Top 10 Pro-life Stories of 2009

By Jill Stanek

Following are the top 10 stories of greatest impact to the pro-life movement in 2009, in both my opinion and the opinion of my blog readers. I'm listing them in chronological order, not necessarily in order of significance.
  1. Jan. 20: Inauguration of President Barack Obama, quick to please those hoping pro-lifers were right to assert he was the most anti-life politician ever elected to our highest office, when …

  2. Jan. 23: President Obama signs an executive order overturning the Mexico City Policy, thereby reauthorizing taxpayer funding of international groups promoting and/or committing abortion. Obama defenders rationalize that at least he waited until after the Jan. 22 anniversary of Roe v. Wade, demonstrating a non-provocative tone … toward born people, anyway.

  3. May 15: Gallup releases a poll showing that for the first time since it began asking the question in 1995, a 51 percent majority of Americans consider themselves "pro-life" as opposed to 42 percent "pro-choice." Gallup credits Obama for the shift, in part: "It is possible that, through his abortion policies, Obama has pushed the public's understanding of what it means to be 'pro-choice' slightly to the left, politically. While Democrats may support that… it may be driving others in the opposite direction."

  4. May 17: President Obama speaks at Notre Dame University's commencement and is bestowed an honorary doctorate degree. The magnitude of protest incited by university president Father John Jenkins' invitation surprises just about everyone. Protestant pro-lifers join Catholics in strident opposition that includes billboard signs, an "abortion plane" and busloads of protesters. Eighty-eight are arrested.

  5. May 31: Late-term abortionist George Tiller murdered in his Wichita, Kan., church by schizophrenic Scott Roeder, marking the eighth murder of an abortion doctor or staffer throughout 36 years of legalized abortion, the first since 1998. 

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