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WASHINGTON, D.C. – An estimated half a million protesters gathered on Thursday in Washington for the 42nd annual March on Life – just as a strategic shift for the pro-life movement is taking place.
Now, protesters no longer are waiting for action from the Supreme Court to reverse Roe V. Wade. Instead, they are taking direct action against the abortion providers themselves, throwing hurdles in front of the operations of the abortion industry.
Investigations are being conducted and improper, or illegal, activities are being revealed. Regulators are being informed about details of offenses. Questions are raised when abortion clinics can’t meet health standards. Abortionists’ backgrounds are review.
At the heart of this process is Operation Rescue and its President Troy Newman, who joined a prayer vigil outside the Washington headquarters of Planned Parenthood. The event was the first of many vigils and prayer meetings scheduled for the day for protesters.
The Planned Parenthood is, in Newman’s phrase, “the largest abortion provider in the entire world” and was responsible for an estimated 330,000 abortions last year.
Yet Newman says he is “excited” because of the stunning gains made by the pro-life movement in recent weeks and months.
He estimates that “75 percent of all the nation’s abortion clinics have closed,” citing a peak number of about 2,200 in the 1990s.
These estimates show a pattern of continuing decline highlighted in a recent Operation Rescue report entitled “Death Throes of the Death Industry.”
Abortion clinics are also being squeezed by incremental legal action at both the state and federal level. Most recently, this included a push by the new Republican Congress to make the Hyde Amendment permanent, which would ban all federal funds that would be used for abortions.
At the same time, House Republicans withdrew a bill that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks because of a dispute over a reporting requirement for an exception in cases of rape and incest. Planned Parenthood seized on the retreat to declare a political victory.
However, outside the Beltway, Operation Rescue’s community-based approach is succeeding.
Even as pro-life activists were arriving in Washington, Operation Rescue promoted its latest success, the closure of two more abortion clinics, the Issaquah Health Center Planned Parenthood in Issaquah, Washington, and the Brewster Health Center Planned Parenthood in Brewster, New York.
Operation Rescue’s approach is outlined in the new book “Abortion Free: Your Manual for Building a Pro-Life America One Community at a Time.” The book teaches readers how to “expose and close” abortion facilities.
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Operation Rescue’s approach of shutting down abortion clinics within specific communities is gaining adherents within the pro-life movement. On January 23, Troy Newman will address the Students for Life East Coast National Conference, which is billed as “the largest pro-life conference in the world.”
Operation Rescue’s Senior Policy Adviser Cheryl Sullenger will cover the other half of country by speaking at the Students for Life West Coast National Conference on January 25.
Though the March for Life is creating headlines, the effectiveness of “Abortion Free” can be seen in the shuttered abortion clinics around the country, said Newman.
But Newman said that’s not enough.
While speaking in front of the Planned Parenthood building in Washington, Newman vowed, “We will not relent, we will not stop speaking for the unborn children until every abortion clinic like this one behind us is closed and every baby is safe in his mother’s womb.”
“Abortion Free” details how to employ specific tactics, such as:
- Discovering and documenting abortion abuses.
- Using public records requests to obtain information the abortion cartel is hiding.
- Filing official complaints that can put abortionists out of business.
- Getting your message past the “gatekeepers” in the mainstream media.
- Using your research as the basis for new laws that will shutter abortion clinics permanently.
