Operation Rescue’s impact is felt nationwide as America’s views on abortion begin to shift.
Early in the year, Operation Rescue made an important tactical decision that may have helped influence the course of history and shift the cultural status quo away from the radical pro-death mentality that has held America captive since the infamous Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision of 1973 that decriminalized abortion in the United States. It was decided to use the Truth Trucks, a fleet of large panel trucks that are outfitted with graphic images of aborted babies, at key political events and in critical swing states to expose the Democratic ticket’s support for the most radical abortion policies in the history of our nation. Little did they know that this decision would unleash a whirlwind that would herald changes in the way Americans act toward abortion.
The Truth Truck Fleet was unveiled a the Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, where restrictive protest zones made the mobile billboards the most effective means of communicating with the thousands of delegates and media.
The Truth Trucks’ panels were emblazoned with the text “Kerry’s Choice” and “Kerry/Edwards: A Bloody Team for a Bloody America” on top of grisly images of aborted babies. The Truth Trucks, for the first time, successfully connected the dots for the American people between the Democrats’ “Choice” and the horrific reality of abortion.
After the convention, the Truth Trucks dogged the Kerry/Edwards campaign trail, following them throughout the east and Midwest. Then, two weeks before the election, Operation Rescue joined with a coalition of pro-life, pro-family groups on the Prayer for Life Tour of 2004 through the desperately important swing states of Pennsylvania and Ohio, stopping in cities and towns to pray for the nation and the election outcome. Wherever Kerry and Edwards appeared, the Truth Trucks were there associating the Kerry/Edwards “Pro-Choice” ticket with the bloody consequences of that choice.
And it worked!
Although Bush narrowly lost Pennsylvania by only two percentage points, he won Ohio and that turned out to be the decisive state that denied the White House to the radical pro-aborts.
Immediately after the election, Operation Rescue released a statement to the media that was quoted across the nation and sent reverberations throughout the abortion industry and the political world.
“Today, the president owes the pro-life movement a huge debt,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “Mr. President, you have been given a mandate to end abortion in our nation by the American people who cast their votes for you. Please move forward aggressively to appoint pro-life federal judges, and when the time comes, appoint Supreme Court justices that will strike down the scourge of Roe v. Wade.”
Almost in response, pro-abortion Senator Arlen Specter, in line for the chairmanship of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, announced that he would block any pro-life judicial nominations sent to his committee for confirmation.
Operation Rescue led the outcry against Specter’s arrogance. The Senate was flooded with calls and letters as other pro-life groups picked up the story and alerted their supporters to act. It was the largest response to a Senate chairmanship nomination in the history of our nation. In an unprecedented act of capitulation, Specter issued a written statement promising to support the President’s judicial nominees. This was a stunning victory for the pro-life forces, proving that the muscles flexed in the November election were only gaining strength with use.
A new poll indicates that Newman was correct in his assertion that the pro-life vote had been the key to the president’s re-election. Fifty-nine percent of Bush voters cited moral values as their top concern and abortion as the number one issue. Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio talk-show guru stated that when the media talks about “moral issues” swaying the election, they are referring to the abortion issue. “Make no mistake about it,” he said.
So enraged were the pro-death advocates that Catholics for Free Choice filed a complaint against Operation Rescue for violating their tax-exempt status, hoping to make them pay for denying the White House to their lackeys.
Now, the Democratic Party is scrambling to redefine their stand on abortion. Recently, John Kerry acknowledged the effectiveness of the Truth Truck campaign at a closed-door meeting of Democratic Party loyalists gathered at AFL-CIO headquarters. The group was analyzing what went wrong with the November the election when Kerry told the Dems that they “needed new ways to make people understand we didn’t like abortion.” Seeing his name so graphically associated with the images of dead children apparently had a profound impact on the failed presidential candidate.
Even the leftist San Francisco Congresswoman, Nancy Pelosi, is indicating that she would support the pro-life former Indiana Congressman Tim Roemer as the new Democratic Party Chairman. “She is pro-choice and very staunchly pro-choice,” an aide recently said of Pelosi. But at the same time, the aide said, “She supports showing that this is a big-tent party.”
And the Democrats are not alone in questioning their unequivocal support for all abortion at any time for any reason. Even the full-time, pro-death crowd realizes that their extremist abortion agenda is no longer defensible to a nation that is being exposed like never before to the Truth behind the pro-death euphemisms.
We may have “gone too far when [we] defend such gruesome procedures,” said the radical pro-abort Frances Kissling of Catholics for a Free Choice, referring to their crusade in defense of grisly partial-birth abortions.
Such a statement is an indication that the pro-abortion forces are reeling. They spent much of their time, effort, and resources over the past year and a half in mobilizing their troops for a large pro-choice voter turnout. All their efforts have been a dismal failure. The March for Women’s Lives held in Washington D.C. in April did not stir the enthusiasm for abortion that they had hoped, and that failure was evident at the voting booth. (Operation Rescue was there with the Truth Truck Fleet and staff members calling the “Death March” organizers to repentance.) The pro-abortion Hollywood crowd faired no better. Efforts such as MTV’s Rock the Vote, the Hip Hop Get Out the Vote campaign, and the pro-abortion concert tour failed to deliver while the pro-life Prayer for Life Tour, which ran on a small fraction of the Hollywood budget, helped re-elect the most pro-life president in a generation.
But the battle for legal protection for the pre-born is far from over. In the next few years, the true test of this new-found power will come when Supreme Court justices begin to retire. There could be as many as three or four openings in the nation’s highest court in the next four years, swaying the balance of the court from pro-death to pro-life, and the leading to the eventual death of “Roe.” Operation Rescue is already making preparations to meet these challenges head-on and continue to expose the reality of abortion to a nation beginning to shake off the deep denial that has heretofore kept her silent on the most important moral issue of our time.
The winds of change are blowing. Polls indicate that, for the first time in three decades, the majority of Americans describe themselves as “Pro-life.” Now, we are slowly seeing them begin to act on their convictions and those actions are influencing elections and changing our culture. We are finally on the path to delivering our nation from the scourge of abortion. And Operation Rescue is leading the way.
