F&L Delegation Welcomed in Washington DC
25.05.2022
A Family & Life delegation had the honour of being hosted by America’s top pro-life leaders in Washington DC. We had an intensive three-day series of meetings, consultations and training with Congress members of the Senate and House of Representatives, lawyers and lobbyists who have fought long and hard to overturn the Roe v Wade diktat that legalised abortion in all 50 American states nearly 50 years ago in 1973. We had the honour of meeting Senator Steve Daines, the chair of the Senate Pro-life Caucus. He has voted consistently to defend the unborn, including by stopping tax money for abortions, whether domestically or internationally, and protecting the right of healthcare workers to refuse to participate in abortions. We then met with Congressman Chris Smith, chair of the House Pro-Life Caucus. Chris
Smith has for many decades been a warrior in defence of mothers and unborn babies. He has been a great friend to Family & Life, speaking at our first conference in 1997. Over the years he has introduced many pro-life bills, such as the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Full Disclosure Act, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, the Informed Consent Act. Rep. Smith spoke on the House Floor to expose government funding of abortion, and described the stellar work over many years to get the truth out about abortion, about how American taxes were funding it and how pro life- voices could offer life-saving alternatives to abortion. We met with all the staff of Representative Chip Roy of Texas. They went into fine detail about how they passed the Texas Heartbeat Law, which eliminates about 90 percent of
abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. We got to meet some of those who drafted the bill, and they stressed the importance of sound legal research to overturn laws permitting abortion.
We met many impressive organizations, including the Heritage Foundation, Susan B Anthony B List, Catholic Vote, Family Research Council, Americans United for Life and Alliance for Defending Freedom, which have prepared the way for both the Texas law and the expected ending of Roe v Wade. SBA List gave compelling advice, based on their regular canvass and polling campaigns, to show where they are winning or losing and therefore how to react to the challenges and opportunities they meet along the way. Heritage spoke about their invaluable work
on shaping public policy and training future leaders in politics, law and media. AUL spoke about their extensive state legislative activity. ADF talked about their work on federal conscience legislation and FRC outlined the comparison between US abortion law with that of European and other countries, advising on how we could best move forward. Catholic Vote talked about the importance of engaging with churches, the importance of reaching out to Catholic and other Christian voters to let them know what politicians are advocating on morally sensitive issues. It is vital to ensure that those who think pro-life, vote pro-life, and to convince church leaders to give clear guidance to their congregations on this major issue. The delegation learned valuable lessons to bring back home and share with you and the many volunteers throughout Ireland. Thank you for your support of our work.