PAT BOONE DELIVERS ANTI-ABORTION MESSAGE TO CAPE GIRARDEAU VITAE SOCIETY MEETING

Although few people know it, Pat Boone was outspoken about the anti-abortion movement long before it was popular. But, he said, it hasn't always been a cause the media likes to write about, so it hasn't gotten as much attention as other causes.

Boone, a teen idol from the 1950s and '60s, made rock 'n' roll hits like "Tutti Frutti" and "Ain't That A Shame" popular with teen-agers. His career has spanned decades and branched out to film, television and writing. His most recent album, a 1997 collection of heavy metal songs, took some heat from his Christian fans and the Trinity Broadcasting Network. But Boone weathered that storm and now is ready to take any criticism that might come from speaking out about an important cause: abortion. Boone spoke to about 500 people Tuesday night during a benefit dinner for the Vitae Society at the Holiday Inn Convention Center.

He arrived by plane from Branson after a day of rehearsals with his daughter Debby. The pair will perform a Christmas show in the Andy Williams Theater as a substitute for Williams, who canceled his shows because of illness. The Boones will open their show Friday It runs through Dec. 12."I've been doing this for years," Boone said about his anti-abortion involvement. "It's not something that the media likes to make light of."Boone confronted his feelings about abortion after Debby, then 13, came home from school in tears. She related a story about seeing a "baby in a bottle" at school. It was a biology exhibit labeled a fetus, she explained, but she knew it was a baby, Boone said."I knew than that I was pro-life," he said. "My daughter was in tears from the trauma where the other road leads."As time passed, Boone said he has taken stands on the issue and stood for what he believed in. That hasn't always made him popular, but then he knew that was a possibility when he first moved to Hollywood.

People in Hollywood and the entertainment business don't want any restrictions to trample their freedoms, and they don't want to take on the responsibilities involved either, he said.

Boone said he and his wife, Shirley, of 46 years "knew that we would raise our children by Tennessee standards." Boone attended high school and college in Tennessee. Those were the "values we had grown up with and knew were right, and we thank God for it," he said.

Boone and his wife now host a syndicated radio show from their Beverly Hills home. Boone has recorded 13 gold albums and holds a record first-place tie with Elvis Presley for having the most Top 40 hits in the rock 'n' roll era. He is also an author and actor.

During his Hollywood career, God has proved that you can live any place as long as you put him first and read the Bible and pray together, Boone said. His family is proof that you can raise wonderful, talented children in the heart of a modern Sodom.

But America's values are changing, said Carl Landwehr, president of the Vitae Society, a group that supports alternatives to abortion. The nation is losing the value system of generations that helped fight wars and sacrificed during the Depression, he said. Television is a common denominator in homes now. It is treated almost like a god, Landwehr said. "There is something magic about TV. People turn to it for news, weather, sports and values."The Vitae Society hopes to reach more people through its television commercial campaign. Commercials have already been running for six months in the area's media market. With a challenge to pledge $58,500, commercials could run in Southeast Missouri for another five months, Landwehr said.

Those commercials bring a message about the sanctity of human life. Television is a way of using a modern invention to address an age-old problem, he said.