The Right Person at the Right Time

Barbara Listing Leads Right to Life of Michigan with 25 years experience

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For the last 25 years, the prolife movement in Michigan has seen its ups and downs, but one thing that has remained consistent has been the leadership of Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing.

In a day and age when a long-term leadership is hard to come by, Barbara’s vision for Right to Life of Michigan has helped transform a small, loosely-knit group of prolifers into a nationally recognized prolife organization which some political commentators have identified as “an 800-pound gorilla” with seven educational resource centers around the state and more than 100 local affiliates representing communities in nearly every county. Right to Life of Michigan was even ranked as the #2 single issue lobbying group in the state of Michigan while no pro-abortion organizations made the list.

During the last 25 years, Barb has steered the prolife movement in Michigan through potentially dark waters to a number of important accomplishments. In 1981, Right to Life of Michigan pioneered the use of television commercials to spread the prolife message. Our successful Life Media campaigns have created more than 20 television ads on a variety of prolife subjects. Life Media ads have been used in at least 26 different states and internationally. The heart-moving ads have been praised by prolife organizations across the country. These ads are often used to provide a lifeline of true options to women in unplanned pregnancies. An untold number of lives have been and will be saved by these award-winning, 30-second commercials which were developed under the leadership of Mrs. Listing.

One of the most important accomplishments in the last 25 years of service has been the reduction of abortions in Michigan. Throughout the 1980’s, the recorded number of annual abortions in Michigan topped more than 40,000 every year (with a high of 49,098 abortions in 1987) until Right to Life of Michigan launched one of the most successful petition drives in state history. Nearly 500,000 signatures were gathered in 83 days so the Michigan legislature could vote to end tax-funded abortion in Michigan. The pro-abortion groups in Michigan, desperate to keep their government-paid-abortions, created their own petition drive to put the issue on the ballot. After a long campaign, the prolife voters of Michigan responded and in December of 1998, the state of Michigan stopped using tax dollars to fund abortions. Since 1987 and the repeal of tax-funded abortions, the number of abortions in Michigan has dropped an astounding 46.5 percent.

Other successful petition drives under Listing’s leadership include the Parental Rights Restoration Act to pass a parental consent law and the Legal Birth Definition Act to define legal birth and outlaw partial-birth abortion. Right to Life of Michigan also played a central role in the defeat of Proposal B in 1998. This proposal, if passed, would have legalized assisted suicide in Michigan. These petition drives and referendums were often grounded and supported by the strong relationships Barb has forged over the years with the leaders of other prolife/pro-family groups. In recognition of her leadership, she has been awarded two honorary degrees; a doctor of law degree from Sacred Heart Major Seminary and a doctor of humanities from Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Recent achievements under Listing’s leadership include important progress in spreading the prolife message in the African-American community, aiding other state right to life organizations in a variety of areas and the passage of countless prolife laws.

While no one can predict the future, the past twenty-five years of Barbara Listing’s perceptive guidance have been a central force in creating a movement which has accomplished life-saving tasks previously regarded as unachievable.

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