President's Message: Positive Progress, but Lifesaving Work Continues

Letters, letters, letters from Right to Life of Michigan members—how they provide so much “food for thought” and are so unique but often diametrically opposed in their advice and insight.

Two recent letters are the basis for this column. One was a letter of praise saying, “I look forward to your letters each month. They are so interesting and informative, a blessing and an inspiration.” We all love to hear words of praise and the news that our work is helpful.

In the second letter, a woman included a donation, but also wrote that we are accomplishing nothing through our legislation; our efforts are pointless because abortions continue. While few of us like to think that our work is pointless and unproductive, the second letter of criticism does point out the need to reflect on where we are in the prolife movement.

Yes, abortion has been legal for a long time. Yes, each and every day women are choosing to legally kill their own children. Yes, some governors and legislators are openly pushing for more and more ways to advance the culture of death and utilitarianism.

But do all of these “yeses” mean that there has been no progress since 1973 when seven unelected men on our highest court made abortion legal?

Of course not. Because motivated and dedicated people of faith resisted a culture that called for individual choice and personal morality, the prolife movement has been able to prevent the complete societal acceptance of such morally bankrupt positions as abortion, assisted suicide and embryonic stem cell use.

The battle is not easy nor is victory with us, but progress has been and is being made. Sometimes we look at the negatives before us rather than reflecting on all of the positives—that old saying “is the glass half-empty or half-full.” Let’s look at what we have accomplished in promoting a culture of life and working toward that “full glass.”

• The Michigan law prohibiting abortions is still intact. When the U.S. Supreme Court reverses Roe v. Wade, returning the abortion issue to the people of each state, our pre-Roe law making abortion illegal can go into effect. Michigan is one of only seven states where there is still a law making abortion illegal. Do we need a new law making abortion illegal? No, but we do need a change on the U.S. Supreme Court before our law or any complete abortion ban can go into effect. There is not a majority on the present U.S. Supreme Court in favor of making abortion illegal.
• Because we have worked together to identify, endorse, and elect prolife men and women, the Michigan legislature has a majority of legislators who are prolife. Working with them, we have seen laws enacted that save lives. We have stopped the use of tax dollars to kill babies; we have passed a law to prevent secret teen abortions; we have laws requiring informed consent and a waiting period before an abortion; we have banned cloning; and we have stopped the legalization of assisted suicide. Daily, our lobbyists have prevented the advancement of anti-life efforts. We will continue to work to protect lives through legislation, but to do so we have to continue to work through the political process which includes making hard endorsement choices.
• We are helping women choose life by providing that help line for life-saving alternatives. The advertising of our toll free number on television and in yellow page phone books connects thousands of women and men to help agencies. Our seven offices are available with educational resources to help young people develop their prolife arguments. Raising the millions of dollars to reach women and men with the message of hope has resulted in the births of thousands of daughters and sons.
• All of our educational, legislative and political programs combined have led us to a day when now in Michigan we are nearly cutting the total number of abortions in half. Is that enough? No, but if we had done nothing over the past thirty-three years where would those numbers be?

As a former teacher, I’m inclined to want to give out grades or stars or some sort of mark of achievement or lack of achievement. And of course the worse grade you can get is an F for failure. But I have to agree with one of the letters that I received that said, “Congratulations Michigan on your F!” The writer was referring to the fact that the proabortion group NARAL gave Michigan an F, a failing grade on “reproductive rights” (read abortion) for women. This is an F that we are proud of, but not satisfied with. Our satisfaction will come on that day when abortion will no longer be the “choice” offered to women facing an unwanted pregnancy. Instead, women will be offered life-affirming choices that will result in life rather than death for their own offspring.

Back to the table of contents