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Pro-Life Update Reflecting on the history of the Pro-Life movement, we easily forget that many people defended the lives of the unborn long before Roe v. Wade jeopardized the life of every unborn child. The early feminists who supported women’s rights during the 19th century blazed the Pro-Life trail for us. Especially during election time, we are reminded that promoting a culture that respects all innocent human life should be a priority for our political and social leaders.
Please read this issue of the Pro-Life Update carefully to understand some of the challenges we now face and how you—an educated Pro-Lifer—can advance the Culture of Life. Please share this information with your family, friends, and church congregations. Make copies. Spread the news.
Pro-Life Feminism Many in our culture have forgotten the Pro-Life roots of the feminist movement, and unfortunately, numerous feminist groups, such as The National Organization for Women (NOW), have made advocacy for abortion their priority—a goal that would have startled and disappointed the founders of the suffragist movement. Thankfully, groups such as the Feminists for Life (www.FFL.org) have preserved the true message of these founding women.
Authors Mary Kane Derr, Rachel MacNair, and Linda Naranjo-Heubl have recently authored the book, Pro-Life Feminism: Yesterday and Today, an excellent anthology of articles that demonstrates that protecting both women and their unborn children has been a priority for women suffragists since the mid-19th century. The book includes numerous essays from the founders of the feminist movement, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Blackwell. Their writings reveal that the right to vote and own property were not their only priorities; in fact, they spent significant time writing and lecturing on the atrocity of abortion and its degrading effects on women.
As Elizabeth Cady Stanton declared in 1870:
We must educate our daughters that maternity is grand, and that God never cursed it, and the curse, if there be any, may be rolled off… Let woman assert herself in all her native purity, dignity, and strength, and end this wholesale suffering and murder of helpless children. With centuries of degradation, we have so little of true womanhood that the world has but the faintest glimmering of what woman is or should be.
Our hope and prayer is that Texas Right to Life will carry on this vision of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and of the numerous other Pro-Life heroines as we seek to restore true womanhood and build a Culture of Life.
Elections Across the United States The following information was collected from National Right to Life regarding the November elections across the country. There were some Pro-Life victories and some losses, resulting in mixed outcomes.
The battle continues, and we must always work hard to promote Pro-Life candidates who will help us promote a Culture of Life.
The Pro-Life movement still has much work to ensure that all people throughout the world are welcomed into Life and respected. If you would like any additional information on the topics discussed above, please send me a note or log onto www.TexasRightToLife.com. If you ever have questions about any Pro-Life issues, please be sure to let me know.
Yours for Life,
Dr. Joseph M. Graham President |
