Response to Roe: Building a Bigger, Stronger Movement; A Model Outreach to Hispanic Americans.

"We've seen the number of abortions dramatically decrease for white non-Hispanic women during the last several years in many areas - - due in part to the incredible efforts of the right to life movement. We need to replicate those very same educational efforts in areas where Hispanics live."

Raimundo Rojas, NRL News, September 2003

A young Latina woman is visiting her family and friends in a city in the Midwest. She has recently realized that she's pregnant and has made an appointment at an abortion clinic. In the days leading up to her appointment she confides in her cousin about her pregnancy, and the fact that she is scheduled to destroy her child in the days to come.

Her cousin and her friends persuade her to go to church with them on a crisp Minnesota night. It is a Friday night, and her abortion is scheduled for the next day. When she gets to the church she meets Pam Abbate and Katherine Konrad.

Pam and Katherine are both juniors at St. Thomas University in St. Paul Minnesota. Neither of them have any Hispanic ancestry, as is evident by their Nordic good looks and their delightful Minnesota accents. Pam and Katherine have been involved in the right to life movement for a few years each and have both served as interns at Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL). In the last few months, Pam and Katherine have wandered out into unchartered pro-life territory.

As MCCL began its preparations for its summer fair booth campaign, someone mentioned that there were no booths planned at Hispanic churches and that no materials in Spanish were readily available. Katherine speaks a bit of Spanish and Pam has always been attracted to the Spanish culture. The two of them decided at this organizational meeting to take on Hispanic outreach. They took a first step.

They gathered Spanish language resources, including National Right to Life's When Does Life Begin? as well as literature which is called for by Minnesota's women's right to know law in both English and Spanish. They started making phone calls and asking pastors to allow them to set up pro-life booths at their churches. That was step two.