Experience, Elections, and Enthusiasm Promise Bright Future.

Conversations with Mary Balch are like the very best seminars I took in graduate school. Invariably, the professor would combine breadth of experience, empathy for his or her students, and a zest for the subject matter.

Whenever I ask NRLC's Director of State Legislation, she always graciously blocks out time in her ultra-hectic schedule to review what transpired in the state legislatures in the prior year and offer a look ahead to the coming session. As we talked just before Christmas, Balch was eager to talk about past experiences and future prospects.

"In several states it's like we made the playoffs but not the Super Bowl," she said. Commonsense legislation passed both the state house and the state senate only to be vetoed by a pro-abortion governor.

Balch's experience shone through as she put this into perspective. "While this is a short-term disappointment, temporary setbacks often result in medium- and long-term gains," Balch explained. "For example, when a governor vetoes a woman's right to know measure or stands in the way of passing bills calling for safer, more sanitary abortion clinics, or stops an unborn victims of violence bill from becoming law, it just shows the average citizen how radically out of touch he is with mainstream voters."

Such popular-with-the-public pro-life bills did pass in several other states, she added. Which is not surprising, given what NARAL's annual "Who Decides" report concluded a year ago.

Referring to 2003, NARAL maintained, "The nation's overall grade for women's access to abortion dropped to a dismal D." The reader is informed that what NARAL called "anti-choice lawmakers and judges" are "attacking the fundamental right to choose from every angle."

Balch cautioned that while, according to NARAL, "the sky is always falling," nonetheless, "they were right that the number of protective laws had jumped dramatically from 2002 to 2003." That trend was maintained in 2004 and "will continue in 2005," Balch explained.