Pro-Life Leaders Encourage Movement: We Will Fight Abortion Despite Kagan
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 9, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Two pro-life leaders have written a new editorial in the Washington Times designed to give encouragement to pro-life advocates who are distraught by last week’s Senate confirmation of pro-abortion activist Elena Kagan to join the pro-abortion majority on the Supreme Court.
Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Americans United for Life president Charmaine Yoest, are behind the new opinion column.
"President Obama’s selection of Elena Kagan, the most demonstrably pro-abortion Supreme Court nominee in recent memory, presented a daunting challenge to pro-life leaders," they said. "After months of dedicated opposition to her nomination, Kagan’s confirmation is a difficult setback in our long march to ultimate victory."
"And not unreasonably, observers have asked – why then, do we bother?"
"The question resonates for this particular political confrontation, but applies equally to the larger issue as a whole as we near four decades of abortion-on-demand in America post-Roe," Yoest and King continue.
"We bother because, in the end, we will win," they say.
The pro-life advocates say the pro-life community needs to take the loss in stride as it has others over the years because the battle to protect unborn children is a long-term one that won’t be won, or lost, with one fight, but will require a long-term commitment to see through a victory.
"In our modern 24/7 drive-thru microwave Twitter culture we often forget that great victories for the betterment of humankind don’t happen instantly. Real, substantive change doesn’t take place in the course of one election, one year, or as the result of one political battle. It is achieved through a long march that can span many lifetimes," they said.
The pair referenced Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and his struggle to promote civil rights — a struggle that saw him participate in a centuries-long battle started by the nation’s founding fathers and one that continues today.
Yoest and King say the Kagan confirmation came despite the will of the American people — who strongly oppose abortion and supported Kagan at lower levels than any recent Supreme Court nominee.
"Today, in poll after poll, Americans are trending more and more pro-life. They want to see abortion restricted, support parental involvement laws, and want an end to taxpayer-funded abortion. On the issue of judges, Americans are also very clear. In a recent poll, 87% support judges who “interpret the law as it is written” and 70% believe that elected officials should make policy and not the Courts," they noted.
"In spite of this opposition to an agenda-driven judiciary, Washington elites continue to defy the people. Elena Kagan’s nomination is a prime exemplar of this vast contradiction," they said.
The pair urge pro-life advocates to press on, just as the early slavery abolitionists did.
"In 1857, when the Supreme Court ruled in Dred Scott v. Sanford that black Americans essentially had no protection under the Constitution and therefore virtually no rights, abolitionists may have felt that their cause had been dealt a serious blow…yet they continued to press ahead," they write in the Times article.
"They pressed ahead, as we do now, not because victory was immediate but because they were compelled by duty to do what is right. And in America, land of the second chance, we know there will be another opportunity," they write.
"When opportunity comes, we will take on the challenge to the best of our ability. We take that challenge knowing that maybe on our watch, or maybe on our children’s watch, 1964 will come again. We are, after all, one human race on an unending quest to secure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all," they conclude. "Remembering this, may our consciences press us onward."
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