Pro-life advocates rejoice in victories at annual Celebrate Life Dinner
Indiana State Rep. Peggy Mayfield (R-Martinsville) speaks on Oct. 4 at the Celebrate Life Dinner in Indianapolis, sponsored by Right to Life of Indianapolis. (Photo by Sean Gallagher)
By Sean Gallagher
Right to Life of Indianapolis (RTLI) has hosted its annual Celebrate Life Dinner for 40 years, beginning less than 10 years after abortion was legalized across the country by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 1973 Roe
v. Wade ruling.
But it’s likely that few of those dinners were marked more by celebration than the one on Oct. 4 in Indianapolis.
That’s because it came in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe in its June 24 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Following the Dobbs decision, the Indiana General Assembly passed Senate Bill 1 on Aug. 5, which was soon signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb. The law gives legal protection to nearly all unborn children in the state.
“I don’t think when we were here last year any of us could really have imagined what was going to happen,” RTLI executive director Marc Tuttle told the 800 people who attended the dinner at the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown hotel. “We had an idea with the Dobbs case at the Supreme Court. But it really surpassed our wildest prayers and dreams—a complete overturn of Roe v. Wade.”
Tuttle said it was the “sustained presence of the pro-life movement” in local, state and national pro-life events such as the Indiana March for Life and the National March for Life in Washington “that led to the reversal of Roe v. Wade.”
“All of those things kept the pro-life movement in the game,” Tuttle said. “It kept the issue in the forefront.”
‘They voted for life’
Despite the great pro-life victories during the summer, abortion remains at the forefront of public policy debates. A recent injunction issued by a judge in a Monroe County court has put the state’s new abortion law on hold while a case goes forward to determine if the Indiana Constitution contains in it a right to abortion.
In a pre-recorded message played at the Celebrate Life Dinner, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita made his views clear on this argument.
“The Indiana Constitution says nothing about securing a right to abortion, which the state outlawed before, during and after the time that constitution was adopted,” Rokita said. “The text, history and structure of our constitution excludes any serious argument that abortion is a fundamental right in our state. It’s time for this to be understood and applied in all cases.”
Rokita noted that the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood, both of which have filed challenges to the new Indiana abortion law, “do not speak for the people of Indiana.”
“Hoosiers elected their state representatives and their state senators and gave them the power to voice the sentiment of their districts,” he said. “When the legislature returned for a special session recently, they voted for life.”
Rokita encouraged the dinner attendees to continue their advocacy for life.
“As a fellow Hoosier, I ask you all to stay strong, stand together and continue to defend the most vulnerable among us,” he said. “Their lives are worth saving and our fight is worth fighting.”
‘I ran on being pro-life’
During the Celebrate Life Dinner, RTLI also honored pro-life supporters across central Indiana.
Its Charles Stimming Pro-Life Award was given to dozens of volunteers who have staffed a RTLI booth each year at the Indiana State Fair since 1977.
The annual Respect for Life Award this year honored Indiana State Rep. Peggy Mayfield and Indiana State Sen. Mike Young, who was unable to attend the event. Both, in their respective chambers, led the way to the passing of Senate Bill 1.
In accepting the award, Mayfield (R-Martinsville), noted that when she was first elected in 2012, “I didn’t just say I was pro-life. I ran on being pro-life. I always knew that I would vote for pro-life legislation.”
In her decade in the Indiana General Assembly, Mayfield has co-authored 11 pro-life bills, three of which were ultimately brought to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“I have been helped by so many people,” Mayfield said. “I could not have had the success that I’ve had without the support of so many organizations. Maybe I was chosen for a reason. We’re all here for a time such as this.”
The RTLI board of directors also chose to give a special “Defender of Life” award this year to Tuttle, who has led the organization for 15 years.
Board member Thomas Hirschauer explained why RTLI was honoring its executive director.
“Marc fought tirelessly, leading up to and following [the Supreme Court’s] decision overturning Roe v. Wade,”
Hirschauer said. “This includes lobbying efforts, multiple rallies and advocacy for the protection of pre-born children that significantly contributed to the success that we are celebrating tonight with Indiana pro-life laws.
“Marc has simply been a staunch defender of life. Now, his efforts will literally help save the lives of thousands of babies.”
‘The first thing is prayer’
The keynote speaker for this year’s Celebrate Life Dinner has been involved in the pro-life movement from before Roe v. Wade. He was an active member in the early 1970s of a pro-life student organization at the University of Notre Dame in northern Indiana.
More than 50 years later, Chuck Donovan is now president of the Charlotte Lozier Institute. Named after a 19th-century pro-life feminist physician, the institute gathers statistics and scientific evidence that support the pro-life cause.
He said the Dobbs ruling “is a chance to start over” for the United States.
“Look at our country’s history,” Donovan said. “How many chances can one nation get? I don’t know if we’re exceptional. I don’t know if we’re unique. I do think the Lord has given us an exceptional number of chances to get things right and a mechanism to do that through peace, persistence, persuasion and personal commitment. We can make those changes.”
To make those changes, though, one thing is absolutely necessary, said Donovan.
“As much as I love numbers and science, that’s not how you win a public policy fight,” he said. “The first thing is prayer. The United States doesn’t survive without prayer.”
Donovan reflected on how the guiding principles of the United States are often argued before the Supreme Court, which at times makes right decisions and sometimes wrong ones.
A wrong one, Donovan argued, came in 1896 in Plessy v. Ferguson, which “ratified and enforced [racial] segregation.”
Justice John Harlan of Kentucky was the only member of the court to dissent from the majority.
While he personally held some of the racist views of the people of his home state common at the time, Harlan, Donovan explained, “looked at the law and said, ‘These rights belong to all of us.’ ”
“The man was willing to stand against all of his colleagues,” Donovan noted.
In 1956, 58 years after Plessy, the Supreme Court overturned that earlier decision in a 9-0 vote in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.
Donovan went on to explain how, despite the Court being right in Brown, it was met with stiff resistance for many years afterward.
“Things are not instantly popular, no matter how right they are,” Donovan said.
That point brought him to Dobbs.
“We’ve heard a lot of polls,” Donovan said. “You’ll hear lots of opinions here on out. I’m afraid to say that our political leaders are very fond of citing this or that poll.
“But sometimes,” he added, like Harlan, “you have to stand up when you’re the one.” †
