Encouragement: Reasons to stay engaged in the Pro-Life Battle
by Mike Griffin Legislative Director
I think many of us in the pro-life movement were stunned by the election results of 2008. Often, during the following days, I asked myself, how do we keep motivated to not give up the fight for life in view of so many political losses? Three words came to mind.
The first word is “incentive”. What incentive would keep us fighting for the ideals of the pro-life movement? There are two words incentive enough to keep us going: Barack Obama. That’s right. With the election of Barack Obama we have a new reason to redouble our efforts and work harder than ever.
President-elect Barak Obama has left no doubt about where he stands on abortion and advancing the anti-life movement. I agree with Jim Sedlak, Vice-President of the American Life League, when he said, “Clearly the American people have picked an extremist president dedicated to doing all in his power to advance the culture of death.”
President-elect Obama stands out as the worst of all the pro-choice presidents. Not only does he want to defend the “right” of a woman to kill her unborn baby, he also wants to undo laws that restrict such practices, and advance any opportunity to increase pre-birth deaths. His anti-life goals are unprecedented in U.S. history!
Nothing speaks more of his desire to advance the culture of death than his promise to sign into law the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). On July 17, 2007, he stated in an address to Planned Parenthood that “the first thing I will do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act.” If he is successful, he could very well overturn 35 years of abortion restrictions!
The second word is “reality”. Looking toward the future, we must accept the reality that the pro-life movement has been used many times by political parties and politicians to get elected. The problem is that many times the rhetoric has not matched the reality of how these candidates govern once they are elected.
During my 4 months at the capitol this past year I came to realize rather quickly that just because a legislator has a certain letter by his name or even a “Pro-life endorsement” does not mean that they will always support pro-life legislation. A case in point was the Human Life Amendment. Some of the greatest difficulties in lobbying for this legislation came from “pro-life friends”. The majority party gave me a crash course in “the legislative process”!
This should serve as a reminder that we must continue to demand that candidates we endorse be 100% pro-life (rape and incest are not exceptions) and we must keep the emphasis on personhood. After all, this was the original emphasis immediately following the passage of Roe vs. Wade in 1973. We need to endorse, elect and hold accountable those who claim to be pro-life when they get into office. Politicians don’t always do what you expect, but what you inspect!
The third word is “hope”. There are over 58 million people who did not vote for Barack Obama! And a large group of those people are just like you and me! We vote up or down on candidates not because of their party, the color of their skin, or the region they are from. We vote for them on the basis of their being pro-life. There are many of us who have not bowed our knees to the god of death in this country. It is not over for our legislative efforts in the Pro-life movement!
Rep. Tyrone Brooks, regarding the Civil Rights movement years ago, said, “We have no permanent friends. We have no permanent enemies. We only have permanent interests.” This is especially true of the pro-life movement. No matter the party affiliation, we will fight with those who will fight for the speechless, the defenseless and the helpless!
Don’t give up! You can be a part of the hounds of heaven which, like me, refuse to give in or give up. We will be relentless in our pursuit of proclaiming the truth that we have all been endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights of which the first is Life! God gave us our rights as humans and the government can’t change that Truth! If we continue to stand with the Lord and His Word on this issue, He will stand with us and our future in the Pro-life movement will be as bright as the promises of the Word of God!