March 4, 2002 1:00 a.m. Eastern
"Aborting Crisis Pregancy Centers"© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
by Alan Keyes

Pro-abortion New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer on Thursday
apparently declared a temporary cease fire in his vendetta against New
York's crisis-pregnancy centers. But it would be a grave mistake to think
this battle is won.

Elected with the strong support of pro-abortion groups, Spitzer was clearly
engaged in abuse of his prosecutorial power for political reasons. (Note to
liberals: How about drawing some "Lessons of Enron" here?) Now it seems
that his payback to the pro-abortion groups that elected him has been
interrupted by the principled objections of his targets, the courageous
objections of his colleague, Attorney General Charlie Condon of South
Carolina, and by increasing media attention that the case was receiving.

Spitzer accepted as plausible the usual list of pro-abortion myths about the
nature and practices of CPCs, and then used his office's subpoena power in
an attempt to overwhelm the centers with intimidating – and prohibitively
expensive – requests for information and documentation. In effect, he took
the undocumented word of the pro-abortion groups who elected him that he
should treat CPCs as lawbreakers until proven otherwise.

The idea that crisis-pregnancy centers engage in criminal abuse of their
clients is almost criminal itself. It takes a genuine pro-abortion zealot not to
see that these centers are doing extremely important and constructive
work. They are an alternative to the abortion mills, offering counseling,
support and help to young women in crisis pregnancies so that these young
mothers can make a decision that respects the life of their child as well as
their own future life prospects – a decision both mother and child can live
with.

Abortion rates typically decline where such centers are operating. But, of
course, this is the real offense in the eyes of the abortion high priesthood –
effectively helping young women make a decision other than abortion is the
only mortal sin to them.

The strategy of Spitzer's assault is clear: The burdensome costs that result
from complying with a sustained campaign of hostile "investigation" could
be expected to force some CPCs to close. Like most principled non-profits,
they typically have no funds to spare for defending themselves against
sophisticated government harassment.

Indeed, apparently one small center has already decided that the pressure
is too great, and has signed an agreement to modify its actions to satisfy
its pro-abortion critics. But such appeasement can never work. Indeed, the
demands consist primarily in the insistence that the centers more and more
energetically "reassure" prospective clients that they have no intention or
desire to convince mothers not to abort their children.

In the Orwellian world of NARAL and Planned Parenthood, counseling
young women not to kill their children constitutes "humiliation and
degradation." The very presence of crisis centers on the same street as
abortion mills is "psychological intimidation." And the presentation of factual
materials regarding the true nature of the baby in the womb – and the
effects of abortion on mother, as well as child – is "brainwashing."

Crisis-pregnancy centers offer love and truth to the lonely and confused. Out
of love, they offer the truth that abortion is a choice that disrespects the
dignity of the human person, and leads not to happiness, but to misery. It is
this truth of love and respect that Spitzer and his paymasters want
silenced, and they want it replaced not simply with silence, but with positive
acknowledgment that the pro-life position is evil. There can be no final
compromise with such men, particularly when they wield the power of the
state.

We must, like Lincoln in his Cooper Union Speech, understand that our
opponents demand not coexistence, but acquiescence. Indeed, his words
then need little modification to fit the actions of Spitzer, NARAL, NOW, et
al., like a glove:

[W]hat will convince them? This, and this only: cease to call [abortion]
wrong, and join them in calling it right. And this must be done thoroughly –
done in acts as well as in words. Silence will not be tolerated – we must
place ourselves avowedly with them.

In defending our right to call abortion the evil it is, we protect a principle as
essential to our national soul as did Lincoln. Indeed, it is the same principle
– that the equal dignity of all God's human creatures is the foundation of all
our rights. Lincoln's closing remarks at Cooper Union will, I am confident,
continue to express well the noble devotion of the selfless workers of the
crisis-pregnancy-center movement:

Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us,
nor frightened from it by menaces of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have
faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our
duty as we understand it.

Tune into Alan Keyes' new show "Alan Keyes is Making Sense" on
MSNBC, Monday through Thursday, 10 p.m., ET. And be sure to visit Alan Keyes' communications center for founding principles, The Declaration Foundation.

Former Reagan administration official Alan Keyes, was U.S. ambassador to
the United Nations Social and Economic Council and 2000 Republican
presidential candidate.