NJO: "Benjamin Wetmore: A mentor of mine; a genius", said James O'Keefe in an interview in September 2009. So let's take a look at some of the wisdom of this certifiably mentorial influence on James' life.
Today, from March 2009, "A plan to save 1,170 babies a year in the state of Massachusetts through the passage of an informed consent law utilizing political pressure".
Source: http://benwetmore.com/documents/MCFL/proposals/MCFL_LaurasLaw-proposal.doc [Now a dead link]
A
plan to save 1,170 babies a year in the state of Massachusetts through the passage of an
informed consent law utilizing political pressure
Massachusetts Citizens for Life
Prepared by: Ben Wetmore
For the Gerard Health Foundation’s
consideration
March 30, 2009
On September 13, 2007 Laura
Hope Smith, a 22 year old girl who was 13 weeks pregnant, died during an
abortion. The tragedy of losing both
grandchild and daughter was not lost on her mother, who was shocked and angered
because Laura had been raised in a pro-life and Christian household. As the details unfolded, it became clear that
the initial decision that Laura made to abort was not the choice she would have
made if given the correct information about the risks to abortion, information
on fetal development, and the ultrasound picture that the abortionist had already
taken.
Informed consent laws have
been passed in various forms in 33 states.
Such laws are often non-controversial and not seriously opposed by the
abortion industry. Social science
researcher Dr. Michael New has shown that such laws have on average a clear reduction
in the abortion rate by .86% in the overall abortion rate on average. The sporadic judicial nullification of such
laws has made it clear as to their impact by showing the subsequent spike in
abortions in a year following nullification.
As Massachusetts’
abortion rate is currently 19.9 per thousand women of reproductive age,
reducing that through passage of such a law to 19.04 per thousand women of
reproductive age would save 1,170 babies a year.
Passage of any legislation
is not a direct and clear affair, but the death of Laura Smith has given rise
to a unique window of time where the tragedy of her death demands action not
only from Laura’s mother but from those few who have heard about her story and
the few media outlets that have so far covered the case. Her abortionist is currently being taken to
trial, and the opportunity to pass the legislation slows with each passing
day. The two key obstacles are getting
the media to cover Laura’s story, and convincing the public that it is not an
isolated case.
Already, Massachusetts
Citizens for Life has gotten bipartisan support for the legislation, including
not just conservative Democrats but even pro-choice politicians. Informed consent is a bill that even those
who are pro-abortion can support and defend to their constituents; as such it
has the chance to succeed in the Massachusetts
legislature if given the proper grassroots media campaign. Of the 19 sponsors of the legislation, a
majority of 10 are Democrats. Few have
the rabid attachment to abortion that demands women be precluded from receiving
information before their abortion. The
timing is critical, the law is proven to save lives, and the political momentum
has begun but lacks the needed traction.
Simply educating the public
at large would be too costly and yield too few results. Instead, this grant proposal would enable two
new staffers to focus not only on highlighting and drawing attention to Laura’s
case and developing the public narrative around her tragedy, but also to
research and promote other local cases and other informed consent tragedies
ignored or undiscovered by local media outlets.
And this is not to say that it would be about sending press
releases. Rather, this proposal would
have two staffers who were conducting and videotaping interviews, collecting
primary source material, and finding new cases of abortionist abuse and the
denial of critical information that will lead to citizen outrage. The goal is to promote civil and criminal
lawsuits and pressure legislators to learn about and support the issue of
informed consent. This is potentially a
common ground area that can get beyond the traditional right-left, life-abortion
divide and pass a pro-choice legislature because it is empowering real choices
rather than falling into the perception of rights-restrictive legislation.
If we can raise the profile
of the Laura Smith tragedy, if we can show that it was not an isolated case the
lobbying effort already exists at Massachusetts Citizens for Life to help steer
this legislation to enactment. The grant
would promote and educate around the issue of informed consent. It would research how the issue has impacted
individual lives, connecting those stories to the mainstream media, the online
media and alternative media outlets.
Two staffers on this task
would cost $150,000 per year and we would expect the timeline to take two
years, for a total cost of $300,000.
That cost divided by the one-year number of babies saved would yield a
return on investment of one saved baby for every $256.41 spent. After the legislation passes, the babies
saved per dollar obviously becomes a better return with each additional year. If the average abortion costs $413, this
represents a revenue loss of $483,210 per year to the abortion industry.
The court has routinely upheld
informed consent as a permissible regulation of abortion rights. The two ways to pass it would be through
explicit language in a piece of legislation, or through the judiciary where as
a matter of reasonableness it becomes a civil action not to receive certain
information and consent before the abortion procedure. Both methods and avenues require a greater
public exposure that this grant will fulfill.
By creating local awareness and channeling it into legislative contact
and media contact, we will give energy to the existing lobbying effort.
The primary researcher would
be responsible for researching, messaging and marketing the information about
the violations of informed consent and would be responsible for creating and
crafting all content, including the management of the online presence and all
media communications.
The field agent would be
responsible for reporting back new contacts, doing subject interviews,
collecting information, meeting with current chapters and activists to try to
uncover every violation of informed consent and connecting that material on a
regular basis to the project manager.
Budget:
Researcher/Proj. Man.: $50,000
Field agent: $40,000
Marketing: $20,000
Paid advertising: $20,000
Travel, meetings, expenses: $15,000
Management: $5,000
Annual total: $150,000
Two-year project total: $300,000
Dollars per baby saved: $256.41
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