the HUMAN LIFE REVIEW WINTER 2013 Featured in this issue: William Murchison on . Rape and Electoral Rout Laura Echevarria on . Planned Parenthood’s Media Blitz Matthew Hennessey on . Testing Down Syndrome to Death Christopher White on . The 40-Year March for Life HLR’S 2012 GREAT DEFENDER OF LIFE DINNER JAMES L. BUCKLEY • KELLIE FIEDOREK Mathew Lu on . Defusing the Violinist Analogy Wesley J. Smith on . Backdoor Euthanasia Alan Sears & Craig Osten . The ACLU vs. Human Life BOOKNOTES RICHARD HURZELER • TYLER O’NEIL • JOHN M. GRONDELSKI Also in this issue: Anthony Esolen • Jon A. Shields • Daniel K. Williams Leslie Fain • Lynn Bateman • Ursula Hennessey Published by: The Human Life Foundation, Inc. New York, New York Vol. XXXIX, No. 1 $8.00 a copy ABOUT THIS ISSUE. “upward of half a million people” joined a cold and snowy March for Life this year, reports Christopher White in “Forty Years After Roe: Onward We March” (page 31). White, who takes the reader on a fascinating tour of four decades of swelling marches, has a book about to come out: Beyond the Catholic Culture Wars (Encounter Books). Surely a timely subject, as the culture wars returned with unanticipated vengeance during the last election season—both William Murchison (“Of Rape and Electoral Rout,” page 7) and Laura Echevarria (“Planned Parenthood’s Media Blitz,” page 14) analyze the onslaught mounted by proudly pro-abortion forces—and the wreckage they visited on some pro-life candidates. Back in October when we hosted our 10th annual Great Defender of Life dinner, hopes were still high that the Obama regime would be turned out—alas. We include here (page 39) speeches by our honorees, Judge James L. Buckley and Kellie Fiedorek (representing Advocates for Life). Those who wish to see the entire event may call us (212-685-5210) and order a DVD. (N.B.: This year’s dinner, honoring bestselling author Eric Metaxas and his wife Susanne—who runs a crisis preg- nancy center—will be held on September 26, 2013). What a difference an election (reelection) makes. Indeed, four years into the tenure of the most committed abortion advocate ever to occupy the White House, the acolytes of “choice” are unabashedly bullish on death. Which makes Matthew Hennessey’s concerns about new, non-invasive tests for Down syndrome just com- ing on the market even more urgent (“Testing Down Syndrome to Death,” page 23). Routine administration of these tests, he says, will make his discussion here of how infants with Down syndrome are actually being aborted these days “moot.” Mr. Hennessey and his wife, Ursula, who is new to these pages (“Welcome to Sparta,” page 126), have a six-year-old daughter with Down syndrome. Mathew Lu is an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of St. Tho- mas (St. Paul, MN). “Defusing the Violinist Analogy” (page 46), in which he pains- takingly refutes Judith Jarvis Thomson’s enduring (at least in the dorms) argument in favor of abortion, is his first article for us. Other newcomers include Tyler O’Neil (Booknotes, page 74), an intern at the Washington Free Beacon, and Alan Sears and Craig Osten (“The ACLU vs. Human Life,” page 81). Mr. Sears is president of the Alliance Defending Freedom; Mr. Osten is the group’s senior director of research and grant writing. Welcome all. Along with Mrs. Hennessey, the other authors of this issue’s appendices also are appearing here for the first time. Thanks to reprint their work goes to Crisis.com (Anthony Esolen), First Things (Jon A. Shields), ThePublicDiscourse.com (Daniel K. Williams), Catholic World Report (Leslie Fain) and Ricochet.com (Lynn Bateman). Finally, I am happy to tell you that the Foundation has just published a companion volume to The Debate Since Roe. To learn more about The Reach of Roe: Eugenics, Euthanasia, and Other Assaults on the Dignity of Human Life, be sure to have a look at our advertisement on page 104. ANNE CONLON MANAGING EDITOR THE HUMAN LIFE REVIEW the HUMAN LIFE REVIEW Winter 2013 Vol. XXXIX, No. 1 Editor Maria McFadden Maffucci Senior Editors Ellen Wilson Fielding Mary Meehan Introduction . 2 William Murchison Maria McFadden Maffucci Managing Editor Of Rape and Electoral Rout . 7 Anne Conlon Consulting Editor, Europe William Murchison Mary Kenny, London Planned Parenthood’s Media Blitz . 14 Contributors Laura Echevarria Lynette Burrows Testing Down Syndrome to Death . 23 James Hitchcock Matthew Hennessey Rita L. Marker William McGurn Forty Years After Roe: George McKenna Onward We March . 31 David Quinn Christopher White Wesley J. Smith 2012 Great Defender of Life Dinner . 38 Business Manager James L. Buckley . 39 Rose Flynn DeMaio Production Manager Kellie Fiedorek . 43 Christina Angelopoulos Defusing the Violinist Analogy . 46 Publishing Consultant Mathew Lu Edward A. Capano Liverpool Care Pathway: Founding Editors The Road to Backdoor Euthanasia . 63 J.P. McFadden Faith Abbott McFadden Wesley J. Smith Published by THE H UMAN LIFE FOUNDATION, BOOKNOTES INC. Editorial Office, 353 Lexington Av- Richard Hurzeler . 73 enue, Suite 802, New York, N.Y. 10016. Phone: (212) 685-5210. The editors will Tyler O’Neil . 74 consider all manuscripts submitted, but as- John Grondelski . 77 sume no responsibility for unsolicited ma- terial. Editorial and subscription inquiries, The ACLU vs. Human Life . 81 and requests for reprint permission should Alan Sears & Craig Osten be sent directly to our editorial office. Sub- scription price: $30 per year; Canada and Appendices . .105 other foreign countries: $40 (U.S. cur- rency). ISSN 0097-9783. Anthony Esolen Leslie Fain Jon A. Shields Lynn Bateman ©2013 by THE HUMAN LIFE FOUNDATION, Daniel K. Williams Ursula Hennessey INC. New York, N.Y. Printed in the U.S.A. WINTER 2013/1 INTRODUCTION In this issue’s lead article, “Of Rape and Electoral Rout,” senior editor William Murchison asks what we can make of the “mess” of the fall elections from the pro- life perspective. “The first need,” he writes, “is to look around and inquire whether anyone got the number of the truck that hit us. Or, possibly, the one under which some of us apparently threw ourselves?” Murchison refers here to Republican senatorial candidates Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock’s politically suicidal blunders in speaking about rape, and how the situation led some commentators to call for Republicans to back off on the “social issues.” “I really don’t think so,” writes Murchison; instead, why not move forward with a more intelligent, educated approach, one that articulates that: Undermining the legitimacy of abortion in no way entails the necessity of talking about “legitimate” rape. The contrary, really. What is rape if not the barbarous viola- tion both of a woman’s body and her integrity? It is in a sense all of a piece— violation of a woman by rape, violation of an unborn infant through abortion. “The Akin and Mourdock catastrophes,” he continues, are an indication of “how vast are the challenges facing pro-life folk,” but not the whole story. Women, and especially single women, are a special challenge for Republicans; Akin and Mourdock’s perceived callousness just provided more impetus to the massively successful “war on women” tsunami which drowned out the real cries for justice for the unborn. In our next article, contributor Laura Echevarria (in “Planned Parenthood’s Media Blitz”) demonstrates with painful clarity how clever and successful Planned Parenthood was in using TV ads and social media to seed their message (which was “short on accuracy and long on alarmist language”) that Mitt Romney wanted to “turn back the clock” on women. “Any man who stands up and says no to the ever-lengthening Planned Parenthood ‘wish list,’” she writes, “apparently fits Planned Parenthood’s definition of a misogynist.” Echevarria says the pro-life movement must keep the focus on abortion, and make better use of “the latest technology to reach voters.” And, she makes the same crucial suggestion as Murchison: Potential pro-life candidates must be intensively trained “to deal with the abortion issue in a direct, unapologetic, and genuinely sympathetic manner.” Turning now to another “message” in the abortion debate: the oft-quoted statistic that 90 percent of unborn babies with Down syndrome are aborted. Matthew Hennessey, the father of 6-year-old Magdalena, who has Down syndrome, sets out to verify its accuracy, because, though it is a shocking statistic that “rarely fails to get people’s attention,” he came across a column (by Amy Julia Becker, author of a book on pre-natal testing and Down syndrome) that said it is “patently untrue.” What? You’ll read why, and how the truth he finds may be more dangerous for the future of children with Down syndrome. We are pleased to welcome, in Appendix F, Ursula Hennessey as well, wife of Matthew and mother of Magdalena, who 2/WINTER 2013 THE HUMAN LIFE REVIEW writes about the human repercussions of our culture’s “Spartan” pre-birth selection. This past January 22nd marked the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade; this year, the theme of the annual March for Life, writes Christopher White (in “Forty Years After Roe: Onward We March”) was “hauntingly simple: 40=55m; 40 years under Roe have eliminated 55 million children.” (Talk about a shocking statistic.) White’s engaging report traces the history of the March for Life from its beginnings (quoting from Human Life Review founder J.P. McFadden’s reporting in the anti-abortion newsletter, Lifeletter) up to present-day. With the death of March founder Nellie Gray in August 2012, the 2013 March had at its helm the “newly minted” Jeanne Monahan (born the very year Roe was handed down). White writes that Monahan “has worked tirelessly to continue Gray’s legacy while modernizing,” debuting a new website and having, for the first time, social media play a “vital role,” which garnered the March a bit of major-media attention.