The pro-life movement today has much to be proud of. Fourteen months ago, we elected a staunchly pro-life President who has already made purposeful use of his executive power, in every way he legally could, to protect life and to reverse the funding and promotion of abortion.
In that same election, we were successful in electing pro-life members of Congress and keeping pro-life leadership in both the House and Senate. Our state affiliates have been extremely successful in electing pro-life men and women to their state legislatures and to statewide offices.
Winning more elections means we are able to pass more pro-life laws. NRLC works with members of Congress on a federal level, and with state legislatures through our state affiliates. When someone talks about “grassroots organizations,” NRLC and its 50 state affiliates are a classic example.
We have been extremely effective in passing legislation to require that parents be informed that their minor daughter is seeking an abortion, and to require that abortion-minded women be told about the possible risks and complications of abortion, as well as alternatives that are available.
Some states have been successful in adding requirements that the women be told about “abortion pill reversal” in the case of a chemical abortion. Many have passed legislation making it possible, before she makes this life or death decision, for a woman to have an ultrasound and see her baby.
We are currently working on legislation, at both the state and federal level, to protect from abortion unborn babies who have developed to the point where they can feel pain. We are also diligently trying to stop the killing of unborn children by dismemberment abortion. Whatever opinion people might have on the general topic of “abortion,” surely most would agree that no living human should have their arms and legs torn off and bleed to death.
We are working with Congress to pass a federal bill that would require abortionists, and anyone in the room with him/her, to treat a baby who survives an abortion just as any person would try to help a baby born early in a “wanted” pregnancy. Again, unless you are a dyed-in-the-wool pro-abortionist, how could you oppose this?
We’ve been able to write and re-write laws because we’ve won elections. We’ve won elections because of grass roots support for pro-life candidates and for NRLC’s PAC and Victory Fund.
Why, then, do we sometimes hear friends complain about the state of the pro-life movement? Understandably, there is frustration — which I share — that 45 years after Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, abortion has not come to an end in America.
Let me state categorically: Abortion will come to an end in America. History and morality are on our side. But we have a lot more hard work ahead of us. We will not get there until we add enough constitutionally honest justices to the US Supreme Court to overturn those sweeping and evil 1973 court cases. That will not happen until our President has the opportunity to appoint honorable justices, and unless we protect and add to the ranks of pro-life Senators needed to confirm them.
There is no magic bullet — even though I wish there were. Today’s Supreme Court will strike down every clever wording of this definition or that timetable that looks like a magic bullet. Until and unless we change the Supreme Court. There is no substitute for the hard work involved — and for the faith, perseverance, and unity needed in the pro-life movement in marching toward that day of change.
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Until then, there is still much we can do — indeed, much we must do. We need to elect more pro-life candidates at all levels because the pro-life laws we have been enacting are already saving lives. And we can save more. Many of these laws have been so carefully crafted that they have survived court challenges. And they are an absolutely necessary part of us making progress toward the day abortion comes completely to an end.
If you are not already involved in these massive efforts to change the law and protect the unborn babies, your talents and efforts are needed.
As I recently told a reporter, we want to change hearts and minds so that, even if abortion remained legal, no one would want one. However, the more permanent way to stop abortion is to change the law. Those efforts continue with the next election.
LifeNews Note: Carol Tobias is the president of the National Right to Life Committee.
