Shownotes Transcript
Brian Johnston interviews Karen Cross, Political Director of the National Right to Life Committee. Karen tells the story because she initially was involved in only wanting to help crisis pregnancies. She felt this was the easiest way to address the widespread abortion culture sweeping her state.
A young woman she was counseling told her that she had had an 18-week saline abortion. She had been told at the clinic that there was no baby, that it was merely a piece of liver. Seeing the expelled child horrified her.
Karen felt that giving such a simple and false description before a decision like abortion is made should be illegal, but it was quite legal. Virginians For Life had introduced an informed consent measure that was always defeated in the state legislature because of the chairmanship of one key committee. Karen finally got involved in the election to replace that legislator and the dam broke! Without that ‘pro-abortion’ legislator stopping all the good bills, West Virginia law could be substantially improved for vulnerable women and their children.
Karen documents the 100,000 fewer abortions – living children that have benefited.
It is critically important to realize that the abortion question is determined by the laws of the states and when Prolife individuals get widely involved in the civic process they can dramatically change the number of abortions.
Professor Michael Jason New has written extensively on the dramatic change brought about by Prolife laws.
In Brian’s final statement he reminds us that the right to life is essentially a statement of political philosophy: it is the duty of the government to protect the lives of those governed. He urges listeners to join with the diverse community of Prolife people in their states to restore the protection of life as the basic element of just law. NRLC and its state affiliates exist for that purpose.