Author Topic: The Case Against “ABORTION CONSENSUS” – The Prolife Movement at the Crossroads (Read 201 times)

Nadir · « **on:** October 09, 2020, 04:21:29 AM »

https://akacatholic.com/the-case-against-abortion-consensus/

The Case Against “ABORTION CONSENSUS” – The Prolife Movement at the Crossroads

By: Randy Engel
[Note from the author: This article was originally part of a series appearing in The Catholic Inquisitor titled “Bishop James T. McHugh – The Forgotten Man in the McCarrick Equation,” which highlighted the role the ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ Movement played in undermining the Prolife Movement in the Catholic Church for more than five decades. CI editor Louie Verrecchio was gracious enough to enable me to extract this section from the series to meet the fall 2020 deadline for exposure of the fatal Abortion Consensus campaign currently being promoted and financed by the Knights of Columbus and March for Life leadership.]
Introduction
For readers who are not acquainted with this writer’s prolife credentials as the founder and director of the U.S. Coalition for Life for almost half a century, I trust my abbreviated curriculum vitae found in the endnotes[1] will verify my right, indeed my duty, to speak out against the current campaign to change the grassroots Prolife Movement, which has always been an ABOLISHIONIST MOVEMENT TO END ABORTION into a CONSENSUS MOVEMENT TO ACCOMODATE AND REGULATE PRENATAL KILLING.
The Origins of the New “Abortion Consensus” Movement
Today’s drive for “Abortion Consensus” as a legislative and political strategy for the Prolife Movement can be traced back to a Knights of Columbus public relations ploy titled “The Moral Compass Project,” carried out by the Media, Research and Development team of the Knights under the leadership of Supreme Knight Carl Anderson between 2008 and 2010 and the Marist Institute for Public Opinion (MIPO), a polling and survey outfit located at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Details of the Knight’s costly project are relayed in Anderson’s 2010 book Beyond A House Divided – The Moral Consensus Ignored by Washington, Wall Street, and the Media.[2]
It should be noted that although written by a prominent Catholic layman and funded by a Catholic organization, the book is not Catholic in any sense of the word and it reeks of the heresy of Americanism beginning with the first paragraph of the Foreword.[3]
According to Anderson, Beyond A House Divided is designed “to contribute to the national conversation about what direction the country ought to take based not on a partisan political approach, but on a moral sense – and consensus – of the American people.”[4] The issues upon which the book builds its consensus concepts are “religious and traditional values,” “freedom of religion,” “freedom of conscience,” “marketplace morality,” “restricted abortion” and “the future of marriage.”
“Since this is a book about American values,” Anderson explains, “we have chosen for our definition of consensus one endorsed by the Founders of the country: a two-thirds majority, which is the number needed to override a veto or ratify a treaty.”[5]
To Kill or Not to Kill? – That Is the Question
Redefining What it Means to be “Prolife”
In Chapter 5, titled “Beyond the Clash of Absolutes: Abortion,” Anderson explains how Consensus works on the issue of abortion.
Citing a 1995 Gallup poll which indicated that 51% of Americans identify themselves as “prolife” as compared to 42% who identified as “prochoice,” Anderson states that Americans are slowly moving toward the “prolife” position.[6]Unfortunately, in order to justify that conclusion, Anderson must redefine what it means to be prolife.
Thus, his definition of “prolife” includes Americans who support abortion 1) to save the life of the mother, 2) rape, incest and life of the mother 3) abortion “only” during the first three months of pregnancy, and 4) and support for more restrictions than Roe v. Wadeallows (note: Roe v. Wade permits abortion up until birth and slightly beyond (partial birth abortion and infanticide). Doing the math, this leaves approximately 13 to 14% of Americans in the “extreme anti-life camp who support Roe v. Wade without exception.[7]
So, those persons, whom the early Prolife Movement defined as being “pro-abortion” or “anti-life, that is, anyone who denied the unborn child the right to life and due process of law for whatever reason, have now been elevated to “prolife” status as long as they support some kind of abortion restrictions.
In turn, those American prolifers who continue to harbor their original abolitionist prejudice against any and all deliberate killings of innocent unborn human beings – at any and all stages of development – whether conceived sɛҳuąƖly or a-sɛҳuąƖly – are demoted and relegated by Anderson to the negative category of “absolutist.” Are solid prolife politicians who refuse to be snookered by “Consensus” then to be categorized as “absolutists” or worse yet, as pro-aborts for opposing and voting against Consensus?
In the end, what Anderson has managed to do with his Consensus strategy is to put all true prolife Americans who are unwilling to approve of any and all abortions into the “extremist” category occupied by no-compromise pro-aborts.[8]
Regarding the false “prolife” category of Americans who want abortion restricted “to only the first three months of a pregnancy,” Anderson notes that when the Knights of Columbus designed the Marist Poll Survey on Abortion, he and the Knights staffdecided “to consider abortion in terms of the three gestational periods (trimesters)” of pregnancy.[9]The poll showed that approximately eight out of every ten Americans “favor restrictions that would limit abortion to the first three months of pregnancy at most,” Anderson said. “We didn’t find a clash of absolutes but a consensus on what almost everyone sees as the most hopelessly divisive issue in America today,” Anderson concludes approvingly.[10]
Arguments Against “Limited Killing”
First, are we to understand from the above statement by Supreme Knight Anderson that an unborn child is somehow at a greater advantage when being killed in the first trimester of pregnancy than when he is killed in the second or third trimester of pregnancy, at which time he just might be born alive and permitted to live? Is he more or less dead when killed in the early stages of life than later? Why is killing an innocent human being at an earlier stage of development more acceptable than killing him three or six months later?
Second, the vast majority of surgical and chemically-induced abortions carried out in the United States are carried out in the first trimester of pregnancy. According to the Center for Disease Control, in 2016, 91% of all abortions were performed in the first trimester of pregnancy and 9% in the second and third trimester. So if we have one million surgical and chemical abortions a year, approximately 910,000 unborn children are killed in the first trimester of pregnancy and 11% or are carried out in the second and third trimesters.[11]
Obviously, if human life is to be measured solely in utilitarian terms of numbers of human beings killed or saved, a position all true prolifers reject outright, why wouldn’t the Knights think it better to legally prohibit all first trimester surgical and chemically-induced abortions? That could save 910,000 unborn children out of a million. Also, having prohibited the mother from killing her baby in the first trimester might have the advantage of giving the mother second thoughts about aborting her child and possibly open the door for a live delivery.
Again, if utilitarian ethics are the Knights’ only guideline, a well-drafted law prohibiting all first trimester abortions, that accurately and scientifically defined the biological beginning of all human beings created both sɛҳuąƖly at fertilization [the fusion of sperm and oocyte]; or a-sɛҳuąƖly in the laboratory or IVF clinic by cloning or other genetic engineering techniques, would save the lives of many millions more human beings every year.[12]
But nowhere in the entire text does Anderson make any reference to the killing of the human embryo, the tiniest of our kin, by early abortifacient drugs[13] and devices[14]which are falsely promoted as “contraceptives,” or in IVF labs or human embryo research facilities.[15]
Getting Back to Reality
Anderson’s thinking that one can legally limit abortions to “only” the first trimester of pregnancy is pure fantasy since the Consensus position he proposes also embraces the common “exceptions” clauses found in many pro-abortion laws including life of the mother, rape and incest.[16]Abortion laws then would have to permit second and third trimester abortions in order to accommodate these “exceptions.”
It’s interesting to note that nine years after he wrote Beyond A House Divided, Anderson was claiming that according to the latest Marist Poll, “By about three to one, Americans oppose abortion after 20 weeks.”[17] TWENTY WEEKS = FIVE MONTHS. What about abortion “only” in the first three months of pregnancy as Anderson was touting just a decade before?
Americans, it seem, under Anderson’s definition of “prolife,” can still qualify as “prolifers” as long as they don’t promote “extremism” – aka “abortion until birth” – at which time, of course, we are dealing with infanticide, a step up from abortion.
One can only wonder if the issue was not abortion but euthanasia, whether Anderson would approve of the killing of only elderly persons over 75 or 80?
Lastly, as a Catholic, I was shocked to see that Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, the largest Catholic fraternal service organization in the world, not only was willing to sell out the physical lives of millions of unborn children in our nation, but that he completely ignored the spiritual reality of the crime of abortion which, according to traditional Church teaching, deprives the unbaptized aborted child of the Beatific vision, but accords him a place of perfect natural happiness – the limbus infantium (children’s limbo).[18]
Indeed, when it comes to representing the correct position of the Catholic Church on abortion, Anderson does not even get that right. The Hill quoted Anderson on August 17, 2016 as stating, “The Catholic position – that abortion takes a human life, is morally wrong, and should be substantially restricted — is not only backed up by science, it is now the public’s consensus by a wide margin.”[19]
That is a false statement.
The true Catholic position on abortion is “The prohibition against the direct and intentional taking of innocent human life is universal and without exception.”[20]

Nadir · « **Reply #1 on:** October 09, 2020, 04:27:40 AM »

Anderson’s Strategy Fatal for the Unborn Child
According to Anderson, Americans want the debate on abortion to end, and we can help end the debate by agreeing to the ongoing consensus that open season on unborn children should be restricted to exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother; and/or to the first twelve weeks of pregnancy. The chapter concludes:
The idea that our country is divided on restricting abortion is a myth, and justification for avoiding the issue on that basis no longer apply. The goals can be achieved. We must only find those in the courts, politics, and the media with the courage to move in that direction, and as a nation with a broad consensus, we must demand that they do so.[21]
The vast majority of the American people have a vision in which abortion is talked about in moral terms, where it is restricted – with broad support, with consensus achieved. They look forward to an America whose abortion laws are not the most radical in the Western world, whose debate is not stifled by appeals to a Supreme Court decision. The American people have moved beyond the abortion impasse. What is needed now is the right combination of political leadership and courage.[22]
Thus, Anderson makes it quite clear. He is neither an “absolutist” nor an “abolitionist.” God forbid! His goal for Americans is to have a nation where one can legally kill unborn children in moderation.
Maybe the Supreme Knight can live with this strategy – as can the enemies of life including pro-abort politicians[23] – but unborn children under the curate or in the test tube cannot.
Americans do not need consensus in favor of abortion at any time because the killing of innocent human beings, like slavery, admits of no modification. Period! End of Argument!
What Americans need is a healthy dose of Truth, even if that means continuing the war for LIFE for another 50 years. Anderson says, as a participant in the March for Life, he “speaks for the unborn and the American people.”[24]
I say he speaks neither for the unborn child nor for the Prolife Movement.
Being defeated in the battle for life by God’s enemies is tragic enough. But being defeated by the enemy within – be they Catholic hierarchy, clergy, religious or prominent laymen like Carl Anderson, is an everlasting sorrow. These were my gut feelings as a veteran prolifer when I belatedly first read Supreme Knight Anderson’s endorsement of “Abortion Consensus” in his 2010 book, Beyond a House Divided earlier this year.
However, it was not through Anderson’s book that I first learned of the Consensus strategy being implemented and seductively imposed on the Prolife Movement. Rather, this writer first learned about the campaign to promote Abortion Consensus accidently nine years later from the MARCH for LIFE website in November 2019 while looking for March information.
Knights Consensus Campaign Infects March for Life
The long and friendly relationship between the Knights of Columbus and the March for Life goes back to the early days of the founding of the national march in Washington, D.C. to protest the Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade on January 22, 1973.
Knights around the nation, especially those located in the D.C. area have always supported the March for Life as it was established under Nellie Gray and the six founders of the March for Life.[25]
The political rationale for the March for Life has always been the securing of a mandatory Constitutional Human Life Amendment declaring the unborn child at every stage of biological development to be a human being and a “person” under the law.
The precepts of March for Life were enshrined by March founder Nellie Gray in the “Life Principles.” Although the scientific language used in the “Life Principles” needs to be updated, and made inclusive so that human beings created asɛҳuąƖly are given the same protection as human beings created sɛҳuąƖly, the “Life Principles” by and large do reflect the traditional philosophical foundations upon which the Prolife Movement was founded.[26]
But the original National March for Life organization as it was created in the fall of 1973 is no longer in existence, and the “Life Principles” have long been forgotten by the new March for Life leadership.
The remainder of this series will docuмent how March for Life came to endorse the Consensus campaign beginning with some pertinent information on President Jeanne Monahan Mancini who took over the organization after the death of Nellie Gray on August 13, 2012.

Jeanne Mancini (center) accepting a donation from a local Knights of Columbus Council, an amount that pales in comparison to the funds donated by Knights of Columbus Charities USA, under the direction of Carl A. Anderson.

A Profile of MFL Leader Jeanne Mancini[27]
In a short biographical blip for The Washington Post, Jeanne Monahan Mancini says she came from “a bit leftward leading Catholic family,” but unlike her siblings she turned out to be “a little more quote-unquote religious.”[28]
Mancini received her BA in Psychology from James Madison University in Virginia and her Masters of Theological Studies from the Pontifical Pope John II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, D.C. in 2002.[29]
After graduation from the Pope John II Institute, Mancini secured a job as former Associate Director of the Cardinal Maida Institute located in the St. John Center for Youth and Family, a prominent promoter of Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body,[30] for the Archdiocese of Detroit in Plymouth, Mich. (2002- 2006).
From there, she accepted a position as Abstinence Advisor to the U.S. Agency for International Development (2006-2008) and later, to the USDHHS (2008-2009).
In 2009, Mancini was hired by the Protestant Evangelical Family Research Council (a division of James Dobson’s Focus on the Family), in Washington, D.C., where she became Director for the Center for Human Dignity.
Mancini Joins the MFL Board
In the spring or summer of 2012, March founder Nellie Gray offered Mancini a seat on the March for Life Board of Directors. Mancini explained her initial skepticism about joining the Board in a 2018 interview with Crux writer, Christopher White, who writes, “The board she [Mancini] thought was ‘old school in its thinking and operations,’ and she felt ‘conflicted and ambivalent,’ about joining their ranks.”[31] In retrospect, Mancini never should have been appointed to the Board of Directors whose first obligation is to support the founding mission of the organization, that is, to END abortion, not to regulate the killing of unborn children.
Nevertheless, Mancini did join the Board, and shortly after Gray’s death she became the first paid (later six-digit) President of March for Life,[32] and immediately began the reorganization and restructuring of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, which would quickly grow into a million-dollar operation, with assets over $1 million and over a half-dozen full time staff members.
Tom McClosky, formerly with the Family Research Council, was hired as March for Life’s chief lobbyist on Capitol Hill and President of March’s “sister organization,” March for Life Action with a similar six-figure salary.[33]
In a separate 2017 interview, White noted that some MFL critics believed that Nellie Gray’s leadership was “too Catholic and conservative,” and that Mancini was determined to “transform the March to a more inclusive event – open to people of all faiths and no faith, and to folks of all political persuasions.”[34] Mancini stated that she was into “building bridges” and increasing the presence of Evangelicals and African Americans. Kelly Rosati of Focus on the Family was one of Mancini’s early additions to the MFL Board.
In a panel discussion on abortion held at Georgetown University hosted in part by the Knights of Columbus in October 2018, Mancini said that religious anti-abortion language damages the Prolife Movement and that she prefers a secular approach that promotes abortion as a “social justice” issue.[35]
Mancini Promotes Feminist Themes
Since Mancini took over March for Life, feminist themes have come to dominate the organization. Indeed, the entire direction and emphasis of March for Life has clearly shifted from away abortion as a crime against the unborn child to abortion as predominantly a “woman’s issue.”
The major theme of the annual 2020 National March for Life was clearly feminist inspired – “Life Empowers: Pro-Life is Pro-Woman” with the event tied to the women’s suffrage movement for the 100th anniversary of the 19thAmendment, which gave women the right to vote.[36]
According to Mancini:
Because of the cause of ‘reproductive rights,’ approximately 30 million females are missing in the United States today – future Olympic athletes, scientists, doctors, artists, teachers, sisters, mothers, daughters, lawmakers, and maybe even a President. Women deserve the truth about this issue. Abortion is profoundly anti-woman. Choosing life is empowering, not taking the life of your precious little one.[37]
But, what about the 30 million male children who have been aborted? Are they to be considered chopped liver?
In the March for Life YouTube video titled March for Life 2020 | Life Empowers, a young feminist twerp instructs her impressionable female audience, “Let us always keep in our remembrance the bravery of our founding feminists. They birthed the 19th Amendment. Friends, they were our real life heroines… In 1920, they got the vote, but it was just the beginning…”
Really? The beginning of what?
As the remarkable Jєωess, Miss Ray Frank, who opposed suffrage observed, “They [suffragists] say, too, that all the men consider them good for is to take care of their children. I have often wondered when the suffragists were going to talk about the rights of children instead of their own.”[38]
In fact, that time never came. Neither the early suffragist leaders after the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, nor their heirs, ever went on to initiate or join the national campaign to criminalize abortion led by prolife physicians, nor did they introduce and support legislation to guarantee the right-to-life of unborn children. That duty fell to the Prolife Movement forty years later.
The unvarnished truth is that the early Feminist Movement was laden with significant anti-life baggage including eugenics, neo-Malthusianism, female ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖity (lesbianism), socialism, racism, birth control, and yes, even violence and anti-Catholicism which made the suffrage/women’s rights issue a divisive one not only among Catholics, but also among Protestants and Jєωs, men and women alike.
It is said that the early suffragists set modern feminism on its path, and that, unfortunately, is true. For an extended treatment of the antilife aspects of the early feminist movement in the U.S., Canada, and the UK, see extended endnote thirty-nine.[39]
However, Mancini’s endorsement of early suffragist leaders as “prolife” is only a secondary and minor annoyance and embarrassment when compared to March for Life’s ongoing campaign to promote Consensus.
Is “CONSENSUS” Official MFL Policy? Yes
The following text is taken from the MFL Media Center Release titled “March for Life Action Launches 2016 Ad Campaign Revealing Pro-Life Position is National Consensus” by Bethany Peck, MFL Director of Grassroots and Digital Strategy, with an embargo date of Sept. 22, 2016.
Candidates Promising to Expand Abortion are Out-of-Touch with American Voters
Washington, DC – On Thursday, March for Life Action will launch a major public awareness campaign highlighting the overwhelming pro-life consensus most Americans share on the issue of abortion. The campaign will be supported by a new ad, “Consensus,” which is the first of its kind for March for Life Action and highlights the reality that pro-life policies are reflective of mainstream America, and are winning positions for candidates running for office.
Based on a 2016 Knights of Columbus Marist Poll that surveyed Americans on their beliefs about abortion, the ad reveals that the extreme position of abortion-on-demand up until birth held by the abortion advocates and many pro-choice politicians, is out of touch with the American public. [Note the use of the word “extreme” to this sentence. In fact, all abortions are “extreme,” no matter when, where, how or why they are carried out.]
The first phase of the campaign will run Thursday through Monday, leading into the Presidential debate, and will include digital and television outreach. Targeting Columbus, OH; Dayton, OH; Pittsburgh, PA; Scranton, PA; Richmond, VA and the District of Columbia, the ad will run during major network programs including: Madame Secretary, Today Show, CBS This Morning, 60 Minutes and other significant programs. [Original video available at https://marchforlife.org/consensus-ad-campaign/; The complete text is found in endnote forty.[40]] …
“With this ad, we encourage Americans to take a deeper look at their candidates. Politicians who claim to be ‘pro-choice,’ essentially advocate for abortion-on-demand up until the time of birth, paid for by your taxpayer dollars. This radical position is out of touch with the large majority of Americans,” said Jeanne Mancini, President of March for Life. “With an overwhelming majority of Americans in favor of substantial restrictions on abortion, it’s time for politicians to change the fact that current U.S. law does not reflect the hearts and minds of its own people regarding life.”
Without using actors, the ad features six women from different political and professional backgrounds. “As we state in the ad, it’s time for OUR voices to be heard and the extremism on this issue to end,” said Mancini.
In 2016, the March for Life “educational commercial campaign ‘Consensus’” was viewed over 900,000 times on YouTube and over 1.6 million times on TV during September and October.[41]
The public relations firm that the March for Life Board hired to create and promote the Consensus campaign was the well-known Republican firm of Shirley & Banister. Craig Shirley is the President and CEO, and Diana Banister is VP and partner, with offices in Alexandria, Virginia.
As it turns out, Diana Banister also serves on the March for Life Board of Directors. According to IRS 990 records for 2016, the year Consensus was launched, Banister received $48,015 for her “public relation services,” presumably for the Consensus campaign.
One of the most important clients of Shirley and Banister, at least in connection with this article, is the Federalist Society (FS) founded by Leonard L. Leo, President Trump’s go-to man for selecting candidates for Supreme Court vacancies. Leo, like Carl Anderson, has strong ties to Opus Dei. Most importantly, The Federalist, the official publication of the Federalist Society has been pushing Abortion Consensus since 2016.[42]
The current public relations firm for March for Life is Creative Response Concepts (CRC) of Falls Church, Virginia.[43] As of 2018, one of CRC’s top clients is also the Federalist Society headed by Leonard Leo, mentioned above in connection with the public relations firm of Shirley and Banister. Media inquiries coming into March for Life are handled by CRC employees Matille Thebolt and Emily Degnan.
All of this leads to the question – “Considering how costly these Washington, D.C. beltway firms are, why does March for Life need a full-time public relations firm when it has a full-time President and staff?
Is MFL Still Supporting Consensus? Yes
March for Life is still promoting Consensus, especially among the young.
On its official website, in commentary directed specifically at “Students and Graduates,” we read:
When you actually get past the labels of pro-life and pro-choice, which can be very politically charged, there is actually a very strong consensus for life in our country. Eight out of ten Americans believe that there should be strong legal protections for the unborn and that abortion should be limited to the first three months of pregnancy, at least.
That should be extremely encouraging in regards to the future of pro-life legislation and growing a culture of life in America. Conversations are an incredibly significant way for everyone to invite dialogue about the truth of the unborn and to stay involved in the pro-life mission.[44]
Looking back, at the MFL Rally in January 2020, some prolifers may remember that speaker Elisa Martinez of the New Mexico Alliance for Life stated: “At the end of the day, Americans are pro-life and want to see limits, not just on late term abortions, but also the vast majority-of Americans – 70% – want to see abortion limited to the first trimester.”[45]
This could not have been a coincidence.
The above 2016 MFL press release makes it clear that MFL’s official policy of “Consensus” is identical to the “Consensus” policy promoted by Supreme Knight of Columbus Carl Anderson in his 2010 book Beyond A House Divided.[46] Again, is this a coincidence? This time the answer is, No!
In order to fully understand the motivating factors behind March for Life’s adoption and implementation of Consensus, it’s necessary to return to the Knights of Columbus leadership and the influence they exerted on the March for Life.
The Knights Financial Investment in the MFL

Nadir · « **Reply #2 on:** October 09, 2020, 04:30:28 AM »

The Knights Financial Investment in the MFL
Consider the fact that in 2011, the annual budget for the MFL was only $314,155. In 2012, the year that Nellie Gray, the founder and President of March for Life died, the budget was $462,071. Except to maintain the MFL and cover the major expense of the January 22nd national march, neither Nellie nor any MFL Board members ever drew a regular salary from the organization.
In 2013, Deputy Supreme Knight Peter Kelly[47] assumed the position of Chair of the MFL, and Mancini replaced Nellie Gray as President, at which point the budget grew to an astounding $1,439,109 in order to provide for the MFL’s digital media campaign, Mancini’s salary, and the new office space and staff that had been hired to run the organization year-round. In 2014, the MFL budget dipped to $532,150, but exceeded the over one-million dollar level thereafter: 2015 – $1,179,161; 2016 – $1,188,972; 2017- $1,708,094 and 2018 – $1,614,069.
In 2016, the year March for Life ACTION was created, and the Consensus media campaign was conducted, the Knights contributed $850,000 to March for Life which must have included most, if not all, of the expenses for the Consensus media blitz, plus money for MFLA’s new lobbying expenses and salary ($102,000) for Tom McClosky. This was $350,000 over the usual $500,000 to $578,000 that the Knights had been contributing annually to the organization since– but not before – Nellie Gray died.
Knights Control MFL Board of Directors
If the term “control” appears to be too “conspiratorial,” consider the fact that, at the latest, by 2013 all of the four major offices of the March for Life Board of Directors – Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer were held by highly-placed Knights of Columbus members:

Thus, within two years of Nellie Gray’s death, the Knights had stacked the Board of Directors’ offices with their own members and thus grabbed the upper hand on the future direction of March for Life.
Having managed at least three prolife non-profits in my career, I can claim with absolute certitude that all members of the Board of Directors of any public trust, aka, a non-profit, tax-deductible organization, must first and foremost be loyal and faithful to the organization’s mission. Public donors to the organization have a right to expect that their contributions will be used to advance that mission. Further, they must always act in the best interests of the organization, and in a manner consistent with the goals of the organization. And finally, they must exercise vigil oversight over all of the organization’s operations, including the avoidance of conflicts of interest, and take an active role in the organizational and financial planning of the organization.
However, it appears that since Nellie Gray’s death in 2012, the new March for Life Board, including all its Knight officers, has acted in opposition to the above precepts.
ABORTION CONSENSUS = ENDLESS ABORTIONS
Clearly, the Consensus policy as instituted and implemented by the leadership of the Knights of Columbus and accepted and promoted by the Board of Directors of the March for Life, dominated by the same Knights of Columbus leadership, DIRECTLY CONTRADICTS THE LIFE PRINCIPLES LONG ASSOCIATED WITH MARCH FOR LIFE.
In its Mission statement found in its GuideStar Profile we read: “The mission of the March for Life is to promote the beauty and dignity of every human life by working TO END ABORTION (caps added) – uniting, educating, and mobilizing pro-life people in the public square…”[48] But the Consensus policy which the Board of Directors approved and Mancini has carried out, will NOT END abortions, but will lead to ENDLESS abortions in our nation.
Further, there appears to be a serious conflict of interest among the Knights serving on the March for Life Board. By law, non-profit Board members are volunteers and therefore draw no salary. But the Knights serving on the Board have split loyalties because they receive their salaries from the Knights and take their marching orders from the Supreme Knight, Carl Anderson, who happens to be the major architect of the Consensus campaign.
True, they don’t take in the $2 million plus salary their boss rakes in annually, but we do know that March for Life Chair Kelly’s salary from the Knights exceeds $500,000 a year. Thus, when push comes to shove, it’s unlikely that any of these Knight officials are going to abandon the Consensus ship on their own and rejoin the prolife ship that Nellie Gray navigated for more than 38 years, and whose name is still synonymous with March for Life.
Further Complications of Consensus
The tragedy of Consensus is even more deadly and compounded when one realizes that under the leadership of newly structured dual entity of March for Life/March for Life Action, plans are being laid not only to continue to organize and promote the annual January 22nd March for Life in Washington, D.C., a laudable task, but to assume the leadership of the Prolife Movement, State by State, as well as the direction of federal abortion legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, and ultimately the Supreme Court’s future actions with regard to Roe V. Wade.
March for Life Action is the official lobbying arm of March for Life. But what will it be lobbying and advocating for? Consensus?
Prior to the Covid-19 forced shutdown, March for Life was planning spring state-wide marches which were subsequently canceled and replaced by various internet/webinar events moderated by lobbyist Tom McClusky, using a program format designed by MFL with select panel members chosen by MFL. Fundraising and self-promotion figure heavily in these presentations.
In November 2020, this writer contacted veteran prolifers and the prolife leaders of national groups to find out their position on Consensus as being promoted by March for Life and the Knights of Columbus. All were clueless as to (1) the meaning of Consensus (2) its implication for the unborn child and the Prolife Movement and (3) the fact that the Knights of Columbus and March for Life were promoting Consensus. Most were in a state of shock when they were informed of the realities of Consensus as a “prolife” policy/strategy. I trust that readers who are being exposed to “Consensus” for the first time, will share that shock and publicly reject the Consensus policy outright.
What is the Consensus Endgame?
In my concluding commentary on the Knights of Columbus/March for Life debacle over Consensus, I’d like to ask aloud the most important question that emerges from this article – What is the ABORTION CONSENSUS ENDGAME?
As I see it, whatever its original intention, the predictable overall effect of the promotion and financing of the Consensus strategy by the Knights of Columbus and March for Life and their supporters will be to lethally soften the underbelly of the Prolife Movement so as to make abortion in the United States, under a variety of circuмstances, both legal and respectable.
We in the Prolife Movement have been fighting abortion for almost 50 years, but I’d rather continue to fight for another 50 years, or however long it takes, to erase this plague from our nation than to capitulate to antilife forces from both within and without the Prolife Movement.
I say, “Down with Consensus! Up with a Constitutional Human Life Amendment.”
What say you?
The End
Postscript – This is the first major salvo against the promotion and financing of Abortion Consensus by the U.S. Coalition for Life. If the reader is not as yet on the USCL mailing list send your e-mail address to randy.engel@uscl.info. Written comments can be sent to USCL, Box 315, Export, Pa 15632.
The USCL is already working on updating a mandatory Constitutional Human Life Amendment. We need to shift the emphasis of the Prolife Movement back to focusing on the universal protection of UNBORN CHILDREN.
The USCL will continue to follow-up on organizations, media outlets etc. who are opposing Abortion Consensus and those supporting Abortion Consensus, and to report on responses from March for Life and Knights of Columbus leadership in connection with Consensus.
ENDNOTES contain important information.
Go to link above in OP

Incredulous · « **Reply #3 on:** October 09, 2020, 06:05:15 AM »

Excellent topic!

Randy Engel has a hound dog's nose for uncovering newChurch scandals.

I always thought the Consiliar Diocese "40 Days for Life" campaign was a watered down movement designed to tap into Pro-Life funds and derail true anti-abortion fervor.

josefamenendez · « **Reply #4 on:** October 09, 2020, 09:54:08 AM »

Not to completely veer away from the topic, but here is a quote from an article in April at AkA Catholic re: head Knight Carl Anderson. I noticed a specific quote about the Knights program of purchasing ultrasound machines for crisis pregnancy centers, a much needed and worthy endeavor as I was involved with attempting to attain one from them for a mobile unit we were considering ( it didn't work out- the abortion mill eventually closed!) I also work with ultrasounds and am familiar with the overall cost of US units. The kind of unit being used for CPC's is not an over the top expensive item as is made out to be, so I did the math.

Quote from AKA Catholic: (response from the Knights)

"Your allegations are particularly egregious since, as you should know, Carl Anderson has been active in the pro-life community opposing abortion, euthanasia, etc. since 1970. He has never supported abortion in any form. In fact, under his leadership, the Knights have provided more than 1200 ultrasound machines at a cost of $59 million to crisis pregnancy centers to help mothers understand and embrace the gift of life. "

My comment below article pertaining to this quote:

Just a factoid- 1200 ultrasound machines for 57 million dollars seems a bit rich. That would be $50,000 an ultrasound. I work with ultrasounds and at most, a portable unit with OB software and 2 probes (new) should not cost more than $5000. If they really got ripped off MAYBE $8-10,000.
Using the high figure, total costs would be no greater than 12 million. That would leave 47 million “hanging around”. Just sayin’.

Along with the above, the Knights ultrasound program require the CPC or pro-life group receiving the ultrasound to raise a large percentage of the purchase price of the unit.
I'm not accusing, but if the general financial figures were correct from the knight's letter, there might be a whole lot of skimming going on.

https://akacatholic.com/knights-defense-of-anderson/

Author Topic: The Case Against “ABORTION CONSENSUS” – The Prolife Movement at the Crossroads (Read 201 times)

Nadir

The Case Against “ABORTION CONSENSUS” – The Prolife Movement at the Crossroads

Nadir

Re: The Case Against “ABORTION CONSENSUS” – The Prolife Movement at the Crossroads

Nadir

Re: The Case Against “ABORTION CONSENSUS” – The Prolife Movement at the Crossroads

Incredulous

Re: The Case Against “ABORTION CONSENSUS” – The Prolife Movement at the Crossroads

josefamenendez

Re: The Case Against “ABORTION CONSENSUS” – The Prolife Movement at the Crossroads