President’s Message: Actively Offering Life Choices: Helping Women, Families

As we read the newspapers or watch television, we can easily become discouraged by the stories of violence and disregard for human life. Today, just prior to writing this column, I saw two such stories.

One was a report that the number of “partial birth abortions” has tripled in the past four years. This statistic comes from researchers from the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a nationally recognized proabortion organization.

The second was a press release by the abortionist, George Tiller of Kansas. To mark the 30th anniversary of the legalization of abortion, Tiller announced that he would offer free abortions on the Saturday prior to January 22nd. Tiller’s claim to fame is his willingness to specialize in late term abortions, such as partial birth abortions.

Yes, it is tempting to become discouraged or apathetic when faced with the horrors of legalized abortion. But the horrific abortion facts are overcome by the valor of every day people working so diligently to protect the unborn and to help women in need.

One of my fellow state right to life leaders recently sent me the following message he found in a long forgotten book by Elton Trueblood:

“The only way in which a person may achieve relative unity of life is by dedication to something outside himself, to which he gives such loyal devotion that the self is forgotten in the process. Man is so made that he cannot find genuine satisfaction unless his life is transcendent in at least two ways. It must transcend his own ego in that he cares more for a cause than for his own existence, and it must transcend his own brief time in that he builds for the time when he is gone and thereby denies mortality. A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.”

During my years as RLM President, I have been fortunate to meet so many prolifers who are devoting their time, talents and resources to “planting those shade trees” for future generations. They do so by calling their legislators to lobby on a piece of legislation, or by volunteering in pregnancy care centers or by agreeing to be a leader in their local right to life affiliate. They drive three hours to spend a Saturday at a planning session preparing for new ways to protect life. They drive from Chicago on a snowy day to our state office to learn how to do a media campaign. They give up lucrative job offers to work full time for prolife organizations. They dedicate their lives to a cause that often provides no tangible rewards, no instant gratification and sometimes even vilification.

I am thankful that in Michigan there are so many individuals who are so willing to “plant life-giving shade trees.” Every day they unselfishly give of themselves to counter those forces who have as their mission the killing of the most innocent among us, the unborn baby.

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