NRLC President Carol Tobias

By Dave Andrusko

You can’t help but be amused when the “mainstream media” catches on to something that has been the truth for umpteen years. The Washington Post ran a piece today in which the author realizes that many/most leaders of the Right to Life Movement are (drum roll) women. No kidding!

But, better late than never. So let’s take a minute to reconnoiter and fill in the blanks.

Come to any meeting of any National Right to Life state affiliate and what would you find? Almost all the grassroots leadership—emphasis on grassroots—are female.

Come to a meeting of the NRLC board of directors and what do you find? A female president and female chairman of the board and a board that is largely comprised of females.

Come to the annual National Right to Life Convention and what do you find? Overwhelmingly, the 70+ workshops and general sessions are led by women and many of the attendees are women.

Come to the booths that many NRLC affiliates have at state fairs and what do you find? The volunteers are almost all women.

The drift of the article is that our Movement is now more winsome when there are more female faces. But that has always been the case, going back to the earliest days when NRLC was in its infancy.

It’s a variation of the ”if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it” riddle. The Movement’s leadership has always been predominately female; the media are just Johnny Come Latelies to this truth.

But at the same time let’s be careful not to fall into a trap. Agreed, men can’t have children, but it is no less true that we are also husbands and fathers. If I or any other man stands up for the rights of the unborn, it is an acknowledgement of our common humanity and the obligations I have to protect them.

Even if I were not a husband or father, it is the justice of the cause—the protection of the defenseless—that calls me to activism, not my marital status or gender.

So we at National Right to Life are hugely proud that our national office, our board, and our fifty state affiliates are led largely by women. But there is room there for everyone, regardless of age, gender, or race.

Why? Because the babies need all the help they can get and because this is the

transcendent social justice issue of our time.