From the files of Ben Wetmore: "A Plan to save 3,636 babies a year by shutting down 6 clinics and developing a best practices [sic] to shut down more nationwide"

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 3,636 babies a year by shutting down 6 clinics and developing a best practices [sic] to shut down more nationwide"

Source: http://benwetmore.com/documents/MCFL/proposals/MCFL_ClinicShutdown-proposal.doc [Now a dead link]

A Plan to save 3,636 babies a year by shutting down 6 clinics and developing a best practices to shut down more nationwide

Massachusetts Citizens for Life

Prepared by: Ben Wetmore

For the Gerard Health Foundation’s consideration

March 30, 2009

People want to close abortion clinics and are not sure how.  Some have been closed, but pro-lifers are not sure what universal tactics work and which closings were instead providential.  Through this grant, Massachusetts Citizens for Life will take the methods used by pro-lifers nationwide and test them, track what works and learn the best ways to close clinics.  The beautiful side effect of this research will be the shuttering of clinics.  We will publish the findings and let pro-lifers nationwide know what worked in Massachusetts.  If the tactics work in a state as pro-abortion as the Bay State, it can work across the nation.

Most of the previous efforts were undertaken by volunteer organizations, and their successes were primarily anecdotal.  But anecdotes are not transferable.  The lack of serious media coverage has also hurt our ability to find out what truly closes a clinic.  The methods have never been measured in a scientific and analytical way, and approached using paid staff having this as a full-time job.

The local pastor will claim prayers closed a clinic, the activists claim it was their unique action and the local pregnancy center will claim it was access to their resources.   Only through a measured experiment can we find an answer to what closes a clinic most effectively and also encourage others to use the most efficient methods.  To our knowledge, no one has ever taken a systematic, measured approach to clinic closings to discover which tactics are most effective.

This project will spend three months identifying the right talent and hiring them and then spend an additional three months training them.  The preference will be to hire young former campaign managers who are skilled in marketing, recruitment, sales, project management and politics.  The training will involve the various methods of clinic closings ranging from political pressure, to youth outreach and education, prayer, and actions in front of the clinics.  Every method will be available to each campaign manager.  Each will be given those three months to seek out and receive the training from experienced activists and make a plan to close their clinic.

Clinics chosen first would be standalone and the only in their area.  A second important criteria are those most vulnerable to methods and closing pressure.  They would be chosen for their variety, in order to test the different methods.  We would want to spend our resources in areas where the closing of one clinic would not simply transfer the business to another.  It would be good to choose one Planned Parenthood clinic, though those will likely be the toughest to close, and to choose one of the busiest clinics in the state.  It would also be important to choose at least one clinic in a clearly minority and urban location.

Campaign managers will spend the final 18 months on-site at their various assigned clinics recruiting volunteers to deploy various legal tactics against the clinic as well as measuring the success of these methods, tracking the number of abortions performed at their specific clinic.  These six campaign managers would report to a project manager in our Charlestown headquarters who would manage and assist them.  The goal is to close each clinic, not just the site but the business.  After the project’s completion, we will leave trained activists in the community to prevent a return of the business as well as to provide strong outreach to local youth.

There is obviously some concern that our timeline will be too short.  Some strategies such as changing the composition of a local voting board may still be in process after two years.  After two years, however, there will be enough data to analyze and disseminate to other pro-lifers.  If the effort takes longer, we are committed to trying to find the finances to close each clinic.

      Massachusetts Citizens for Life requests $1,805,000 from the Gerard Health Foundation over the course of two years to fund this specific effort to shut down six clinics in the Bay State.  According the Alan Guttmacher Institute, there were 27,270 abortions in 2005 and 45 abortion providers.  Based on those numbers, each clinic aborts an average 606 babies a year.  Shutting six of those clinics down would save 3,636 babies per year.

The seven staffers on this project will cost $865,000 per year and we project a two-year timeline, for a total cost of $1,805,000.  That cost divided by the one-year number of babies saved would yield a return on investment of one saved baby for every $496.42 spent after the first year of closed clinics.  Five years later, the cost of each baby saved would have been reduced to $99.28.  After the clinics close, it becomes a better return with each additional year.  If the average abortion costs $413, this represents a revenue loss of $1,501,668 per year to the abortion industry.

Massachusetts Citizens for Life uniquely has the statewide network including 26 active chapters, regularly published newspaper, history and 5,100 voting members to help make this project work.  We also have the office space and staff to manage this project.  This will have many secondary benefits to the organization such as an expanded membership base, organizational focus on saving babies and excited donor and activist base that will help us shift the state climate back to passing legislation to save babies and further shut down more clinics.  It is also worth noting that the movement will benefit greatly from having seven trained campaign managers with this experience after the completion of this project.

At the completion of this project, we will write up the findings of the best methods and strategies in a hardback book to send to key activists around the country outlining and promoting the best practices.  Having examined all the methods that have been tried and through our analysis finding what works and what does not, it will be imperative for us to share this information which we will do it through this book.

Budget
6 campaign managers at 45k a year salary              $270,000
6 campaign manager expense accounts at 65k a year     $390,000   

1 field director at 55k a year salary                 $55,000

1 field director expense account at 45k a year        $45,000

1 office manager salary at 40k a year                 $40,000

1 office manager expenses at 15k a year               $15,000

Management                                            $50,000

Book design, writing, publishing, mailing             $75,000*
Total per year:                                       $865,000

Total request:                                        $1,805,000

Dollars per baby saved:                               $496.42

* = not a yearly fee but, rather, a one-time expense