Statement of Raimundo Rojas
Hispanic Outreach Director
National Right to Life Committee
National Press Club, Washington DC
January 22, 2009

Today there are millions of Latinos in the United States who are completely unaware of what this date signifies, what it means to them or how greatly and negatively impacted they are by it.   For some Latinos, the United States Supreme Court edict that legalized abortion on demand happened decades before they arrived in this country, yet the penumbra of that decision looms over the essence of Hispanic culture in this country.

The abortion industry has a special solution for us. For years this big business has gone after the Latino community with fervor and without apology.   Examples of how the Latino community is targeted are plentiful.  Such as an over-abundance of advertisements in mono-lingual Spanish papers that publish only in Latino communities;  Planned Parenthood choosing a Mexican American as their chaplain and  an emphasis on their perverse consideration of the plight of the Latina woman now plastered all over the web-pages of many of the pro-abortion advocacy groups.

As the abortion rate among non-Latin white women declines, the abortion industry realizes it needs to make up for that negative cash flow and pretending to be a benevolent family planning organization is their hook into the Hispanic community. One of Planned Parenthood’s Spanish language flyers claims that they are pro-woman, pro-family, pro-child, and pro-choice.  For many Latinos, realizing that these are the blatant lies of an industry desperately in need of a new infusion of cash comes too late. 

They want Hispanics to believe that they are pro-family, but at every turn they fight efforts to keep  Latino parents informed before their minor daughters are about to undergo an abortion.  The abortion industry claims to be pro-woman, yet they argue against laws that insure  a Latina woman’s right to know what abortion is, what abortion does to her unborn child, as well as the long term effects of abortion and the link  between abortion and breast cancer. They try to say they’re pro-child, yet they lobby against the unborn victims of violence act which affords unborn Hispanic children protection against violent crime.  And they claim to be pro-choice, but the mere mention of a 24 hour waiting period sends them into a shrill panic.  The abortion industry wants Latinas to abort and to abort now.

Before becoming Pope Benedict XVI, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger said: “Truth is not determined by a majority vote.”   This statement, when applied to American Hispanics was made palpable and painfully real in November.  If we are to depend on the mainstream media, the truth about abortion is hard to come by for most Americans but particularly for minorities.  When independent sources attempt to educate Latinos, they are shut down and called irresponsible.  Such is the case of Eduardo Verastegui.

Eduardo Verastegui is an iconic Mexican star of screen and television.   He recently played the lead in a move that went on to win the prestigious Toronto Film Festival.  His most recent project however, has not be so well received by many media outlets.  The film is aptly called La Dura Realidad (The Hard Truth), and Eduardo introduces a film that is difficult but necessary to watch. 

He enumerates so many of the points that Latinos in this country need to hear about abortion. And he asks the questions that so desperately need to be asked.

Mr. Verastegui talks about the fact that minorities and Latinos in particular, are targeted by the policy of abortion on demand that he so correctly calls racist. He asks why there are so many abortion clinics in Latino neighborhoods and why there is such a special interest in our population by those who promote and profit from abortion.   He reminds the viewers of how lucrative a business abortion is and how many Hispanic lives are lost to the never-ending need of the industry to flourish.

The hard truth comes in the middle of the video. For about two minutes beautiful pictures of children in utero are shown with the gestational age of the unborn child noted on screen. Eduardo’s voiceover is soft and eloquent as he explains the science of embryonic development. Then the pictures of children who lost their right to life are shown. It is sobering, troubling, and emotionally draining.

When the pictures of the destruction are over, the camera turns back to Eduardo, and he educates Latinos further on the horrors of abortion and its aftermath. He does not mince his words; he is clear, precise, and succinct.  There is no question left unanswered.  But this hard truth did not see the light of day on any major media outlet - the truth then must really be that hard. 

But truth is never inconsequential. It’s always there. There are people who will try to corrupt it, pervert it, derail it, taint it, but the truth is the truth. It will prevail. Truth is a complete defense.

There is a pattern with the “mainstream media” and the issues that surround abortion and its racist overtones. They don’t like the truth, they won’t tell the truth, they won’t report the truth, and they won’t let you see the truth. The truth is being subverted.

It is our job at NRLC to make sure that the truth will prevail. One by one, community by community, state by state, Latinos will know that every abortion stops a beating heart and that it is a bloody messy ordeal.