EDITORIAL; A Snapshot in Time.

From the very first day more than 22 years ago when I assumed the helm at NRL News, it's been my intent to treat our faithful readers not only as collaborators in defending innocent unborn life but also as an unparalleled source of information and inspiration for the "right to life newspaper of record." Rest assured, your ongoing input has helped keep the newspaper fresh and ahead of the curve in every phase of the ongoing battles.

I mention this for a couple of reasons.

First, because of you, the good ship NRLC is seaworthy, ready for all the tests a presidential year inevitably brings. Yet I can't help but think that our counterparts are piloting a vessel that is leaking water from every porthole and scupper. To change metaphors, reading their speeches and their presentations, it's like they're living life in a fallout shelter anxiously awaiting "the Big One."

Now how much of this End Times rhetoric is (more-or-less) sincere? Put another way, what proportion - - some/much/all - - of this is hysteria manufactured merely to bring tons of moolah into their coffers?

My guess is that the answer is some of each. The Abortion Lobby's the-sky-is-falling mantra has always made Chicken Little sound like Conan the Barbarian. It banks on its supporters falling for the same-old same-old. Judging by the money pro-abortion groups expend on ultra-expensive print and electronic advertising, this time-tested formula is continuing to induce anxious supporters to reach for the checkbooks.

But that is not to say it's only a cynical attempt to shake down their nervous nelly contributors. If you heard NARAL President Kate Michelman's recent speech to the National Press Club, or read her comments made on the occasion of the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, or skim NARAL's annual "Who Decides?" overview of state legislation, what's clear (although obviously not framed this way) is that pro-life initiatives are driving wedges along all of abortion's fault lines.

For the Abortion Lobby the basic dilemma is simple: what is (to them) an egregious infringement on abortion "rights" resonates just fine with most of the American people. That is why our Movement has steadily moved the yard markers down the field, legislatively making first down after first down. (See stories, pages 23 & 26.)