Wednesday, May 13, 2009

MN pro-lifers: Contact your lawmakers before session ends!

The following is MCCL Executive Director Scott Fischbach's column in the latest issue of MCCL News.

By Scott Fischbach

The 2009 legislative session is in its home stretch, and your pro-life voice is needed now more than ever.

As lawmakers accelerate their work in anticipation of their May 18 deadline, votes occur rapidly, sometimes with very little advance notice. Citizen advocates who can respond quickly with calls and emails can make a significant impact on legislative outcomes.

Make sure you are among those pro-life citizens who make a priority of contacting state House and Senate members when lives are on the line.

MCCL will be at the Capitol until the closing gavel, working hard to pass protective bills and to prevent passage of anti-life measures. Our lobbyists work late into the evening and also weekends, whenever legislators are meeting, to make sure we take every opportunity to save lives.

Many times MCCL has called pro-lifers like you in key districts in which lawmakers had not committed to support a protective bill. And your calls often have made the difference in pro-life measures becoming law.

Your help is needed again. I anticipate more votes on pro-life legislation before the end of the session. Bills include the coerced abortion ban, the saline abortion ban, the sex-selection abortion ban, and the hospital admitting privileges requirement for abortionists.

Each of these is a crucial effort to save lives from the abortion industry’s extreme violence and injustice against women and unborn babies. In the midst of budget concerns, state lawmakers need to be reminded that women continue to be exploited and wounded, and unborn children continue to die, at the hands of heartless abortionists.

You are the key to saving lives in Minnesota! Statistics verify that more lives are saved from abortion through protective laws than from any other effort. And those laws can only be passed while the Legislature is in session.

So let’s make the most of the 2009 session! Be respectful but bold when you call and email your elected officials. Keep your message short and clear. Be sure to include your name, address and phone number to show you are a constituent.

Be ready to respond immediately when you receive a call or email from MCCL. Keep a pen and notepad by your phone so you can write down the information and quickly contact your legislators.

I also urge you to involve friends and family members in your district; activate them as citizen lobbyists to join you in defending life.

Make every effort to save as many lives as possible before the session ends. Every call you make and email you write makes a difference.