Eduardo Verastegui: The Hispanic Community’s New Pro-Life Face on Abortion

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Oct 19, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Eduardo Verástegui: The Hispanic Community’s New Pro-Life Face on Abortion

by Rai Rojas
October 19, 2008

LifeNews.com Note: A Cuban-American, Raimundo Rojas is the long-time director of Hispanic outreach for the National Right to Life Committee. He is a former president of Florida Right to Life and has presented the pro-life message to millions in Spanish-language media outlets.

Eduardo Verástegui stars in a different kind of film these days, different from the ones I’m sure he had once envisioned.

Earlier in his career the Mexican-born actor was a sensation on Latin American telenovelas, he crossed over into American movies in a romantic comedy Chasing Papi, and with that success a future in Hollywood was sure to be his. But a funny thing happened to Eduardo on his way to fame and fortune—he faced his conscience and his God.

I met Eduardo in March 2006 at a pro-life conference held in Mexico City. I was surprised that not only did he attend the meetings, but that he was such an active participant. At the end of the conference, many of us rode in vans to a small theater where we were shown the movie Bella, screened for the first time for anyone outside the production staff.

Bella has gone on to win numerous awards and prizes and has landed Eduardo back in the center of Latino pop culture. He has been featured in numerous magazines, is often seen at premieres, and is a much sought-after speaker.

But it is his most recent project that has caught the attention of so many in the media.

The film is aptly called La Dura Realidad (the hard truth). Eduardo introduces a film so difficult, but so necessary to watch, that it is making the viral video rounds at lightning speed.

In a way that only he can, Eduardo asks the Hispanic voting population to pay especially close attention to the video. 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.

Eduardo 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 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 extols the virtues of motherhood and the joys of birth. Then the pictures of children who lost their right to life are shown. It is sobering, troubling, emotionally draining, and a must see.

When the pictures of the destruction are over, the camera turns back to Eduardo, and he educates Latinos on the horrors of abortion and its aftermath. He also makes it clear which candidates running for office want to stop the slaughter and which want it to continue. He does not mince his words, he is clear, precise, and succinct. There is no question left unanswered.

He tells us that “We have to end abortions and that the candidates for political office are a huge part of this issue.” Eduardo explains how Barack Obama supports abortion through the entire nine months of pregnancy, emphasizing that this includes “late-term abortions.” He states that Obama has supported partial-birth abortions and that he wants to pay for all abortions with our tax dollars.

Most importantly, Verástegui reminds us of the votes Obama cast as an Illinois state senator in opposition to bills that provide care and legal protection for babies who survive abortions. In no uncertain words Eduardo states that Obama “voted on several occasions against a law to protect babies who survived an abortion.”

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 this presidential election. 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. The fact that full version of Eduardo’s video has been pulled from YouTube and that the video will most likely never see the light of day on any mainstream media outlet is further proof of the establishment media’s willful distortions.

But the truth will prevail. They will know that every abortion stops a beating heart and that it is a bloody messy ordeal. Shame on them for keeping the American public in the dark and for subverting the truth from a population that needs to see it more than any other.

As for Eduardo Verástegui, the pro-life movement owes him a huge debt of gratitude, for his courage and devotion and time to our cause. This really is a different kind of film, and the edited version may be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7c-SV8cYNA

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