Shownotes Transcript
In this episode of Life Matters, Brian Johnston is joined by Karen Roseberry - district Director for the California Prolife Council. Karen is also the crisis pregnancy center coordinator for California ProLife communications.
The focus of today’s discussion is on how to protect innocent babies after the overturn of Roe v. Wade. As listeners to this program know, many Americans, and even many pro-life Americans, do not fully understand what Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton did.
It gave all authority of the abortion issue into the hands of one individual, the only requirement of that individual is that they have an ‘MD’ after their name. The abortionist bares all responsibilities for deciding if, where, and how an abortion is to be done.
In Roe v. Wade it is very clear the woman is not given any authority, she is only given permission in Roe v. Wade to consult with an abortionist.
The Roe v. Wade decision along with Doe v. Bolton was used to strike down the laws of all 50 states. In so doing, it robbed each and every state of its duty to legally determine if and when a human life could be taken. The Constitution refers to this as the compelling state interest to protect life.
The Dobbs decision overturn Roe and returned to each of the several state legislatures that authority to again define when and if a life can be taken and in the case of human abortion under what circumstances and what procedures are to be used.
Therefore, the right to life issue is indeed a legal issue of when a human life can or should be taken and if any prosecution should result from the unauthorized taking of life.
The pending 2022 election is the first election since this dramatic change in abortion law allowing states to again protect lives. The state can only do this through their elected representatives. Elected representatives only hold office because voters have placed them there.
For this reason it is critical that pro-life individuals understand the power of their vote because it is their vote that will determine whether or not pro-life legislators will hold office and whether their state will protect the lives of babies at any time within its borders.
Brian and Karen discuss the work of the California Prolife Council in identifying candidates all the way down the ticket to the most local of levels. This is critical because of two reasons. Firstly, many decisions are made locally - the placement of school based clinics by Planned Parenthood, defunding of local abortion clinics and services by city or county grants. The abortion industry has weaseled itself into the most local of jurisdictions and often in deceitfully clever ways. Often they are not accountable for how they spend the very money they have elicited.
Secondly, the state legislature is usually made up of elected individuals that themselves have held office at a lower, local level. This is commonly referred to in politics as “the bench”. These potential state legislators or Congressional candidates are vitally necessary for success in the future. To develop a pro-life bench for the state legislature, we must identify and support local pro-life candidates who will stand for life at the local level.
During the 2022 primary, California Prolife Council implemented a new tool, an electronic tool, to replace its earlier paper voter guides. These voter guides were establish to help elect local pro-life individuals as well as state and congressional candidates
The new Get Out the Vote tool for pro-life voters will allow any individual in the state to insert their voting address and they will be able to identify, all the way down the ballot, the pro-life candidates available in their precinct. This simple tool overcomes many of the confusing aspects of elections and civics regarding, “Which district am I in for which particular office?”
The project entails two parts. Pro-life volunteer‘s in all 58 counties will be assessing local candidates and gathering information from local candidate resources. These are then sent to be collated precinct by precinct in this huge state of 40 million people.
The resulting tool allows the pro-life cause to have much greater success at the local level. It proved itself in the 2022 primary with an astounding 80% success rate.
Each state across the nation is working, as we speak through its National Right to Life affiliate, to both identify pro-life candidates and to ensure that the pro-life voting public knows the importance of putting these candidates into office. More information can be found at californiaprolife.org) and nationally at nrlc.org)