By Dave Andrusko
Photo: Lisa Andrusko
By any metric, the 52nd annual National Right to Life Convention was an overwhelming success. Beginning with a Prayer Breakfast featuring Erik Rosales, Capitol Hill Correspondent for EWTN News Nightly on Friday morning, and extending to the Closing Banquet featuring the Babylon Bee’s Seth Dillon on Saturday night, every speaker gave the audiences reasons to celebrate what has happened in the year since Dobbs overturned the wretched Roe v. Wade decision
Everything seemed to approach perfection. Registration, which can be a bear, went off without a hitch. People who could and would be offered a comp to attend the two-day convention, insisted on paying.
Our president, Carol Tobias, not only gave interviews but took the time to talk to the attendees who want to share their experiences with her. (Be sure to read her opening remarks here.)
The atmosphere—the vibe, if you will —was equal proportions optimism, now that we don’t have the anchor of Roe v. Wade strapped to our ankles, and a joyous willingness to plow ahead until the babies “are protected in law and welcomed in life.”
President George W. Bush frequently used that exact language, including when it signed “The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003.” President Bush ended his remarks with this powerful reminder:
The late Pennsylvania Governor Robert Casey once said that: when we look to the unborn child, the real issue is not when life begins, but when love begins. This is the generous and merciful spirit of our country at its best. This spirit is reflected in the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, which I am now honored to sign into law. God bless.
The convention will be remembered by all who attended for years and years to come. As will this from the late, great Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, from his book, “American Against Itself”:
“Evil, as is its wont, employs the language of the good to disguise its purposes. In this case it is the great good of choice that hides the greater wrong of what is chosen. It is a tempting shrewdly contrived for a free society that has forgotten that freedom depends upon devotion to more than freedom.”
Missed the convention? Or were there too many sessions that you wanted to go to but couldn’t? Browse the sessions at nrlconvention.com/audio and listen to the recordings! If you would like to purchase all of the sessions (60+ sessions!), you can do so here at a discounted rate of more than half off: https://nrlconvention.com/shop/2023-all