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Deep Inside, They Know It's Wrong

American Life League Bears Witness in San Francisco

BY JOHN HERREID

A sign of how worried the pro-abortion lobby is was demonstrated in a recent newspaper article. The local left wing weekly, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, ran a story in their November 5 issue titled, "The New Choice." In it, writer Tali Woodward expressed some of the fears the left is having: "But while bumper-sticker slogans about keeping laws off a woman's body are as common now as they were decades back, the pro-choice message is not resonating anymore. National polls show that the number of people who identify themselves as pro-choice has been declining since the 1980s."

Add to this the recent political gains of the pro-life movement, such as the ban on partial-birth abortion that passed on October 22 of this year, the discouragement in the pro-abortion crowd is palpable. Another sign that the monopoly on public rhetoric is beginning to slip from the grasp of those on the far left was the fact that a group of pro-life activists attending a large medical conference in San Francisco was met not by overwhelming hostility, as is often the case, but actually welcomed by many.

From Sunday, November 16 through Wednesday, November 19, the American Public Health Association met at the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco. More than 13,500 health professionals attended the meeting, the theme of which was "Behavior, Lifestyle and Social Determinants of Health." Also in attendance were healthcare companies and associations, holding court in a collection of several hundred booths. In among program booths, such as the aggressively pro-abortion Family Pact, which provides family planning and abortions to low-income men and women in California, was the American Life League.

There were two booths set up by the American Life League at the conference: one for the League proper and one for the Crusade for the Defense of Our Catholic Church, a division of the League that seeks to persuade Catholic politicians to support in their public service the moral teachings of the magisterium.

At the League booth, a monitor played a succession of 4D sonogram images, showing off the new technology that makes it possible to see an unborn child with surprising clarity. The shifting expressions of the babies were accompanied by a softly playing recording of Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and matched by the sometimes scowling, sometimes smiling faces of those who saw it. The reaction to the sonogram monitor was similar to the reaction attendees had to the American Life League staff. Although the experience at the conference was more positive than negative, people who disagreed with the message of the League were not shy in letting the volunteers know.

"In the beginning, we were getting a lot of the supporters who were just thrilled to see us there. The [people] who support abortion would just stand about 30 feet back and read our signs and shake their heads as they walked away, making it clear that they didn't agree with us," said Marcella Melendez, a Californian staffing the League's table. "But by the third day it was almost as if they couldn't control themselves any longer, and they began to come up and spew anger at us."

Dr. Haywood Robinson, a former abortionist, was also at the League booth for much of the conference. He acknowledged the hostility of some, but added, "You have a number of people who are like-minded and will thank you for being there." Robinson's opinion was that those supporting or performing abortions know that there is something terribly wrong about it, which is what causes them to be angry. Robinson didn't have to be persuaded that abortion was wrong, but it wasn't until he began to try to live according to Christian ideals that he stopped the practice and the support of a procedure he had known all along was immoral. "Deep inside, people know that [abortion] is wrong." What the pro-abortion side does, Dr. Robinson said, is try to persuade people that they cannot understand the issue because of its medical nature. "One of the things I tell people is that you don't have to be a physician to understand whether abortion is right or wrong."

His message was underscored by a leaflet showing the smiling face of Holly Patterson, a young Bay Area woman who died tragically from a massive septic infection caused by an abortion induced with the RU-486 pill, given to her by a local Planned Parenthood office.

The other League presence, Crusade for the Defense of Our Catholic Church, was situated across from a vendor displaying a selection of sample novelty condoms, topped by a cartoon of a condom being chased by a woman in granny glasses. Joseph Starrs, the director of the Crusade, ruefully pointed out that the glow-in-the-dark variety seemed to be popular. But he was upbeat about the Crusade's presence at the conference when interviewed after the event from the American Life League's offices in Washington, D.C.

"It was very interesting. In some ways, we were crashing their party. I mean, this is the group of people who worship at the altar of the condom and the pill. So with our picture of Pope John Paul II and a huge picture of a pregnant lady and an actual video of a 4D sonogram, I guess you could say that we were in their face. On the one hand, yes, we've gotten the typical reaction -- people saying you have no business to be here. But I would say we also had hundreds of Catholics and other Christians come up to us and say, 'Thank God you're here!'"

Even so, the Crusade experienced some of the same behavior that the League table did. Starrs added that, "one fellow even said, 'I'm for free speech, except for people like you.'"

"I prepared myself to get only negative feedback, and it's been very, very positive actually. So that's very surprising," said David Dufresne, who was also staffing the Crusade booth. A tall, bearded young man, he was unfazed by any negative attitudes displayed. Sitting under a banner reading, "The Rights and Responsibilities of Healthcare Workers Who Are Catholic," he and Joseph Starrs handed out leaflets to passersby informing them of the legal rights of Catholic and Christian workers.

Dufresne himself had an interesting journey to the pro-life movement. As he related it, his involvement in the American Life League began after a spiritual and moral conversion.

"Personally it started when I found myself [involved] in an unintended pregnancy and I was basically sold on the humanity of my child and gave my child up for adoption in Arkansas. It was through that process that my conversion to Catholicism happened. Before that, I was an atheist, I was a gang member. I certainly abused alcohol. It was through that pregnancy that I was really brought into the pro-life world, through that child -- my son Gabriel." After his conversion, Dufresne joined a pro-life organization called Crossroads and walked across the United States from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., raising awareness about the nature of abortion. Now part of the American Life League's Crusade team, he exuded a contagious enthusiasm for the cause he supports.

And that cause is certainly ambitious. What the Crusade aims to do is reverse the public position on abortion that many Catholic politicians hold -- politicians such as Senator Edward Kennedy and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. No small task that. Dufresne admitted that it does seem daunting.

"Granted, we found close to 500 pro-abortion Catholic politicians; but if we are able to get the Catholic population behind us, and get those people to let their bishops know that we support them, and that we want the bishops to be courageous, and that we're praying for them, hopefully we can get [the politicians] to repent and to be pro-life. And if that happens, well, forget about it!" -- "it" being the pro-abortion cause.

The conference concluded on Wednesday, November 19, and was deemed a success by the American Life League. Thousands had seen their message, and whether or not those in attendance agreed with that message, it still had left an impression. David Dufresne said that he had attended a pro-choice talk given on the last day of the conference. Although he was denied a chance to present a pro-life question to the speaker, he was not discouraged. The fact that he was turned down demonstrated that the opposition was feeling pressure.

"They are not in favor of choice. They are in favor of their own propaganda," Dufresne said. This devotion to a cause that excludes a diversity of opinion is something that, in Dufresne's opinion, turns young people off of the pro-choice movement. "The enemy really knows that young people are pro-life, and they're scared and afraid. You experience it when you walk across the country; you experience it when you go to universities. More and more young people are pro-life, and it's only going to get better from here."

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