A “barnacle on the pro-life ship of state,” “frequent embarrassment to the pro-life cause,” and an organization that “has rarely met a compromise it didn’t like,” were some of the words used to describe the National Right to Life Committee by Notre Dame Law Professor Emeritus and respected national pro-life leader, Charles E. Rice.
Rice’s unflattering descriptions of NRLC were part of a recent commentary published by The Wanderer, a national Catholic weekly focusing on the behind-the-scenes efforts by NRLC to defeat South Dakota legislation intended to ban abortion and challenge the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. The legislation, HB 1191, was introduced earlier this year, falling one vote shy of passing after representatives of the National Right to Life Committee and its state affiliate advocated its defeat by arguing that the time is not right.
“Contrary to NRLC, HB 1191 was not futile exercise,” said Rice. The legislation “would have presented to the Supreme Court a two-part question it has not yet resolved: Is the unborn child in fact a living human being? May a state so find as a matter of state law and extend to that human being the protections of its state constitution so as to protect that unborn person’s life to a greater extent than the protections afforded to it by the 14th Amendment?”
In his April 29th commentary, Rice explained, “HB 1191 was consistent with Catholic teaching on abortion, including the principle of double effect.” Rice noted however, that immediately after the bill was announced, NRLC spokespersons and officers of their state affiliate opposed passage of the bill as not being the right time.
The legislation, making abortion a crime with no exceptions, was passed by the South Dakota House of Representatives 54-14, only to be upended in a series of political maneuvers in the Senate by NRLC Board Member and South Dakota State Senator Jay Duenwald, who urged legislators to abandon the ban on abortion arguing that the time was not right to challenge Roe v. Wade.
Rice explains, “NRLC, as an organization, has rarely met a compromise it did not like. In this case, the South Dakota affiliate of NRLC actively derailed the useful and sound no compromise bill as passed by the House of Representatives.”
In closing, Rice noted, “The NRLC is too frequently an embarrassment to the pro-life cause.” “The Thomas More Law Center is a fighting force,“ continued Rice. “The future of the pro-life movement belongs to warriors like these.”
Rice’s full commentary can be read here.
A full report on the South Dakota anti-abortion ban and NRLC’s efforts to defeat it can be found here.
Richard Thompson is the Chief Counsel for The Thomas More Law Center.
(This update courtesy of the Thomas More Law Center.)
