President's Message: Who we are and who we are not

The generic "prolife movement" has many elements and many players with groups and individuals defining what it is to be prolife. In general, most if not all "prolife" groups are opposed to abortion, but even then they may or may not have limits on their opposition to abortion. With the media or social networking avenues lumping all "prolifers" together, it is not surprising to see confusion reigning among the general public.

It may be time for a brief overview of who Right to Life of Michigan (RLM) is and is not. While this short column cannot provide an in depth look at RLM and its entities, our web site www.rtl.org provides a wealth of information about us and what we do.

Right to Life of Michigan's (RLM) foundations began in the late 1960s as individuals and groups around the state responded to attempts to legalize abortion in Michigan. These groups coalesced in 1972 to defeat a referendum that would have made abortion legal through 20 weeks.

Shortly after that victory, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned anti-abortion protective laws in all states through its January 22, 1973 abortion decisions. Michigan's prolife movement then needed a state-wide organization to unite local groups to effectively battle abortion on demand.

Right to Life of Michigan focuses upon several components in our quest to restore legal protection and civil rights to the unborn child and to advance our mission in the arena of end of life situations. We reach our goals through education, legislation and political action.

Within RLM is the Right to Life of Michigan Educational Fund which deals solely in such educational activities as production and placement of television ads, billboards, establishment of resource centers with materials for the general public, web site and social networking outreach, speaker training, outreach to teens, fostering pregnancy help centers. All donations to this entity are tax-deductible.

In the late 1970s, RLM also saw the need to establish a political action committee (pac) to identify, to endorse and then try to elect prolife men and women to public office. When the RLM-PAC was first established, there was not a majority of prolife officials in either our state house or our state senate. It took over 30 years of work by local volunteers to build the present prolife majorities in the state capitol. This was done by local volunteers making choices among candidates through personal interviews. This was done, not to tell people how to vote, but to inform people as to which candidates met the "life (not health) of the mother" exception standard and supported our unity Human Life Amendment. In this present election, due to term limits and retirements, that prolife majority could be in jeopardy. To do its work of endorsing and electing candidates, the RLM-PAC must raise separate funds. Donations to the RLM Educational Fund and Right to Life of Michigan cannot used for direct political purposes.

Right to Life of Michigan, the parent organization is classified by the federal government as a social welfare organization formed to lobby for or against laws. It is RLM that works directly with elected officials for the passage of prolife legislation and preventing the passage of legislation promoting the culture of death. Throughout the past 30 plus years Michigan has become a state with a large catalog of prolife laws due to the election of prolife office holders.

With a combination of prolife laws, public education and outreach and local pregnancy care assistance, we now are experiencing the lowest abortion numbers since the state began keeping abortion statistics.

Our purpose is to be a voice for the voiceless, to be a coordinating state-wide body for the community prolife groups who choose to be under our umbrella, to speak with a united voice on our identified prolife issues of abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia. As a unified group, we band together to ensure that groups promoting abortion and fostering a quality of life ethic do not grow stronger in the public square. Our members come from all walks of life, representing a wide spectrum of the public. We have different educational, cultural and faith backgrounds. We may be Democrats, Republicans or Independents or declare no political choice. We respect each other's diverse views on issues not part of our identified life issues. We come together on our mutually agreed goals and mission.

We see public educational outreach through the secular media, legislative action and direct political involvement all as legitimate options to obtain our goals. While some may disagree with our internal organizational structure and organizational decisions, we will not as an organization publicly criticize prolife individuals or organizations. We welcome prolife individuals to become a part of our local and state organization as we together continue to make progress in building a prolife Michigan.

We work towards a day that abortion will no longer be legal and that all innocent life will be treasured. Civil rights will be extended to the most innocent and the weakest among us, the unborn baby in the womb. Motherhood will be honored and women struggling to bring their babies to term will be given the needed help. The elderly and the vulnerable will be cherished and not hastened to their deaths. We ask nothing for ourselves, but if we can see the accomplishment of our goals and mission, we will have been abundantly rewarded.

© RIGHT TO LIFE OF MICHIGAN, 2340 PORTER ST SW, PO BOX 901, GRAND RAPIDS, MI 49509-0901, (616) 532-2300
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