During our breakfast at the White House January 22, Ann and I were both impressed by the sense of being genuinely welcome guests, and not tourists or even strangers.
Feeling at Home in the White House
We wandered from room to room, sat where we wanted, investigated the books on the shelves, went back to the dining room for coffee, sat in the easy chair by the fireplace where FDR did his famous “Fireside Chats,” and had absolutely no sense of being rushed or of being in the way. The staff was friendly, the atmosphere homey and the food delicious.
Somehow we all sort of wandered into the East Room and suddenly heard the announcement, “The President of the United States.” Whatever your take on George Bush, he seemed to feel at home with this pro-life group and he strongly encouraged us to continue our battle for the unborn, and his “our” clearly included him.
It was an unusual experience being in the home of the most powerful leader in the free world, and feeling “…right at home.” I hope we’ll be invited back next year.
Chapman Op-Ed on Abortion Gets It Right
Steve Chapman’s excellent commentary last Sunday announced that the real reason for the drop in the rate of abortions performed in the U.S. is that our society is changing — that the two-pronged strategy of the pro-life movement is working: regulating abortions through legislation like notification laws and informed consent and even the ban on partial birth abortion, coupled with our broad educational programs.
He said that even many who insist that Americans are in favor of legal abortion recognize the strong distaste for the procedure, and that everyone but the abortion fanatics want abortions to be regulated and to be limited. He points out that in 1995 abortion supporter Naomi Wolf wrote in The New Republic that “…the death of a fetus is a real death,” and that it is getting harder and harder to look at abortion outside of a moral framework — it may be legal, but it’s immoral.
Chapman gives pro-lifers credit for helping to proliferate ultrasound images and to continually use their resources to educate the public on the facts of abortion, so that the veil hiding abortion is being lifted. He even mentions the new film, “Juno,” in which a 16-year-old girl is confronted outside an abortion clinic by another teen who tells her that her baby has a beating heart and fingernails.
Chapman concludes that there is something so out of joint with abortion that it is actually laughable to consider even a fairy tale in which the heroine has an abortion and then lives happily ever after. He says that while the view used to be that abortion is evil but necessary, now, while some still argue that it is a necessity, almost everyone knows that it is evil. We think Chapman got it right: distaste for abortion is growing.
When the taste gets bad enough American will insist that the laws regulating it be changed to outlaw it.
SpeakOut Illinois and TeenSpeak Conferences February 2
Illinois has something no other state can boast of, and that is a coming-together of nearly forty pro-life groups every month to discuss pro-life advances and to put together an annual conference covering every aspect of the pro-life movement.
It’s called SpeakOut Illinois, and it is holding its annual conference on Saturday, February 2 at the Drury Lane in Oakbrook Terrace.
This annual conference gets better every year, and this year it features a roster of superb speakers including Scott Klusendorf, Patricia Bainbridge, Jill Stanek, and Dr. Angela Lanfranchi.
Dr. Tony Levatino of “Meet the Abortion Providers” fame will address the concurrent TeenSpeak conference.
For information and reservations contact the Illinois Right to Life Committee at (312) 422-9300. See you there.
