Ann and I spent five days on the road last week giving eight talks in the Washington-Baltimore area. Venues were The American University in Washington DC ( 40 students); Georgetown University ( 50 students); Christendom College, Front Royal, VA (100 faculty and students ); Mt. St. Mary’s College , Emmetsburg, MD (30); Immaculate Conception Church in Towson, MD (100); University of Maryland Baltimore (75); University of Maryland College Park (50), and Rock Creek MD Knights of Columbus to 30 friends.
Not huge crowds, but lively discussions and some media coverage. Jack Ames of Defend Life was our host.
Crude Pro-Abort Tactics Belie Desperation
Here’s a commentary on our enemy: When members of the Princeton University Pro-Life club set up a display of 347 flags to commemorate students not included in the freshman class, having been killed by abortion, pro-aborts tore down the flags and left printouts saying, “Support smaller class sizes: Support abortion.”
Another note said 347 rusty coat hangers didn’t get mangled, suggesting that legal abortion saved the coat hangers. This crassness follows on the heels of the destruction of a pro-life display at Northern Kentucky University last week. Seems the pro-aborts are running scared, as their precious legal abortion days are clearly numbered.
NCR Highlights League’s Generations for Life
A feature article [PDF] on the League’s youth outreach, Generations for Life, appears in the National Catholic Register for April 16 through 22, by Joseph Pronechen. It tells how effective this group is in getting youth clubs started all over the country, describing the program designed by Annie Casselman and John Jansen to channel youthful enthusiasm into the pro-life cause.
“It’s amazing what these teenagers do,” Annie Casselman is quoted. She goes on:
They can do more than an adult can, talking day in and out to their classmates, leading discussions, giving presentations. It’s cool to be a resource in the midst of this. We have the product. People can come to us when they’re getting fired up to change the culture. The Lord set it up perfectly.
Fr. Thomas Loya, also quoted in the article, says Generations for Life responds to a great spiritual need among young people:
They’re eager to transform their culture and desirous of and open to the truth. It inspires people to be disciples to their own peers. They take this information to their friends and are very up-front and bold about it.
We at the League are happy for the many success stories coming out of Generations for Life, as portrayed in the Register story, “Youth Well Spent.”
Sob Stories over Substance
Melissa Simon of Physicians for Reproductive Choice patches together all the sob stories invented over the past centuries in an article supporting abortion on demand as the most necessary surgery known to man. In an April 24 offering appearing in Monday’s papers, Melissa mocks South Dakota’s new abortion law that calls unborn children “vulnerable.”
For Melissa, it is not babies being killed who are vulnerable but girls wanting abortions. She trots out sob story after sob story to make her point. It never occurs to her that teenyboppers should be playing dolls and their pimply partners should be in jail. We’d suggest that you read her drivel as a sample of biased writing, but on second thought it would be a total waste of time. There is not one original thought.
Forbes Piece Misses the Point
Forbes Magazine for May 8 does a cutesy piece on our American Girl Doll boycott that doesn’t say much good about the League’s victory, but does make it clear that during the boycott Mission City‘s dolls, offered as an alternative to American Girl, tripled its sales, from $235,000 last year, to $700,000 this year.
Miriam Gottfried writes that American Girl didn’t suffer much but in fact had a 12% gain despite the boycott. Whether that’s true or not, American Girl scrapped its deal with Girls, Inc. and that was what we were after. We weren’t trying to put Mattel out of business—just trying to break its connection with Girls Inc. But we’re happy to hear Life of Faith got a 300% boost in the doll market.
