By Peter J. Smith
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina, June 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - While the situation may look bleak for the pro-life movement, one Congressman has stated that the current time of crisis for pro-life advocates may actually be recorded in history as their "finest hour."
"You are the conscience of a nation that has lost its way," said Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) in a keynote address at the 37th convention of the National Right to Life Committee last weekend.
Smith, one of the most outspoken defenders of the right to life in Congress, praised the delegates gathered for their unflagging efforts to "admonish our country to embrace life and hope." He thanked them for "devoting your lives, your talent, your time and your money to defending generations of unborn children, their moms, their dads, the frail elderly and the disabled (like Terri Schiavo), most of whom you will never meet, at least not in this life."
The Congressman then turned to address what he called the "string of setbacks" suffered by the pro-life movement in the five short months of the administration of President Barack Obama.
"With all his gifts and charisma, it is tragic beyond words that Mr. Obama has chosen to promote the culture of death, and in record time has made the White House the wholly owned subsidiary of the abortion lobby," Smith said.
But despite the adversity faced by the pro-life cause and the promise of worse to come, Smith exhorted the delegates to "resolve to stop his misguided abortion agenda."
"This can and must be our finest hour," Smith declared, evoking the immortal words of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who rallied the British people to brace themselves on the eve of the Battle of Britain to resist the indomitable forces of Nazi Germany. In that "finest hour" speech, Churchill told the British people that upon them "depends the survival of Christian civilization." The 69th anniversary of that speech, given June 18, 1940, had passed just two days before Smith's keynote address.
"At precisely the same time as President Obama continues to assiduously assure Americans, including graduates at Notre Dame last month, that he wants to reduce abortion at home and abroad, his administration is aggressively seeking to reverse virtually every modest pro-life law ever enacted or policy promulgated since Roe v. Wade," said Smith.
Smith explained that aggressive efforts to promote abortion were proceeding rapidly through the repeal of pro-life policies and laws, the refusal to renew funding for pro-life legislative riders, key personnel appointments, funding and lobbying abortion abroad, and restructuring health care to shore up a failing abortion industry.
"Personnel is policy," Smith observed, pointing to two examples that illustrate the extreme pro-abortion character of the administration: Dawn Johnson, a former NARAL lawyer, who called pregnant women "fetal containers," and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who praised the work of eugenicist and Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, saying her leadership was "one of the most transformational in the entire history of the human race and that Sanger's work both here and abroad was not done."
Smith stated that he asked Clinton how she could be in "awe" of Sanger, a racist, enemy of the poor, and population control advocate, who stated, "the most merciful thing a family does for one of its infant members is to kill it," and who called maternal health care for poor pregnant women both "nearsighted" and "stupid cruelty."
Smith recounted that Clinton also expressed candidly to him that the term "reproductive health" included abortion and that the Obama administration was "entitled" to advocate abortion all over the world.
"Thus it is abundantly clear a new, dark chapter in the Global push for unfettered abortion has commenced," stated Smith pointing to statements from US representatives to the UN that the federal government would now strive to achieve "universal access to reproductive health and the promotion of reproductive rights."
Smith pointed to the plight of women in China, saying that thanks to Obama's decision to donate $50 million to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the US will begin supporting one of "the most pervasive crimes against women in human history."
"China's one-child-per-couple policy relies on coerced abortion, involuntary sterilization, ruinous fines in amounts up to ten times the salary of both parents, imprisonment, and job loss or demotion to achieve its quotes," said Smith, who also observed that these efforts were being achieved with the direct complicity of UNFPA.
"Population control blames children for bad governance and the misuse and misallocation of resources," warned Smith. "If you want to know where that worldview takes us, just look at China."
In the United States, Smith said, the upcoming battle over universal health care will also become a battle to resist the imposition of taxpayer funded abortions and the forcing of physicians to perform abortions they are otherwise reluctant to provide. Smith said that under the current legislation shaping up under the Obama/Kennedy health care plan, a presidential advisory council will determine what services will be mandated under the new law, and, without any legislative guarantees, it will most certainly include abortion.
"We know that if the children and at risk persons in America and the world are to survive the newest aggression against their lives, you and I have no other option but to fight," said Smith, explaining that efforts must be redoubled and new activists recruited, especially among the young, both in the United States and overseas.
"This is no time for quitters or the faint of heart," concluded Smith.
"I truly believe that this will someday be regarded as our finest hour, when against overwhelming odds, we stood firm and overcame evil with good."
For the full text of the address click here.
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