Anti-Abortion Leader: Movement Is Weak

The Wichita Eagle ^ | Jun. 07, 2008 | ROY WENZL

[kellynla]

The founder of one of the anti-abortion movement's most famous organizations said Friday in Wichita that the movement is badly weakened --"on the ropes" -- in part because the nation's clergy have lost their desire to pursue the cause and in part because young people don't care.

Speaking at a news conference he called at the Hyatt Regency Wichita, Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry said the movement has lost steam because religious leaders have lost courage, young people have lost interest, and many churches fear taking on the fight.

While some leaders of the anti-abortion movement were willing to endorse presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, who supports abortion rights,Terry said, he was arrested earlier this year protesting abortion outside one of Giuliani's campaign offices in New Hampshire.

Reporters at the news conference asked Terry if another reason for weakness in the movement might be infighting between him and other anti-abortion leaders, such as Troy Newman.

Terry, who's based in Washington, D.C., is suing Newman, of Wichita, over the use of the name Operation Rescue.

Terry, who founded Operation Rescue in the late 1980s, denounced Newman, who for years led an organization called Operation Rescue West, saying he was "deceitful" and "fraudulent" for registering the name Operation Rescue with the U.S. trademark office and using it for his anti-abortion organization.

As evidence of the bickering, Terry ordered four people who showed up with video cameras at the news conference to leave, saying that Newman had sent them to disrupt the event. When one of the men refused, Terry asked hotel officials to call police, who arrived to remove the man.

Newman, contacted later, said, "I am saddened that Randall Terry chose to attack a fellow colleague. As I recall, the last time he showed up in Wichita, it was to attack abortion clinics."

Newman said it is Terry who has lost his way, that the movement Terry founded years ago is strong and successful, and that he will prevail against Terry in the lawsuit.

Terry said Newman can more easily raise money for his cause and himself if he uses the name that Terry made famous when he helped organize huge sit-ins outside George Tiller's abortion clinic in the so-called "Summer Of Mercy" in Wichita in 1991.

"This is about history," Terry said. Newman, he said, never took the risks or the lumps he did.

By that Terry meant that it was he who organized Operation Rescue, he who got arrested multiple times on behalf of the cause, he who lost his house and savings in legal battles with abortion-rights advocates.

The two men, in separate interviews, found cause to praise each other, if only faintly.

Newman said he owns every book and nearly every video Terry ever produced.

Terry applauded Newman's recent work against Tiller.

Newman, along with anti-abortion groups such as Kansans for Life, helped generate signatures to petition for a citizen grand jury to investigate Tiller's late-term abortion practices. The grand jury is still convened.

"I'm doing exactly what Randall Terry asked us to do 15 years ago," Newman said.

He said Terry's statement that the anti-abortion movement has weakened "is more evidence that he's been absent without leave from the movement for many years."

[philly-d-kidder]

Perhaps Mr Terry Should step aside... and let the Railroad Through because In My Home town they are opening More Adoption opportunities and women in Crisis Centers with Ultra sound machines.. Vigils are ever stronger Vocations are increasing and the Right to Life on Campuses are Blossoming.. Love and Concern seems to be working!Thank you God for showing us the way!

[livius]

I definitely will (and a contribution, too).

Planned Parenthood had a particularly irritating set of cartoon panels in the subway a number of years ago, directed primarily at a Latino audience, pushing condoms and the PP vision of life, sex and relationships. Getting to Spanish speakers is a big objective of the pro-abortionists (even in Latin America itself, which has long been a major target of the Ford Foundation through its funding of groups such as “Catholics for a Free Choice” in Mexico and other places). Sadly, I think they have had some success in changing the way Latin Americans, particularly immigrants to the US, think about family and life issues.

[the invisib1e hand]

It is sad, because Latins seem to want so badly to be like Americans, and unfortunately what their American age-peers resemble isn't really American at all.

However, as Our Lady of Guadalupe is Patroness of the Pro-Life Movement, Patroness of the Americas, and also has an image in probably every Latino home in the US, I think there is hope.