inch-by-inch struggle ahead, but also to caution them not to miss what a sea change pro-lifers are already responsible for. We all are aware that abortions have dropped 25% since the peak in 1990.

But a key component—as NRLC President Dr. Wanda Franz’s illuminating column on page three makes clear—is that the abortion rate for women having their first abortion dropped nearly 47% between 1979–80 and 2005. If we have had a major impact on convincing women not to have that first abortion—and we have—then among the greatest remaining challenges is to touch the hearts of women who’ve aborted once to convince them there must be a better way than repeat abortions.

Carefully explaining what pro-abortionists were already doing—and the likely twists and turns their strategy might take—and equipping the grassroots for rapid response lay at the core of a considerable part of the 72 workshops, five general sessions, the Prayer Breakfast, and the Closing Banquet. Over and over attendees were reminded to read NRL News, Today’s News & Views (www.nrlc.org), and to go to the legislative action section on a daily basis (www.nrlactioncenter.com).

The ad on pages 30-31 provides you with the chance to purchase CDs of convention sessions, whether a complete set, a handful, or only one. Take it to heart and read it carefully. There are materials there that are indispensable to you and your chapter.

Think of the richness, the depth, and the variety. Fr. Tad Pacholczyk offered the definitive critique of stem-cell research that exploits human embryos. Unethical, doesn’t work, and there are plenty of promising alternatives.

Author Kate Adamson mesmerized the audience with her account (as detailed in her book, Paralyzed but not Powerless) of how she overcame “Locked in Syndrome” (total paralysis from brain injury due to a brainstem stroke), thanks to her husband’s remarkable faithfulness and her own indomitable spirit. Bioethicist Wesley J. Smith offered a profoundly moving examination of assisted suicide and the threat it poses to an ever-widening circle of victims.

Back in May, at a separate pro-life assembly, Notre Dame alumnus Fr. James Raphael, SSJ, took the pro-life side the day pro-abortion President Barack Obama addressed the university’s graduating class and received an honorary degree. Fr. Raphael’s insights into the price the university paid—and to how the Movement and the African-American community can more effectively work together—made for a fascinating Prayer Breakfast. And what made an already hugely successful convention even better was that pro-life champion Congressman Chris Smith lifted our hearts and minds and spirits with a stirring speech at the closing banquet.

I began this editorial with a quote from Chris. Let me end with another. There is much to take away from his stirring speech (which can be read in its entirety at http://www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/June09/nv062609.html). But for me, his most important admonition was that being pro-life is not for sissies.

Luckily for the unborn, there are no fair-weather friends in our Movement.

Chris concluded with this: “We are here in Charlotte today—these past three days for some of you—because we know that if the children and at risk persons in America and the world are to survive the newest aggression against their lives, you and I have no other option but to fight. We must be disciplined and alert and wise. And we need to redouble our efforts and recruit new activists here and around the world especially among the young. This is no time for quitters or the faint of heart. I truly believe that this will someday be regarded as our finest hour, when against overwhelming odds, we stood firm and overcame evil with good.

“So be assured that even at this most difficult of times when the clouds seemingly are at their darkest, you and I can stop Obama’s abortion agenda. And you know, through it all, we can actually smile, and be joyful, with a peace that surpasses all understanding not only because we are doing our duty, but because our trust is vested unequivocally in the mercy, justice and awesome power of God. To all here, thank you for so courageously standing in the gap and for your noble service in the greatest human rights struggle on earth.”