Abortion survivor Melissa Ohden speaks to leaders on Capitol Hill

A Capitol Hill Briefing:Reclaiming the Human Center of the Abortion Debate

hen people are confronted by the reality of abortion – the pain it inflicts on children,mothers and our own communities – their hearts and minds can be changed.

For the SBA List, that was one of the biggest takeaways from the 2012 campaign seasonwhere one of our major successes was our hard-hitting ad campaign featuring abortion survivor Melissa Ohden. In a debate that has become increasingly polarized by politics,Melissa simply put a human face on the issue of abortion. Her beautiful story of survivaldrew a stark contrast to President Obama’s unbending support for abortion and presentedthe reality that abortion is a matter of life and death.

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IN THIS ISSUE

Pg 1, 6 –7

A Capitol Hill BriefingSBA List begins the campaign toReclaim the Human Center of the Abortion Debate

Pg 2

Letter from Marjorie

Pg 3

Abortion Reporting: Tears in the FabricNew CLI Report Details FlawedState Laws, Urges Reform

Pg 4-5

SBA List’s Annual Gala & Summit

Pg 8

The Susan B. Newbies

New Faces on Capitol Hill in 2013

Pg 9-10

SBA List Donor Survey Pg 11

Opinion of NotePro-Life and Feminism Aren’t Mutually Exclusive

Back Page

Pro-Life ProfileGov. Mike Pence & Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann

www.sba-list.org

SusanBAnthonyListsbalist

By Mallory QuigleySBA List Communications Director

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Dear Friend,Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on himpersonally. –Abraham Lincoln, Speech to One Hundred Fortieth Indiana Regiment, 1865When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that weshould treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit. –Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Letter to Julia Ward Howe, 1873I’ve noticed everyone who is for abortion has already been born. –Ronald Reagan, Televised speech, October 27, 1964Living in different times and through different challenges, these three understood

the interaction of civil rights. Leaders looking out on the broad landscape of Americansknew that the individual rights of one group could not be enhanced by diminishing therights of another. They understood that we are all served when human rights expand forany one group, and we are disserved when they shrink. Every day, the deaths of childrenfrom abortion degrade us as a nation, even though they are out of sight and out of mind.The ripple effect of each death is felt in profound ways. Great leaders and activists work-ing today to save these 4,000 children grasp this fundamental truth. I am speaking ofcourse of you.

The SBA List team and I are traveling all over the nation right now meeting with ourmembers. In every case, I see unconditional commitment to this cause as we face a mightyforce of pro-abortion action headed our way from the White House. Our president willnot be satisfied until he has won full taxpayer funding of unrestricted abortion. He hasthe troops at the top levels, but we have the hearts of the people.

At this tenuous moment after 40 years of unlimited abortion on demand, pure poli-tics must not sideline the fundamental reality of the abortion question and what is at stake. The lives of real children, real mothers, and faltering communities are at stake. We are incomplete without those children. Their mothers are suffering. Our communitiesaren’t functioning for want of our missing citizens.

That is why the March for Life is younger and larger than ever before. It is evidencethat this is the civil rights issue of our day. Your unconditional and sacrificial commitmentto it is a predictor of success in saving lives sooner rather than later. Our plans detailedin this quarter’s newsletter reflect a focus on the human center of this battle, the onlyreal reason. Some of these new plans include: an intensive training program for our candi-dates, a targeted grassroots field operation that relies not only upon state of the art tech-nology but irreplaceable person-to-person leader-building, launching Pro-life Women’sCaucuses in state legislatures to partner with our federal level Caucus.

Concrete advice and counsel are vital to our success, so I hope you will completethe enclosed survey. I am very interested in hearing from you, and the SBA List teamand I look forward to seeing you when we are close by. Thank you for your fidelity to thisgreatest civil rights struggle of our time.

God Bless,

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An urgent moment in the pro-Life

cause is upon us. My grateful thanks to

each of our loyal supporters for your

continued investments in our work over

the past decades that has led us to this

point. We anticipate much success this

year as we come closer to defeating

abortion in this 40th anniversary year

of Roe v. Wade. Each and every one of

our successes has been achieved because

of your on-going faith, support,

and prayers! Please know that you

are appreciated!

afe, legal and rare.” How often has this phrase been offered up by public officials who want to declare them-

selves against abortion even as it remains legal in the UnitedStates? Abortion is certainly legal, 40 years after Roe v. Wadeand two decades after Casey v. Planned Parenthood, but is itbecoming rare, and how do we know?

Obtaining a better answer to that question is one of the prime objectives of a new study of federal and state abortion reporting laws by the Charlotte Lozier Institute.Titled “Abortion Reporting: Tears in the Fabric,” the newCLI analysis released just before Christmas examines theabortion reporting policies of 50 states and the District of Columbia, identifies model state reporting policies, andcalls on Congress and the states to enact reforms to providebetter information.

First, the study notes, no serious attempt has been madeat the federal level to improve abortion reporting since 1993,when the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) abandonedits effort to contract with the states for uniform reporting.Second, the content of reports by the states varies dramati-cally in quality and timeliness. Despite the availability of theInternet and other tools to simplify and accelerate reporting,most states lag by years in the data they make available. As of December 2012, only nine of the states had publishedabortion data for 2011.

What’s worse, some states have published no data at all

or operate completely voluntary reporting systems. Marylandceased public abortion reporting in 2005. California,New Jersey, New Hampshire, and the District of Columbiaare also voluntary reporting states, and the CDC does not include information from these states in its annual reports.The CDC’s own most recent report covers 2009 – a lag thatis not technically necessary and that ill serves the public good.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that economic conditionsdrove abortion rates higher in 2010 and 2011. But this shouldnot be guesswork. Arizona and Minnesota have shown thatabortion reporting, at least in terms of total abortions andbasic demographics, can be both timely and informative.Arizona replaced its regulatory policy on abortion reportingwith a statute in 2010, and ever since the state has gatheredand made available reliable data within weeks of the end ofeach month. Minnesota, by law, requires its annual abortionreport to be published on a state website by July 1st of thefollowing year. The cost to taxpayers: $4,000.

With more effort and perhaps federal incentives, ournation could have a public abortion reporting system that isreasonably uniform, that makes initial local data available by the 15th of the following month, yearly state data availableby July 1st of the following year, and national data availablejust six months later.

If such a system were in place, today we would be discussing what happened with abortion in the third year ofthe Obama Administration and not the first. We wouldknow if abortion is becoming rare—or even more common.

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Abortion Reporting: Tears in the FabricNew CLI Report Details Flawed State Laws, Urges Reform

By Chuck Donovan President of the Charlotte Lozier Institute

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“Abortion Reporting: Tears in the Fabric,” is available in PDF format atlozierinstitute.org.

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For more information or to R.S.V.P

www.sba-list.org/gala

Join ourAnnual

Hotel Room Blocks available

The Gala & Summit are held during the National Cherry Blossom Festival

Thursday April 11, 2013

Featuring Keynote Congressman Paul Ryan& Honoring Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, WI

&

Benefitting Programs to Reclaim the Human Center

of the Abortion Debate

Depopulation, Eugenics, and theAmerican Future Susan Yoshihara, Susan Willis, Jonathan Last, Robert Zubrin

Protecting the Conscience of

Pro-Life TaxpayersAtty. General Ken Cuccinelli, Ted Cruz*, Gov. Jan Brewer*, Steve Aden, Rep. Jim Jordan

Training and Developing Pro-Life

CandidatesRep. Jackie Walorski*, Fred Barnes, Erick Erickson

*Invited

Ronald Reagan Building, Washington, D.C.

Thursday & Friday, April 11 & 12, 2013Summit Briefings at the Mayflower Hotel

Campaign for Life

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The ad campaign was aggressive, but it expressedthe pro-life position with clarity and compassion. In short,the ad was one example of where we were able to reclaimthe human center of the abortion debate.

Moving forward, this year the Susan B. Anthony List iscommitted to reclaiming the human center of the abortiondebate in every area.

On the political front, this means ensuring that the candidates and elected representatives who wish to championour cause be prepared to articulate the truth of the pro-lifeposition with compassion and love, answer the tough ques-tions from an often hostile media, and be willing to go onthe offense for life by exposing the opposition’s extremism.

On the legislative front, we must also center the debateon the humanity of those affected by abortion, always bring-ing it back to the fact that abortion painfully ends the life ofan unborn child and wounds his or her mother. In advocat-ing for pro-life legislation, we must continually work to reveal the face of those we hope to save: the unborn child capable of feeling pain, the woman who will be hurt physicallyand emotionally by undergoing an abortion, and the vulnerable

young girls abused by the abortion industry. Wasting no time, on January 15th this year, the SBA List

kicked off our 2013 efforts to reclaim the human center ofthe abortion debate by hosting a Capitol Hill briefing forMembers of Congress and their staff. Our goal was to begina conversation for the benefit of congressional leaders andtheir staff about the true impact of abortion – centering onthe human faces of our unique speakers.

More than one hundred staffers and Members of Congress– representing both parties–crowded the room in the Rayburn House Office Building for the event whichwas held just a week prior to the 40th anniversary of Roe v.Wade. Marjorie Dannenfelser, alongside CongresswomanMusgrave, was joined by other national pro-life leaders

Georgette Forney, Abby Johnson, Melissa Ohden, Marjorie Dannenfelser, Dr. Alveda King, and Rebecca Kiessling speak to the mediaand pro-life legislators at our Capitol Hill briefing

Reclaiming the Human Center

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Where equality and liberation were

promised, abortion has brought women

only hurt. The courage of post-abortive

women is invaluable in reclaiming the

human center of this issue.

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Melissa Ohden, Rebecca Kiessling, Dr. Alveda King, Georgette Forney, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), andAbby Johnson.

Each woman who contributed to the briefing was askedto tackle the abortion issue from her unique perspective and through the lens of her own personal experience. Wesought to examine the impact abortion has had on eachwoman individually, as well as on the individual children,mothers, and communities they represent.

To examine how abortion impacts children, there wasMelissa Ohden, who in many ways was the inspiration forthe briefing, and Rebecca Kiessling, a woman who had beenconceived in rape. As Melissa gestured to her own body shesaid, “This is what an abortion looks like. Imagine the 55 millionmore lives like mine that have been lost.” Rebecca then explained how she owes her life to pro-life legislators whoensured that her life was protected at the time of her conception. Both women spoke to the truth that all life hasvalue and intrinsic dignity, regardless of “wantedness.”

Dr. Alveda King and Georgette Forney, both of the Silent NoMore Awareness Campaign, were next to share their testi-monies as post-abortive women. Their critical testimonyand the very reality of their pain drives to the heart of thehuman center of abortion. Because of the witness of thesewomen, and countless others who suffer like them, the lie has been exposed. Where equality and liberation were promised, abortion has brought women only hurt. The courage of post-abortive women is invaluable in reclaiming the human center of this issue.

Midway through the event, former presidential candi-date Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN) was ableto join the briefing. The Congresswoman spoke from herperspective as a mother who had experienced loss by sharingthe powerful personal story of a miscarriage endured by her

and her husband. She spoke eloquently of the value of eachindividual life saying, “We are made in the image and like-ness of a Holy God, and that’s enough. And therefore, everylife is worthy and deserves protection.”

Rep. Bachmann went on to say that just as her husbandwas overcome with horror and grief when presented withtheir tiny, lifeless child, we are all “overcome when we areconfronted by the obscenity of death of a human being.”This reality–the reality of the human center–was echoedlater by Abby Johnson, a former manager of a Planned Parenthood clinic.

Abby explained that while she had promoted abortionfor years as the clinic manager, actually witnessing a childcrumple and die during an ultrasound guided abortionshook her, overcame her. Abby began to reconsider all thelies she had told working at the abortion clinic and was finally able to cross the line to the pro-life side. Abby’s conversion in itself is a witness to the power of the humancenter of this debate.

Moving forward, the human center of the abortion debate will be a constant focus in every SBA List project,whether that project is political, legislative, or policy-oriented. When the painful reality of abortion surrenders to the beautiful truth that all life has value and is worth protecting, we will win.

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SENAToR DEB FISCHER (R-NE) joins Kelly Ay-

otte (R-NH) as the second pro-life woman currently

serving in the U.S. Senate. Senator Fischer repre-

sented the 43rd legislative district of the Nebraska

legislature for eight years and earned a 100% pro-life

voting record. In 2009, she cosponsored a bill to pro-

vide for additional voluntary and informed consent

for women prior to an abortion. In 2010, she led the

pro-life charge by cosponsoring and passing the Pain

Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. On election

night, Senator Fischer defeated a pro-abortion radical,

former Senator Bob Kerrey (D), with 58 percent of

the vote.

Senator Fischer and her husband reside in

Valentine, Nebraska where they run the Sunny Slope

Ranch with their three sons, Adam, Morgan, and Luke.

CoNgRESSWomAN ANN WAgNER

was elected to represent Missouri’s 2nd congressional

district in the U.S. House of Representatives. Wagner

brings to her new job a strong background in politics,

diplomacy, and business both at home and abroad.

As a young girl, Ann started working at her family

carpet retailer in Manchester, Missouri. After earning

her business degree, she worked her way into manage-

ment positions at Hallmark Cards and later at Ralston

Purina. Prior to her election to Congress, Ann Wagner

served as chairwoman of the Missouri Republican

Party and co-chair of the Republican National

Committee. The first woman to serve as chairwoman

of the state party, Ann oversaw elections resulting in

Republican control of both chambers of the Missouri

General Assembly for the first time in 40 years. In addi-

tion, she served her country as U.S. Ambassador to

Luxembourg under the George W. Bush administration

from 2005 until 2009. Upon her return to Missouri she

became chair of Roy Blunt’s successful U.S. Senate

campaign in 2010. On election night, Ann defeated her

opponent with 60 percent of the vote.

Congresswoman Wagner, her husband Ray,

and their three children, Raymond, Stephen, and Mary

Ruth, reside in St. Louis County, Missouri.

CoNgRESSWomAN jACkIE WAloRSkI

was elected to represent the 2nd congressional

district in the U.S. House of Representatives and was

a bright spot in Indiana this November. You may

recall Walorski ran against self-proclaimed pro-life

Congressman Joe Donnelly in 2010–the same Joe

Donnelly who voted for President Obama’s abor-

tion-funding health care bill. Jackie lost that race

by a mere one percent margin. However, Jackie is a

fighter made in the image of Susan B. Anthony and

the original suffragettes, and she remained confident

in her ability to win the district in 2012. On election

night, Jackie Walorksi defeated a strong opponent

by 4,000 votes. Prior to her election, Congress-

woman Walorski pursued a career as a TV reporter

and later as a development director raising funds for

local colleges and universities. Shortly after she and

her husband Dean were married, they moved to

Romania and founded a local agency which provided

medical supplies to the country’s impoverished

children. Upon returning to Indiana, she was elected

to office as an Indiana state representative in 2004,

vowing to bring conservative, pro-life leadership to

the statehouse. Jackie fought to redirect funding

away from America’s largest abortion provider,

Planned Parenthood, as well as to add unborn chil-

dren to the list of protected classes in a hate crimes

bill. Jackie is exactly the type of woman we need in

the House to advocate for solid pro-life legislation.

THE SUSAN B. NEWBIES The Susan B. Anthony List greeted the New Year 2013 with three new faces on Capitol Hill. Although tough political battles lie ahead, we are grateful for the arrival of reinforcements from newly elected andstrongly pro-life women like Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE), Congresswoman Ann Wagner (MO-02), and Congresswoman Jackie Walorski (IN-02). Not only will they help swell the ranks of the Pro-Life Women’s Caucus, but they will also ardently defend women and the unborn.

Why do you support the Susan B. Anthony List?

What do you see as our strengths?

In what area(s) can the Susan B. Anthony List improve?

What is your biggest concern about financially supporting the Susan B. Anthony List?

How would you describe our effectiveness to a friend in the pro-life community?

In our history, what program have you been most enthusiastic about?

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Susan B. Anthony list Pro-life SurveyWe want to do a better job of communicating with you. In every program we develop, the threshold question is, how many lives can we protect? Initiatives,candidates, and internal policies are chosen by their ability to affect that goal. Your feedback helps guide our decision-making process at the SBA List. The 10 questions below touch on the most important points of our mission. Please take a few moments to fill the survey out and return it to us in the envelopeprovided. Your response will be personally read by our team to help shape how we move our mission forward and communicate with you. Thank you foryour feedback!

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Your Name

How do you rate our communication with you?

What would you like to see most improved in our communication with you?

How often do you visit our website?

What new material would you find useful that would lead you to visit our site more often?

On a scale of one to five, one being the highest and five being the lowest, where does SBA List rank among other organizations you support? How can we move higher on your list?

Please rank the following SBA List Initiatives in order of importance to you :

Do you have any other comments or suggestions for our team?

PhonemailEmail

EXCEllENT gooD FAIR PooR

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Susan B. Anthony list Pro-life Survey (cont.)

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Passing Pro-Life Legislation in the States

Establishing a Network of Pro-Life Women State Legislatures

Winning 2013 Statewide Elections in Virginia and New Jersey

Developing Pro-life Messaging & Training for Candidates

Increasing our Web and Social Media Capabilities

Winning the Senate in 2014

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From its early beginnings, feminism was a young women’s movement. Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul,Charlotte Lozier and so many others began their suffragist work in their 20s. These women — the original feminists — understoodthat the rights of women cannot be built on the broken backs of unborn children. Anthony called abortion “child murder.” Paul, author of the original 1923 Equal Rights Amendment, said that“abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women.”

So the pro-life movement hasn’t changed the meaning of feminism,as has been suggested. It was the neo-feminists of the 1960s and’70s who asked women to prize abortion as the pathway to equality.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, along with a group of mostly Democraticwomen, started the Susan B. Anthony List in 1992, the so-calledYear of the Woman, when numerous pro-choice women wereelected to Congress. Dannenfelser, then in her mid-20s, saw a need to support more pro-life women running for elected office. Twenty years since the organization’s founding, we now have twopro-life women in the Senate, 17 in the House, four in governor-ships and hundreds more in state legislatures.

Pro-life feminism has captivated a new generation of young womenwho reject the illusion that to be pro-woman is to be pro-choice.Gallup polling showed that among 18-to-29-year-olds, there was a5% increase in those labeling themselves “pro-life” between 2007–08 and 2009–10. The past few years have seen the emergence ofyoung leaders like Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life of America,who is responsible for organizing more than 675 pro-life groups on college campuses across the nation, and Lila Rose of Live Action,whose undercover video work has forced the abortion industry toconfront and amend practices it cannot defend, as well as dozens ofother future leaders who have assisted our organization as staffmembers and interns. During the past two summers we’ve hadyoung female leaders join the SBA List from Stanford, Georgetown,the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the University of California, Berkeley. These passionate defenders of women and

unborn children return to their campuses ready to lead pro-lifegroups and educate their classmates on the tragedy of abortion.

Not only does this young generation of pro-life women shun thenotion that abortion somehow liberates women; it views abortionas the civil- and human-rights cause of our day. Abortion is an injustice that permeates our society. Forty years after Roe v. Wade,we realize that a third of our peers are not here to share ourprogress and our hopes. It is our loss as well as theirs.

In his letter from a Birmingham, Ala., jail, Martin Luther King Jr.wrote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We arecaught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indi-rectly.” It is in this same spirit of King and the original feministsthat young pro-life women are rising up in increasing numbers tosay abortion is a radical injustice that affects us all and must end.Achieving this will require more efforts to extend our understandingof the equal rights of the disabled unborn, prevent rape and makethis crime against women a thing of the past, expand adoption andmake the benefits of modern prenatal care and specialties like fetalsurgery more available, so that even younger and sicker childrencan be spared an early death.

Our fight transcends elections and legislative battles because ourfight is in our hearts. This is why, 40 years after Roe, our movement isstill growing. We won’t give up; we can’t give up. Our fight is for life.

Opinion of NoteN O TA B L E P R O - L I F E N E W S

by Emily Buchanan, Executive Vice President

Pro-life and Feminism Aren’t mutually Exclusive

Reprinted from Time Ideas Online

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On January 14th, the SBA List team was thrilled to see Mike Pence and Sue Ellspermann sworn into office as Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Indiana. We proudly endorsed their ticket during the 2012 election cycle.

The SBA List worked closely with Governor Pence when he was the chief sponsor of legislation to defund Planned Parenthood in Congress. All his hard work came to fruition when the House of Representatives voted twice in 2011 to defund the abortion giant of our tax dollars.

Meanwhile, the SBA List got to know Sue Ellspermann as a pro-life all-star inthe state legislature, where she helped lead efforts to defund Planned Parenthood of millions of dollars at the state level.

Because of the support from SBA List members in getting this proudly pro-lifeticket elected, 2013 could be a “banner year” for Life in the Hoosier State. Likely legislative proposals include strengthening conscience protections, ultrasound legislation, and a ban on sex-selection abortions.

SBA List proudly endorsed pro-life leaders

and running mates Mike Pence and Sue Ellsper-

mann for Indiana’s Governor and Lieutenant

Governor.

gov. mike Pence & lt. gov. Sue EllspermannBy Billy ValentinePolicy & Programs Director

www.sba-list.orgS U S A N B . A N T H O N Y L I S T | LIFE IMPACT Quarterly

Thank You! Our quarterly publication is sent with our deepest appreciation for your interestand involvement in the work of Susan B. Anthony List to advance pro-life leadership.

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