Jim Sedlak's Texas speaking tour capitalizes on pro-life momentum against Planned Parenthood
Women Dig In: The defense of Planned Parenthood is the latest battle in a long campaign
Inside the Belly of the Beast, Report on a Pro-Life Rally
Houston Rally for Life: or, How I Almost Came to Believe in the Power of God
Rule No. 1: Do not announce on your pseudonymous blog that you will be attending and videotaping a pro-life rally, and then proceed to show up and be the only person in the audience with a video camera.
- Gunther
I believe that everyone who considers himself or herself a libertarian and who tends to vote Republican because they think that party has a better record on civil liberties should check Jim Sedlak's schedule and hear him speak the next time he's in town. After he's finished ranting about homosexuality, Internet pornography, "uninhibited sex", the Communications Decency Act, library filters, Griswold v. Connecticut, and the "penumbra of the Constitution", ask yourself if you might be voting for the same candidates as he and if this really is the best way to represent your own interests.
Whereupon our three heroes, Chuck, Ginger, and Gunther go undercover at a Pro-Life rally (Scott Chaffin has an interesting take on this as well). I'm not at all certain that I'd be up for this sort of covert operation. Being that I'm a lousy liar and and even worse poker player, I probably would have stood out like a hooker at an Sexaholics Anonymous meeting. I'm also not certain that I would have been able to keep my bile down long enough to keep from responding to the sheer lunacy and self-righteousness being bandied about.
I'm not opposing the right of these loons to gather and plot as they see fit. This is, after all, the essence of democracy. Free speech is not always reasoned or reasonable speech. Nonetheless, I can't help but wonder how such a gathering can have such a seemingly tenuous grip on reality. How is it that any thinking person can weave internet porn, abortion, and sex outside of marriage into the same thread of evil? Do these people honestly believe that the Communications Decency Act would have rid the internet of pornography?
The sad reality here is these trolls would have absolutely no problem with the idea of legislating us back to Pleasantville. In their land of nuclear families and ice-cream socials, life would be perfect, if only we could see things their way- and if we can't see that, then they'll just have to do it forcibly. Gunther had this to say about the speakes at the rally:
The opening speaker was Jim Sedlak, of Stop Planned Parenting (STOPP) and the American Life League (ALL). He spent about 35 minutes attacking Planned Parenthood, but basically his speech was all about sex. Sex, Sex, Sex, Sex, Sex, Sex, Sex, Sex. And more sex. The gist of his diatribe was that PP is trying to replace religion and spirituality with secular humanism, which means that illicit sex and promiscuity are infesting society. This is against God’s law and must be stopped. There was the usual tripe about PP being a racist organization with a hidden agenda, but during his entire speech I swear I didn’t hear a single word about the sanctity of life. To listen to his talk, the entire rally could have been about protesting sex education in schools, not ending abortion. Chris Danze would later describe Sedlak as “Planned Parenthood’s worst nightmare”.
Chris Danze spoke next. While he was obviously less practiced than Sedlak, who does this kind of thing for a living, Danze struck me as more effective because his speech seemed less practiced and more direct. He is not a flashy type, and it’s easy to see why he comes across as a straight shooter. He recounted a number of stories about how individual contractors who had been working on the PP site came to join the boycott. The gist of it being that they looked at how much money they stood to make from the PP job, and how much they stood to lose over the next 10 to 15 years if they got blacklisted. They did the math and the decision was easy. At one point in the talk, Danze told the audience, “You know what my preferred weapon is in this battle?” With that he pulled out a string of rosary beads and held it aloft. So rosary beads, prayer, is the weapon that has helped them in their battle against PP. That, plus a prominent position in the local construction industry, and a good rolodex. He made no bones about how unpopular this thing has made him, but said “We’ve been called to serve, we haven’t been called to be popular”.
The final speaker was David Bereit of Coalition for Life. I have to say that he was quite an impressive speaker, and may well have a national platform some day, as Chris Danze said that he should during his speech. He described a litany of some recent successes against PP in Texas, and painted Texas as ground zero in the battle over abortion. Success or failure against PP in Texas would determine the fate of the anti-abortion struggle in the whole country, according to Bereit.
Yes, these folks may be trolls who are not above forcing the version of morality on the rest of us. The bad news, however, is that they are organized, well-funded, and thoroughly convinced of the correctness of their position. While most of us Liberals tend to assume a "live and let live" view of the world around us, these folks the polar opposites. When they sing "Onward Christian Soldiers" on Sunday mornings, they really DO see themselves as warriors out to do what they have determined is the Lord's work. Anyone familiar with the Crusades will understand what several thousand self-righteous and self-superior Christians can do to those who do not believe as they do.
Thankfully, we still have Roe v. Wade on our side, although that is hardly a permanent guarantee. The Anti-Choice lobby has learned that broad frontal assaults on abortion do not work. They attract too much negative publicity, and the results hardly justify the cost and effort. No, they've discovered that patience, persistence, and the willingness to tinker at the margins may in the long run produce the results they desire. A war of attrition is often the toughest war to wage- but it can also be the most rewarding.
Let's face it, folks. It's a lot of work fighting an enemy that is patient, persistent, and willing to fight as long as they determine it is necessary to do so. Unless those of us who are proudly Pro-Choice wake up and smell the cat litter, we may soon wake up in a world we no longer recognize. Roe v. Wade may not be overruled in our lifetimes, but the ground underneath it may well have been worn away by an Anti-Choice onslaught. Parental consent, waiting periods, the partial birth abortion ban- all of these things and more are designed to drive a wedge between women and their right to reproductive health care.
I applaud Chuck, Ginger, and Gunther for their willingness to descend into the belly of the beast. I'm not so certain that I would have been willing to do the same thing. Still, sometimes getting to know your enemy means doing things you might consider distasteful.
