Pro-life heroine Jean Garton, author of the pro-life classic, “Who Broke the Baby?” reminded 2016 NRLC Prayer Breakfast attendees, “The Greatest Friend of Truth is Time” and congratulated pro-lifers for an unflagging devotion to the cause of Life.
Garton spoke of historical examples where products were advertised as uniquely beneficial only to be shown to be uniquely detrimental to people’s health over time. So, too, with abortion, sold as a “solution” to a crisis pregnancy.
Mrs. Garton delighted the audience with anecdotes from her own family, demonstrating that while adults can pretend not to know the unborn is one of us, children know different. Indeed, the origin of the title of Garton’s memorable book goes back to when her then-three-year-old son walked into a room where Jean was reviewing slides of aborted babies. He asked, “Mommy, who broke the baby?”
She talked of the famous National Prayer Breakfast when Mother Teresa spoke truth to power—to an audience that included members of the pro-abortion Clinton administration. The tiny nun said, “We are carved in the palm of His Hand, and the unborn child has been carved in the Hand of God from conception.”
Garton said, “We too, have the opportunity to display that same moral courage Mother Teresa did when we vote this November.” The election “provides an opportunity to determine who will appoint the next Supreme Court Justices.”
She reminded us, “If unborn children are to be protected from death by abortion; if newborn handicapped children are to be protected from death by infanticide; if the elderly, the ‘non-productive,’ the dependent are to be protected from death by euthanasia; and if the Sanctity of Life is to be affirmed and protected, then our voice is essential.”
Garton concluded with a story of a man who asked her why she did what she did. She responded with answers we all might offer up: she’s pro-life, abortion corrupts the whole culture even as it injures and maims women and men, and so forth.
Then when he repeated the question. Jean understood what he was really asking: why was she personally traveling when she is nearly 88 to give speeches hundreds and thousands of miles from home and after devoting 47 years of her life to our Movement.
Because “I am always fishing for brothers and sisters in the faith that we might strengthen one another and shore our joy in the Lord,” she explained. And because “In the Pro-Life Movement, I have the opportunity to meet the finest people throughout the world.”
And finally, Jean said, “I do what I do because I cannot not do it.”
We have been called to be salt and light by Jesus Himself, she reminded us, and “I’ve learned from Jesus that Christianity is not a spectator sport.”
Daniel Miller is responsible for nearly all of National Right to Life News' political writing.
With the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency, Daniel Miller developed a deep obsession with U.S. politics that has never let go of the political scientist. Whether it's the election of Joe Biden, the midterm elections in Congress, the abortion rights debate in the Supreme Court or the mudslinging in the primaries - Daniel Miller is happy to stay up late for you.
Daniel was born and raised in New York. After living in China, working for a news agency and another stint at a major news network, he now lives in Arizona with his two daughters.
