Reprinted by permission of The Christian Post
By Alexander J. Sheffrin
Christian Post Reporter
Sun, Jul. 06 2008 05:38 PM EDT
The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) – the nation’s largest and most influential pro-life organization – emphasized the monumental importance of this year’s election during its annual convention Thursday.
In its address to supporters, leaders of the group said that voting pro-life during the election this November was more important and significant than any other political and economic concerns that citizens may have.
"We believe that the protection of innocent human lives has to be a civilization's number one priority or that civilization will not long exist," NRLC Vice President Anthony J. Lauinger told Cybercast News Service.
"The other issues that are being talked about in the campaign all are less important, in our perspective, than the protection of innocent human life,” he added.
According to CNS, Lauinger said that this year’s election was particularly significant given that the next president would likely be able to appoint many new Supreme Court justices who could help overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion throughout the nation.
Former Senator and Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson, a keynote speaker at the group’s convention, said that pro-life supporters should oppose the election of Democratic Senator Obama, an ardent abortion supporter, at all cost.
"If Sen. Obama is elected, he will, through Supreme Court and federal court nominations, cause [abortion] to accelerate, and that will bring about changes in this country that no one in the room, and most Americans, want to see," CNS quoted Thompson as saying.
"And no one in this room will live long enough to see [the changes] rectified,” he added.
Both Thompson and NRLC leaders reportedly urged voters to mark their ballots for Republican Senator John McCain this November.
"Senator John McCain has consistently taken a strong pro-life position against abortion, has a strong pro-life voting record against abortion and opposes Roe v. Wade,” NRLC noted in a statement earlier this year endorsing McCain.
In April, The NRLC announced its decision to back Senator McCain despite the fact that his pro-life record had been criticized for being inconsistent according to some pro-life supporters.
The NRLC explained that any Democratic alternative would be unacceptable.
“Both contenders for the Democratic nomination, Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton, have strong positions and voting records in favor of abortion on demand and strongly support the appointment of only U.S. Supreme Court Justices who favor Roe v. Wade,” the group said.
McCain, long known as a “maverick” who has often battled with more conservative wings of his party on issues of immigration, same-sex “marriage,” and abortion, has modified his stances recently on a number of issues in order to court more support for his candidacy in November’s upcoming presidential race.
Most recently, despite voting in the past in support of embryonic stem cell research, Senator McCain has indicated that he would be opposed to processes that involve the destruction of human life.
The National Right to Life Committee, which was first founded in 1973 in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade to legalize abortion nationwide, has affiliates in all 50 states with over 3,000 local chapters.
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