Presidential Message: Unmasking the rhetoric of ‘choice'

During mid-February our nation celebrates President's Day which has become simply another long weekend for many workers. But the proabortion lobby celebrated President's Day in a different way.

Planned Parenthood and other proabortion groups used President's Day as an opportunity to raise money for their cause while sending a message to President Bush. They urged their supporters to send a message to President Bush expressing their disappointment in his prolife stance and informing him that they were donating to proabortion groups in his name.

Our opponents are diligent in promoting themselves and their positions. A news story reported that Planned Parenthood Federation of America received more than $500,000 in President's Day contributions as a result of this grassroots internet campaign.

We in the prolife movement have always prided ourselves on the fact that we are a grassroots movement. We have always pointed out that our strength has been in our numbers and our persistence.

Now with a change in the presidency and the opportunity for a change in direction of respecting and valuing human life, we must not become complacent. The proabortion lobby understands that they no longer have a friend in the White House. They will use this to their advantage in the months ahead as they send out fund-raising letters and build their membership. They are preparing now for the elections of 2002 and 2004.

If we are serious in our desire to build a culture of life, then we must not be afraid to express our moral convictions and religious faith in the public debate. We must defend and support those elected officials who have the courage to vote their prolife convictions. We must take the time to thank President Bush when he makes prolife policy. We must be willing to vote against those politicians who claim that abortion is simply a private decision and shouldn't be a part of the political process.

We must find ways to persuade our fellow citizens who say that they are personally opposed to abortion to feel comfortable joining us in restoring legal protection to the unborn. We must work to unmask the rhetoric and public relations slogan of "choice."

Recently, Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput said, " Roe (v. Wade) undermined our reasoning and our moral vocabulary. The way abortion supporters hide behind the label ‘prochoice' simply proves the point. ‘Prochoice' is an expression utterly divorced from the real, flesh-and-blood event of abortion. It's completely sanitized, completely evasive and completely dishonest."

Now is the time for an honest description of abortion and the destruction it has wrecked upon women, the family and our society. Let us not hide behind sanitized labels, but instead force our fellow citizens to face the truth about this right that kills innocent babies.

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