Judie Brown - Philosophical Split, Or Absence of Logic?

Judie Brown, President of the American Life League, and guest speaker at a recent fundraising dinner, hits it out of the park when she writes about why Personhood is the only sensible position for any pro-life group.

This article is reprinted from Judie's blog at the ALL website.


Philosophical Split, Or Absence of Logic?

A couple of days ago a member of the leadership team from Colorado for Equal Rights sent me a link to the NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado home page where I found something remarkable.

You see the pro-abortion forces in Colorado are up in arms, literally, over the personhood effort in the state, and have made the statement: "Changing Colorado’s constitution in such an extreme way could have far-reaching consequences beyond banning abortion, including making it illegal to use of the most effective forms of birth control, restricting in-vitro fertilization, and curbing embryonic stem cell research."

Well, I have to ask, what is so extreme about being consistent in the pro-life struggle to protect the personhood of the human being from the time his life begins, regardless of the manner in which that life begins? Would the pro-aborts like it better if pro-lifers contradicted their principles by arguing that they "take no position on contraception," or "will not oppose in vitro fertilization" or "support exceptions in cases of rape, incest and life of the mother?"

Because if they would be less offended by such inconsistent illogical politically correct positions they need only focus attention on South Dakota or some other legislative effort where consistency is lacking altogether. For as one recent news report stated: "The Wall Street Journal on Monday examined the 'philosophical split' among antiabortion groups over five state ballot initiatives, with some groups supporting only measures that seek to ban abortion, while others are supporting attempts to 'chip away' at abortion rights through initiatives aimed at restricting access or limiting certain procedures."

If you are familiar with this blog you already know where I stand on the "split" but perhaps you have not quite gotten your arms around the reasons why. After all, you might be thinking, "Judie Brown is simply one of those 'all or nothing' pro-lifers who doesn’t get it." Well, my friend, I do get it and that is why I abhor the argument that we can chip away at abortion rights in America in 2008.

Why? Let’s start with 35 years ago when the Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton Supreme Court decisions decriminalizing abortion during all nine months of pregnancy. From that moment to this, the split in the pro-life movement has widened as many have inconsistently chosen to add on an exception here and an exception there until, as we all know, we have reached a point where we cannot even outlaw infanticide – partial birth abortion – unless we support a life of the mother exception in the legislation.

What do these exceptions mean to the future of pro-life political efforts to restore personhood to the preborn child?

To put it succinctly, it means that we, at least some of us, are so good at undermining the personhood principle by "chipping away" at the fringes of abortion-murder that we have become extraordinarily efficient at denying that there is anything wrong with this "strategy." It is obvious that many of us simply do not want to do the difficult thing - the right thing - and be consistent in our arguments.

My view is that until we as a pro-life movement decide, from one end of the movement to the other, that we are dedicated to personhood and will oppose abortive birth control, in vitro fertilization and surgical abortion, we are going to spin our wheels. We are going to continue to cut down a small tree here and tinier one there, while thousands of babies continue to die every single day.

Personhood means defending every single human being without excluding a single one; anything less, commonly known as chipping away, is equivalent to opposing ourselves by claiming we are being realistic!

Come on, give me a break! NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado gets it! Why can’t some pro-lifers?

Candidate Questionnaire

We are currently in the process of surveying candidates for their views on crucial life issues. If you have a local legislative candidate running in your area, from any party, and want to make sure we have their name and address so we can send them a questionnaire, please contact Donna at office@coloradorighttolife.org, or call her at 303-753-9394.

Here are the questions currently being circulated to candidates for certain elective offices in Colorado:

Colorado Right To Life: Candidate Questionnaire

Colorado RTL, the largest pro-life organization in the state, has just moved our office across the street from the Capitol. Please consider your responses to the questions below and then mail your answers back to us at 1535 Grant Street, Suite 303, 80203. We will mail voter guides out to registered pro-lifers and post the results of our candidate questionnaires online at ColoradoRightToLife.org. We would like to hear from you before your constituents vote at the Assem bly, so they will benefit from our Pro-life Voters' Guide. The time is short, so please respond as soon as possible. We hope you will answer "Yes" to each of the following fundamental moral questions. Thanks!

Candidate Name: __________________________;

Party: __________________________

Office Sought: __________________________

1. Do you advocate that the government uphold the God-given, inalienable Right to Life for the unborn?

2. Do you agree that abortion is always wrong, even when the baby's father is a criminal (a rapist)?

3. Do you support the 2008 Colorado Personhood amendment effort to define "person" to include any human being from the moment of fertilization?

4. Do you oppose all public funding for Planned Parenthood, the largest and richest organization in the abortion industry?

5. Will you oppose any attempts to allow doctor-assisted suicide and other forms of euthanasia?

6. Will you oppose any research or practice that would intentionally destroy the tiniest living humans (embryonic stem cell research)?

7. Will you refuse to support any legislation that would allow abortion, even if it is a 'pro-life' bill? (i.e. legislation that says "Abortion shall be prohibited unless...")


Colorado RTL opposes every law that regulates the killing of unborn children because, regardless of the intention, such laws:- violate God's enduring command, Do not murder,- merely prune the abortion weed and strengthen its root,- make abortion seem more palatable to the public and politicians,- turn conservative judges increasingly against the Right to Life of the unborn,- will keep abortion legal if Roe v. Wade is merely overturned, and because they- end with the meaning, "and then you can kill the baby."

Colorado RTL is glad to work with you on wording for pro-life legislation, and we have an extensive nationwide network of pro-life organizations, lawyers, and public officials to draw upon. We will, however, oppose legislation and all candidates who would authorize the intentional killing of the innocent. Since we're two doors north on Grant Street from the Capitol, we invite you to call us at 303 753-9394 and arrange to come by and meet our officers to discuss strategy for ending legalized abortion. Feel free also to just stop by and say hello!

Joe Riccobono

President, Colorado RTL

Personhood and Judicial Crisis Resolutions

Colorado Right to Life had two petitions circulating at Caucus time, this year.

One of them was the Personhood Resolution, which encouraged Republicans to embrace Personhood as the new standard for the Republican Party, which had long operated by the standard mantra of wanting exceptions for "rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother." These exceptions were specious -- if a baby really has a "right to life" then why would abortion (murder of the innocent) be okay in cases of rape or incest? Where else do we execute the innocent third party because one person committed a crime against a second? And we are wisely advised by pro-life medical professionals that, because abortions take time to do, that it is never medically necessary, nor medically wise, to spend time killing a baby in the womb rather than trying to deliver the baby alive -- i.e. trying to save both, the baby and the mother.

We are pleased to note that in Jefferson County, 65% of Republican voters at the County Assembly supported an abstracted version of our Personhood Resolution (simpler wording, but with the same goal). This may sound like a dishearteningly low number, but pro-abortion Republicans have a strong and vocal presence in the Jeffco GOP, and the Personhood Resolution was a solid step beyond where the Republican Party has long stood. This is a victory!

If you have totals showing votes on Personhood resolutions in other counties, please forward them to us by replying to this post (comment).

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Personhood Resolution

WHEREAS, the God-given right to life from our Creator comes not at birth but at our creation; and

WHEREAS, the state of Mississippi unleashed the "legitimized" killing of unborn children on America in 1966 using the brutality of rape as an excuse, and Colorado then extended that state's crime in 1967 by "legalizing" abortion for rape, incest, and health excuses; and

WHEREAS, in the past twenty seconds, an unborn child in America was killed by a surgical or chemical abortion; and

WHEREAS, in the pro-abortion Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision Republican Justice Harry Blackmun wrote that if "personhood is established, the [abortion] case, of course, collapses, for the fetus' right to life would then be guaranteed... The [pro-abortion side] conceded as much on reargument"; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Colorado Republican Party that we support the 2008 personhood amendment sponsored by Colorado for Equal Rights to define "person" to include any human being from the moment of fertilization.

_______________________________________________________________

The other was an effort to educate Republican voters as to the betrayal they have suffered at the hands of unprincipled compromisers in the Republican Party. As they say, you can't overcome a great challenge until you admit that it exists. Here is the wording of the other Resolution:

Colorado RTL Report for Candidates:U.S. Judicial Crisis

Colorado RTL is informing pro-lifers politicians and candidates of a crisis among the federal judiciary. For 35 years, pro-lifers have hoped that by electing pro-life presidents such as Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and George W. Bush, America would get judges who support the God-given right to life of the unborn. Justices, who we all hoped were pro-life, have made it increasingly clear that they are not.

Antonin Scalia has publicly stated that he would strike down any law that prohibited abortion in all fifty states, and Clarence Thomas has ruled that the public has the right to decide to legalize the killing of unborn children. Sadly, not even one of the seven current U.S. Supreme Court Justices nominated by Republican presidents support the right to life of the unborn.

Further, our pro-life presidents have nominated sixty percent of the U.S. federal judiciary, and yet the judiciary utterly rejects the right to life of the unborn. Also we should remember that the pro-abortion Roe v. Wade decision was written by a Republican Justice and passed by the Republican majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, and abortion was legalized in Colorado by Republican governor John Love in 1967.

Colorado RTL is educating pro-life politicians and candidates to the sobering judicial crisis because it tells us that the status quo strategy of regulating abortion over the last decades is leading to a judicial culture exactly the opposite of what the pro-life movement had expected. When we ask judges to uphold abortion regulations, that very request moves "our own" judges to accept that the government has the right to regulate the killing of children, which they do by upholding the pro-life movement's own initiatives.

Thus Colorado RTL advocates enforcement of the God-given right to life and promotes the Personhood strategy to end legalized abortion in America!