[Remedy]

Politics and the pro-life movement

John Cavanaugh O'Keefe -- a 52-year-old Harvard graduate, Vietnam War conscientious objector, and longtime pro-life activist -- fervently believes legalized abortion in the United States will end. But not in his lifetime.

"The pro-life movement is going nowhere," says O'Keefe. "After 30 years of work, the movement is dead."

O'Keefe is not alone. "It would be both untrue and overly dramatic to say that the pro-life movement has lost," according to Teresa R. Wagner, former antiabortion lobbyist and editor of the forthcoming Back to the Drawing Board: The Future of the Pro-Life Movement. "But we are not winning. And the sooner we face it, the sooner we change it."

"The reason [the public is] ... not in favor of eliminating legalized abortion is that they also believe abortion somehow is necessary for the well-being of the mothers of those babies. We must break through this mother-versus-baby framing of the issue by bringing to public consciousness in every conceivable way the fact that abortion hurts women."

The memo continues: "Once the public is disabused of the notion that abortion is good for women, it will no longer face a conflict between two compelling claims. When the well-being of mothers and their babies is balanced only against the well-being of abortionists, then public opinion will be solidly behind our position. Litigation, research and even the legislative battles we choose should all be designed to show how abortion hurts women."

 Back to the Drawing Board: The Future of the Pro-Life Movement is an unprecedented collection of thoughtful and sometimes painfully honest essays, evaluating the pro-life cause thirty years after Roe v. Wade. Contributing writers are the movement's most respected leaders, including Dr. James Dobson, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Nat Hentoff, Dr. Mildred Jefferson, Congressman Chris Smith, Phyllis Schlafly, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Paul Weyrich, and Jean Garton, among others. They are statesmen, scholars, doctors, lawyers, judges, activists and mothers. They are Evangelical Christian, Muslim, Atheist, Jewish, and Catholic. They are men and women, young and old, liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican - and third party. Many are veterans, some are new; but all have labored in the effort, and care about its future.

The book is intended for the next generation of pro-life leaders, who will learn from its pages of the movement's history and current predicament. The collection's many and varied views, about the future as well as the past, invite readers to go back to the drawing board and contemplate: What now?

Contents

Foreword: Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Editor-in-Chief, First Things

Introduction: Dr. Mildred Fay Jefferson, a Founder and Past President, National Right to Life Committee

Part I: The Legal Arena

1. The Legal Profession and the Law Schools: Should We Blame the Lawyers? by Charles E. Rice, Professor Emeritus, Notre Dame Law School, Visiting Professor, Ave Maria School of Law

2. The Judiciary: Only Liars Need Apply by Terence P. Jeffrey, Senior Editor, Human Events

3. Litigation Strategies and Democratic Deliberation: Let the People Decide by Clarke Forsythe, President, Americans United for Life

4. An Appreciation of Justice Byron White (1917-2002): Seeing the Dragon Cloud by John Manning Regan, Sr., retired Judge and Past President, St. Thomas More Lawyers' Guild (Rochester, New York)

Part II: Medicine and Science

5. The Medical Profession: Reflections of the Abortion King by Dr. Bernard Nathanson

6. A View from Clinical Psychiatry: Abortion Wounds by Dr. Philip Ney, The International Institute of Pregnancy Loss

7. Long-Term Physical Complications of Induced Abortion: Breaking the Silence by Dr. Elizabeth Shadigian, Clinical Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)

8. Pregnancy Help Centers, Abstinence, STDs, and Healing: Putting It All Together by Margaret Hartshorn, Ph.D.,President, Heartbeat International

Part III: Politics and the Movement

9. A History of Pro-Life Leadership: For Better or Worse by Dr. Jack Willke, President, Life Issues Institute

10. Political Engagement: An Honest Evaluation by Paul Weyrich, President, Free Congress Foundation

11. A Defense of the Republican Party: The GOP Must Do More by The Honorable Chris Smith, United States Representative in Congress (4th District, New Jersey)

12. A Critique of the Republican Party: The Republican "Lesser Evil" by Joe Sobran, Author & Columnist

13. The Party or the Movement?: Principle or Pragmatism? Phyllis Schlafly & Colleen Parro, Founders, Republican National Coalition for Life

14. The Democrat Party: Casey's Heirs and the Fall of Pro-Life Democrats by Mark Stricherz, Writer, and Raymond L. Flynn, President, Catholic Alliance

15. Another Party? Time for Constitutional Fidelity: The Constitution Party by Howard Phillips, Chairman, The Conservative Caucus

16. The Base: Letter to the Troops: The Grassroots of the Pro-Life Movement by James Dobson, Ph.D., President, Focus on the Family

17. The Liberal Voice beyond the Base: There's More to Abortion than Abortion by Nat Hentoff, Writer

Part IV: Religion

18. Religious Leadership: Where Are the Shepherds? by Jean Garton, Litt.D., Founder, Lutherans for Life

19. The Pro-Life Movement and the Jewish Community: LeChayim - To Life! Judaism Is for Life, How about Jews? by Rabbi Daniel Lapin, President, Toward Tradition

20. A Muslim Perspective: An Islamic View of Life Issues and the West by Dr. A. Majid Katme, Spokesman for the Islamic Medical Association, and Muslim Liaison for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (London)

Part V: The Culture

21. Hollywood: The Problem with Selling Half the Story by Barbara Nicolosi, Director, Act One: Writing for Hollywood

22. The Kinsey Culture: Sex-on-Demand, Abortion-on-Demand by Judith Reisman, Ph.D., President, The Institute for Media Education

23. Motherhood and the Movement: Crisis of Life? Crisis of Love! by Mary Hasson and Miki Hill, Mothers, Writers

Part VI: The Future

24. Bioethics and the Status of the Human Embryo: Two Traditions in Tension by John M. Haas, Ph.D., President, National Catholic Bioethics Center

25. A New Federation for Life: Learning from Our Adversaries by Chuck Donovan, Executive Director, Family Action Alliance

26. The International Scene: Dangerous Mischief at the United Nations: Abortion as the Law of the World by Austin Ruse, President, Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute Teresa R. Wagner is a former Lobbyist with the National Right to Life Committee, and a former Legal and Policy

Analyst for Family Research Council, both in Washington, D.C.

• "A very welcome review of a vitally important mission . . ." - Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Author, The Ten Commandments
• "Never before in the history of the pro-life movement have scholars, states-men, judges, activists and others combined their insights to provide a com-prehensive look at the movement's history and its future. Yet, that is exactly what this book does. Back to the Drawing Board: The Future of the Pro-Life Movement is a remarkable collection of essays by distinguished professionals and is must reading for anyone seeking to understand the pro-life movement, its successes, failures, and the challenges it faces as it enters the 21st century." - Gary L. Bauer, President, Campaign for Working Families
• "The courageous tenacity of the pro-life movement has been the great untold story of American public life for three decades. This timely and important book demonstrates that the pro-life movement - which will be the great civil rights movement of twenty-first century America - has the courage to be self-critical as well as the courage to be tenacious." - George Weigel, Senior Fellow, Ethics & Public Policy Center, and Author of Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II

 

For bulk orders, call St. Augustine's Press at (888) 997-4994. For all other purchases, call either University of Chicago Press
distributor (800) 621-2736 or St. Augustine's at (574) 291-3500; or visit www.staugustine.net or email bruce@staugustine.net

Media inquiries, contact Teresa R. Wagner, Project Editor, at ft.wagner@verizon.net or at (703) 393-6804

posted on 01/20/2003 7:57 PM CST by Coleus (RU 486 Kills Babies)

[Remedy]

THANKS!

[Coleus]

Read this good book, ping.

[Ahban]

The main thing wrong with the political aspect of the Right to Life movement is that they continue to believe that the Republican party means what they say in their platform. They don't.

"Putting all of our eggs in one basket" is not merely putting it in politics, but putting our eggs in the flawed basket of one party that does not mean it, and is not willing to expend any political capital to get the job done.

http://www.constitutionparty.com

[WFTR]

I think one of the most important points in changing people's minds is separating the message that abortion is wrong from other messages that many pro-lifers want to advocate. I spent most of the 80's in fundamentalist or evangelical churches hearing that abortion was wrong and should be illegal. People would say that the baby was alive, and we all know that the baby is biologically alive and unique. However, because the anti-abortion message always seemed to be mixed with the church's message that premarital sex is wrong and that kids are good and more kids are better, I always thought that opposing abortion was just a way to harass people who engaged in premarital sex or just didn't want kids. While I supported the church's teaching that premarital sex is wrong, I didn't agree with using the government to hassle people into doing what the church wanted.

Around 1990, I would have gladly supported someone who said that he wanted to make abortion "safe, rare, and legal." I didn't begin to change my mind until a proponent of abortion told of her own pregnancy. The long version of that story is at Abortion -The Moment of Truth. The short version is that she accidently made me an opponent of legalized abortion because she made me realize that the unborn child is a person.

Many pro-lifers don't seem to understand that some of us will never really want to be parents. If I ever find myself in that role, I will do everything I can to be a good father to my children, but the notion that children are a blessing to every person is nonsense. I oppose abortion because a child's not being a blessing to me is not an excuse to kill it. Until pro-lifers can separate the fact that killing an unborn child is wrong from their own positive feelings for children, their message will remain muddled. Until the message is clear, people will see the pro-life movement as nothing more than an attempt to force a particular lifestyle on others, and they will reject that effort.

WFTR
Bill

[Torie]

This issue is all about influencing public opinion and SCOTUS appointees (and any nominee that is viewed as likely to reverse certainly the progeny of Wade (and although often missed, it is the progeny that is now circumscribing legislative action on much of anything on this issue), much less Wade itself, seems unlikely. Weyrich seems to be missing that essential reality.

[Antoninus]

Paul Weyrich lost a lot of respect from many of us when he "surrendered" a few years ago. I find it incredible that so many people are navel-gazing when serious pro-life gains are being made and re-outlawing abortion is no longer such a distant dot on the horizon. The absolute frothing rage of our opponents should tell you that we're doing something right.

Rather than tearing everything down and starting from scratch, why not simply continue moving forward with what we've been doing, and augment it with new approaches.

I've seen some polls that have shown as many as 70% nationwide now oppose abortion on demand. We're winning the battles in the trenches. The next step should be to chase the hard-core pro-aborts out of the GOP and make "choice" a liability as a campaign issue for the Scum-o-crats.

[Ashamed Democrat]

The key here to "change the course" is to "change the debate"... to "frame the debate"...

I can tell you from personal experience that Democrats and left-wingers are damn good at creating catch phrases and buzz words. Well, you Republicans gotta jump in the fray. You gotta go on offense. All of us with conservative hearts from both sides of the aisle have to speak out in terms that have a clear meaning.

Take "pro-choice" for example. From now on, we have to have the courage to say "anti-life" instead.

Take "reproductive health" next. That must be instead called "sexual irresponsibility".

Take "women's health care issues" and call it "abortion hot buttons" from now on.

Speak the truth. Left wingers hate it. They absolutely go beserk when you use common sense.

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[Saundra Duffy]

Don't blame women.

[Deepest South]

What is the saying about doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?

1. Most people don't care about unborn babies

2. Most people don't care about women with problem pregnancies

3. Most people care mostly about themselves.

Develop multiple plans that show Most people how they are hurt by abortion. Many, many times I've seen women march straight into the clinics even after hearing about the painful death of her unborn child but stop and turn around when they were told that abortion could hurt them. Appealing to the kind and gentle feelings of the general public by the pro life movement has had a less than spectacular result.

[toenail]

winning