"MISSION POSSIBLE" AND GRASS ROOTS POWER.

On January 22, 1973, I was manning a pro-life information table in the student union building of West Virginia University. On my way to the student union building, I had heard on the car radio that the U.S. Supreme Court had issued its Roe v. Wade decision; but it wasn't yet clear to me what the ruling meant. As I sat at the information table, a young woman waltzed by, telling me in so many words, "You can go home now. The Supreme Court just made abortion legal." But I never went "home" to leave the battle for others to fight.

Actually, it could have been tempting to throw up my hands and go on to other things. The right-to-life movement in West Virginia was weak, and the dominant Democrats considered pro-lifers an ineffectual nuisance. Whenever we thought we were making headway with a pro-life bill, some pro-abortion committee chairman or AFL-CIO lobbyist would put a quick end to our efforts.

Today, 32 years later, the situation has changed dramaticallyin contrast to the attitudes of the national Democratic Party leadership: The Democratic governor is pro-life. The Democratic senate president is pro-life. The Democratic speaker of the House of Delegates is pro-life. The W. Va. Senate and the House of Delegates have solid (bipartisan) pro-life majorities. The two Democratic congressmen reliably vote pro-life (the third, a Republican, declared herself to be "pro-choice" but often votes pro-life). Politicians of both parties eagerly seek the endorsement of West Virginians for Life PAC. And pro-life President George W. Bush won West Virginia in both 2000 and 2004.

There are still a couple of big rocks in West Virginia's otherwise productive pro-life vineyard: the W.V. Supreme Court (though one pro-abortion justice got elected out of office in 2004) and West Virginia's representation in the U.S. Senate (Senator Jay Rockefeller is a dedicated pro-abortionist, and Senator Robert Byrd is only an occasional supporter of pro-life legislation).

The point of telling you this is to pay tribute to Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) for their crucial, but little known, start-up help through their "Mission Possible" program and praise my fellow West Virginians for their sacrificial and patient work. The growth of West Virginians for Life (WVFL) into a politically and culturally potent organization, as a consequence of hard work and sound strategy, can serve as an encouraging example for other NRLC chapters.

In 1974, WVFL was no more than a loose confederation of a few local right-to-life groups that had aligned themselves with NRLC. Along the way I had become the leader of the state group, representing it at one of NRLC's board meetings. There I met Dr. David O'Steen and Darla St. Martin, then the executive director and the associate executive director of MCCL, respectively, (and currently holding the corresponding positions at NRLC). They told me about their "Mission Possible" program. Mission Possible's purpose was to provide seed money (in the form of matching grants generously provided by MCCL from its meager resources) and organizational expertise to pro-life groups in the southeastern states. Although the right-to-life groups in this region tended ...