Ryan Bomberger’s vivacious personality attracted a large crowd at the 2013 National Right to Life Convention in Dallas today. Founder of the Radiance Foundation, an organization aimed at using creative means to spread the Pro-Life message to the wide array of mainstream America, Ryan focused his talk on the social injustice of abortion.
Being adopted and a minority himself, Ryan feels a particular propensity to point out the injustice of racial minorities being targeted by the abortion business. Ryan’s background as an adopted child plays a strong role in his drive to fight the injustice of abortion. Speaking of his parents, who adopted most of his eleven siblings, Ryan quipped: “My parents proved that the myth of the unwanted child is just that: a myth.” He says that his parents defied the odds, shepherding children of all races, abilities, and backgrounds into the open arms of their loving family.
Ryan was greeted with peals of laughter when he shared the fact that several years ago, he and his wife — deeply-rooted northerners — had the “brilliant” idea, while living in Atlanta, to combine the two most uncomfortable topics in the South: Abortion and race. Out of this crazy dream was born the Radiance Foundation. The Foundation utilizes audio-visual media, billboards, websites, memes, slogans – any visual means available – to spread the message of abortion’s injustice, especially towards racial minorities.
“We believe that abortion is the ultimate violation of civil rights, but this is not a right-wing Christian mentality – it’s in line with United Nations documents,” he said. He quoted the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, which was written in response to the injustices of World War II and the Holocaust. Its preamble affirms the inherent dignity of all members of the human family as the foundation of peace in the world. He then cited the U.N. Convention on the Rights of a Child in 1959/1989, the preamble of which affirms the right of a child to appropriate protection (including legal protection) before and after birth.
Ryan then spoke of Planned Parenthood’s founder, Margaret Sanger, whose eugenic ideals were driven by a desire to reduce racial minorities and populations she considered “dysgenic” – disabled, feeble-minded, etc. He showed a video to the audience of a 60 Minutes interview of Margaret Sanger, who said “I think the greatest sin in the world is bringing children into the world who have disease…” (or any other socioeconomic, racial, or health qualification that Sanger would consider undesirable).
The same eugenic movement that formed Sanger influenced Nazi Germany and Hitler. He quoted Dr. Henry Morgentaler, the father of legalized abortion in Canada and a Holocaust survivor himself. Morgentaler became Canada’s largest abortion provider, leading the piecemeal effort to achieve more and more legalized abortion in Canada. Ryan made the connection to show the irony that a man who had himself been targeted by the eugenics movement went on to dedicate his life to championing the anti-life cause himself.
Bomberger, who may just be the Martin Luther King, Jr. of the pro-life movement, concluded with a moving adoption testimony of a young man who is so grateful for his life that his story alone could definitively put to rest the myth of the unwanted child and belief that a difficult or unconventional life is not a life worth living.
