Would the magic last?
Three weeks after her infamous June 25, 2013, 11-hour filibuster, climaxing days of demonstrations by proponents on both sides of the abortion issue, Texas State Senator Wendy Davis was asked that by a reporter at The Texas Observer. She responded:
[M]illennial generation women are coming and speaking to me about how empowered they feel right now. I think if we had made every effort to try and make that happen, we never could have come up with the recipe.
What’s been so beautiful about this is it was organic and real, and therefore incredibly meaningful for these young women. They are owning the way they feel right now, and I expect that it’s the beginning for a new momentum. I really believe that….
I would be surprised to see it go away….
There is a unique energy behind it. I’ve never experienced anything like it in my public service life of 15 years. So I think it will sustain. I honestly think it will grow, because there is an active energy trying to make sure that happens.
Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards, in a July 13, 2013, fundraising email:
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P.E.A.C.E. Initiative’s Patricia Castillo, speaking at a July 11, 2013, pro-abortion rally after it became clear the pro-life legislation would be signed into law, as quoted by MySanAntonio.com:
“We need to be heard in Austin every day. We cannot stand for this. I hope they know they’ve woken the sleeping giant of men and women working together to not stand for this.”
Castillo ended by leading the crowd in a chant: “We procreate faster than you legislate!”
Coming from a pro-abortion crowd that chant made no sense, but whatev.
The point is that for the first time in probably 40-45 years, when energy sparked by the women’s liberation movement protests of the late 1960′s-early 1970′s helped legalize abortion, activists were feeling similar energy and clinging to it, hoping it might work in reverse and rekindle that same movement, now aging and dying.
The abortion industry has sponsored two national marches since that time, in 1992 and 2004 (something pro-lifers do every year). But those have never carried with them the lingering sense of nostalgia, an iconic moment, that abortion proponents are describing as the one-year anniversary of the Austin protests approaches.
It’s no wonder Davis pines for the past, since she is losing by 12 points in the polls for governor (up from 11 points in February) against pro-lifer Greg Abbott (who is also leading by 10 points among women).
But mountaintop experiences are just that, highs with plateaus and lows in between. A movement cannot rely on emotion for the long haul. Nevertheless, abortion backers are trying. From Statesman.com, July 17:
Five abortion-rights activist groups announced Tuesday a campaign designed to rekindle the activism surrounding last year’s fight over stricter abortion regulations….
The focus of the new campaign is a website, fightbacktx.com… [which] asks the protesters and like-minded Texans to sign a pledge – and provide contact information – recommitting to the fight against abortion restrictions.
Last summer’s legislative battle “awakened a sleeping giant,” said Heather Busby, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Texas….
That “sleeping giant” has obviously gone back to bed; otherwise it wouldn’t need to “rekindle” and “recommit.” More from the Houston Chronicle:
Nearly a year after thousands of abortion-rights activists brought the Texas Legislature to a standstill, a coalition of liberal groups announced a campaign Tuesday to “recapture the energy” of the movement….
The new campaign asks abortion-rights supporters to “dust off their orange,” a reference to the color worn last summer….
But that orange wouldn’t need “dusting off” had it not so quickly been hung and forgotten in the back of a closet.
And so it is that the abortion movement has shown itself to be the hare, with bursts of excitement that peter out, while the pro-life movement is the tortoise.
LifeNews.com Note: Jill Stanek fought to stop “live birth abortions” after witnessing one as an RN at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois. That led to the Born Alive Infants Protection Act legislation, signed by President Bush, that would ensure that proper medical care be given to unborn children who survive botched abortion attempts.
