Editorial

A new agenda for pro-lifers

That President Barack Obama issued a pro-abortion executive order within the first few days of office came as no surprise (see sidebar, page 4). But the way he did it -- late on a Friday afternoon and away from the glare of news cameras --leaves those on both sides of the debate still wondering about the extent of our president's ultimate abortion agenda.

Was it a concession to pro-lifers that he waited to overturn the Mexico City policy until the day after the March for Life and the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, unlike President Bill Clinton in 1993? Or was it a political calculation that it will be easier to advance abortion-rights legislation if he doesn't make a show of insulting pro-lifers?

One footnote to his overturning the Mexico City policy -- which required agencies receiving U.S. funding to not perform or promote abortions abroad -- does not bode well. In his same executive order, he made a little-reported pledge to work with Congress to restore U.S. funding to the U.N. Population Fund. That support was cut in 2002 because of reports of UNFPA cooperation with Chinese authorities engaged in coercive abortions in the world's most populous country.

We offer full support for Obama's frequent statement that reducing abortions should be a priority. But how he expects to do that by funding overseas agencies -- in a time of national economic crisis -- that promote abortion access is more than a mystery, as Philadelphia Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the U.S. bishops' pro-life committee, noted in a statement after the signing.

Chicago Cardinal Francis George, president of the bishops' conference, had urged Obama not to rescind the Mexico City policy in a January letter. He later warned that Obama's action could lead to an increase in abortions.

"Once the clear line between family planning and abortion is erased, the idea of using family planning to reduce abortions becomes meaningless, and abortion tends to replace contraception as the means for reducing family size," Cardinal George said.

It may be audaciously hopeful, but many pro-lifers are praying that our young president undergoes a change of heart on this most important civil rights issue of the day. Some note the irony that our nation's first black president supports access to a procedure that takes a disproportionate number of African-American unborn lives.

Grim as the outlook is for unborn rights, it is time for pro-lifers to co-opt a page out of the playbook of Rahm Emanuel, Obama's tough chief of staff: "Never let a serious crisis go to waste," he recently said, in reference to advancing a political agenda during a recession.

The application for pro-lifers is clear: First, they must make their voices heard very clearly to the political establishment in Washington, D.C. The more Obama knows how important this issue is for many Americans, the more cautious he is likely to act in spending political capital on it when there are a host of other serious and difficult problems to address.

Second, pro-lifers can take advantage of new opportunities: Seizing upon the mood of volunteerism that seems to sweep the country with each new president, let's work with Obama on measures to support women in crisis pregnancies, an area in which pro-lifers already have special expertise.

Third, it is perhaps more important than ever for pro-lifers to "expand their base" and energize more potential allies in our communities, neighborhoods and families in defending the dignity of all human life.