Today it begins, our tenth annual “Twitcast” joining pro-life bloggers and digital activists from near and far, who all had the good sense once again to come in out of the cold, during the annual March For Life, for this year's ProLifeCon, the “premiere conference for the online prolife community” hosted once again by the Family Research Council in Washington DC. During the event, this video clip provides a live feed of the proceedings. With its conclusion, and before the end of the day, you are invited to view the full pre-recording (which is not accessible on all browsers; no to Safari, yes to Chrome). You can learn more at the FRC website, follow the magic hashtag on Twitter, #prolifecon, or follow yours truly at twitter.com/manwithblackhat.
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The list of speakers announced one week prior to the event (not necessarily in order of appearance) is as follows:
Alex Azar, US Department of Health and Human Services
Chris Baggett, Vice President of Donor Development, The Human Coalition
Ryan & Bethany Bomberger, Co-Founders, Chief Creative Officer and Executive Director, The Radiance Foundation
Claire Culwell, Abortion Survivor
Kristan Hawkins, President, Students for Life
Chuck Konzelman, Director, Unplanned Movie
Jennie Lichter, Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council, The White House
Melissa Ohden, Abortion Survivor
Tony Perkins, President, Family Research Council
Patricia Rucker, State Senator, West Virginia Senate
Connor Semelsberger, Legislative Assistant, Family Research Council
Roger Severino, Director, Office for Civil Rights at the US Department of Health and Human Services
Bernadette Tasy, California State Captain, Students for Life Action
Petra Wallenmeyer, Content Director, Human Defense Initiative
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This year is different.
I have been proud to present this event online, both in the blogosphere and the twitterverse (yes, apparently those are both real words), over the past decade. But life is what happens when you make other plans, and there are things to do to prepare for my Celia’s return from the Philippines. (My throng of adoring fans — you both know who you are — may recall that I was over there during the Christmas season, but more on that later.) And so, inasmuch as I don’t have a Patreon account to support this endeavor, it came down to a choice.
Which brings me to why this year is different.
Recently, my friend Rebecca Bratten Weiss sent me this article from Newsweek about a speech given by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY). Speaking at Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority event last June, the senator revealed that there are senior Republican senators who disliked his proposal to include language in a spending bill to defund Planned Parenthood. That’s because, Paul said, they cared more about getting Democrats’ votes for a spending bill than saving unborn lives.
“I’ll give you an example," Paul continued. "Last year, I tried to attach to a spending bill a prohibition to have any money spent by Planned Parenthood. You know what happened? [GOP leadership] sat me down and one of the senior Republican senators said, 'We cannot have the vote today.' I said 'why?' He said 'we might win.’”
Remember the general during the Vietnam War who was quoted saying: “We had to destroy the village in order to save it”? If you do, the above has a familiar ring. If you don't, I'll break it down for you.
They have to keep abortion legal to keep promising to end it.
And so, I suppose it was a relief to discover, that after publicly challenging a discussion panel at last year's ProLifeCon, for dominating their lineup with politicians and others devoted only to ending abortion, with virtually no regard to affordable health care for the mother, or any other options to help her and/or the child once born, there were some changes for this year's lineup. As of the time prior to the event, there were no members of the United States Senate or House of Representatives scheduled! The only elected official scheduled was a state legislator from West Virginia.
And not only that, but the The Radiance Foundation, a kick-@$$ pro-life and pro-adoption endeavor, made its triumphant return, along with another organization, one dedicated to helping mothers with health care, food, baby clothes, and so on, known as the Human Defense Initiative.
Did I have anything to do with this? Maybe, maybe not. Last year, Ryan and Bethany Bomberger, the couple at the heart of The Radiance Foundation, had a sick child to care for at the last minute. But the three Congressmen whining about losing their majority in the House weren’t there. And there was (as I remember) a new endeavor present. The Human Coalition aims to reach women considering abortion, and to offer an alternative complete with genuinely life-giving health care, in the form of what the speaker calls a "virtual clinic."
"We can love her well, and we can compassionately walk alongside her."
The pro-life movement in the United States stands at a crossroads, even with the assistance of one touted as the most pro-life President in history, a Congress in deadlock over this and other issues (at least one of them rather obvious of late), and suspicions among observers -- the so-called "New Pro Life Movement" as a case in point -- that activists for the unborn care only about the child in the womb, with little regard to the mother, or what happens next. The host of this event (not to rub it in, but …) did themselves no favors last year, when the event was dominated by those who would prove their detractors correct. Almost if not entirely absent, were the advocates for the mothers, and the health-care workers for mothers out in the field, with what we used to call "crisis pregnancies." That is what makes this year’s ProLifeCon a marked improvement, makes me wish I could have been there, and why I’m determined to be there next year.
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Meanwhile, a writer for The Federalist, under the non de plume of Bill Kilgore, wrote that the pro-life movement, for all its pretense toward imminent victory, reveals something else on closer examination.
A friend who worked for a pro-life organization very much in the “the movement” confirms this. He became frustrated that people there ignore the evidence in front of them, and instead show excitement about the size of the marches, acting “as if our country is turning a corner and is getting closer and closer to life.” They react more strongly to those who challenge their approved legal tactics or rhetoric than they do actual political defeats, as if questioning the success of the movement is some sort of heresy.
They have to keep abortion legal to keep promising to end it.
And so ...
Nothing is over until it's over, not only when the mother's womb is the safest place for any child waiting to come into the world, but when these United States, indeed the world itself, is ready to uphold the most elementary right of all, the right to simply exist. We are not there yet, and we are not going to be anytime soon.
That is why a Tip of the Black Hat goes to the Family Research Council, for their continued efforts in support of the pro-life movement and digital activists, and why yours truly intends to be at the ProLifeCon next year.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a load of laundry to do.
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