I am sitting here watching the March for Life and just thinking of all the pro life pioneers I have been blessed to know, read or hear of in the past 25 years I have been doing this work. The ones who immediately come to mind are Cardinal O'Connor, Bishop Vaugh, Henry Hyde, NancyJo Mann, Dave Reardon, Joan Andrews and also Nat Hentoff. Quiet, humble people who did so much for the cause of life, some of whom are still active.
I found this article by Nat Hentoff from 1987 that I thought was worth posting..it truly shows how we have gone down the slippery slope so many in the beginnings of the movement warned of.
The Indivisible Fight for Life
by Nat Hentoff. Presented at AUL Forum, 19 October 1986, Chicago. This article is part of no violence period.
I'll begin by indicating how I became aware, very belatedly, of the "indivisibility of life." I mention this fragment of autobiography only be cause I think it may be useful to those who are interested in bringing others like me - some people are not interested in making the ranks more heterogeneous, but others are, as I've been finding out - to a realization that the "slippery slope" is far more than a metaphor.
When I say "like me," I suppose in some respects I'm regarded as a "liberal," although I often stray from that category, and certainly a civil libertarian - though the ACLU and I are in profound disagreement on the matters of abortion, handicapped infants and euthanasia, because I think they have forsaken basic civil liberties in dealing with these issues. I'm considered a liberal except for that unaccountable heresy of recent years that has to do with pro-life matters.
It's all the more unaccountable to a lot of people because I remain an atheist, a Jewish atheist. (That's a special branch of the division.) I think the question I'm most often asked from both sides is, "How do you presume to have this kind of moral conception without a belief in God?" And the answer is, "It's harder." But it's not impossible.
For me, this transformation started with the reporting I did on the Babies Doe. While covering the story, I came across a number of physicians, medical writers, staff people in Congress and some members of the House and Senate who were convinced that making it possible for a spina bifida or a Down syndrome infant to die was the equivalent of what they called a "late abortion." And surely, they felt, there's nothing wrong with that.
you can read the rest here http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/nvp/consistent/indivisible.html
