STATE ANTI-ABORTION GROUP ENCOURAGED BY SURVEY NUMBERS

About 150 activists from across the state are meeting at the Bavarian Halle in Fruitland this weekend to strengthen the movement to make abortion illegal.

They are members of Missouri Right to Life, a group dedicated to promoting their agenda through legal means.

Teresa LeGrand of Kelso, chairman of the Southeast Region, said she was happy to host the conference so delegates from all over the state could see the Cemetery of the Innocent -- a display of 4,400 crosses between Wal Mart and Interstate 55 -- and the many billboards with anti-abortion messages along Interstate 55 in the area.

Several themes ran through the conference.

One was that everyone who met the organization's definition of "pro-life" was welcome, whether religious or not, and whatever their other political positions were.

Asked about whether atheists were welcome in Missouri Right to Life, Ray Vanderwall, president of the organization and minister of the Rolla Bible Church, said, "We don't ask."

Vanderwall hosted a session on building up the grassroots movement. He answered questions handed to him anonymously on slips of paper.

"I'm a democrat," read one question. "The Democratic Party believes in supporting life. Why does your organization mainly support Republicans?"

"One party says we have a plank in our platform that says the right to life must be protected," Vanderwall said. "Now I know there are people in the other party that support the right to life....If you're a pro-life Democrat, you vote for pro-life Democrats in your primary."

He said that although Missouri Right to Life is best known for its stand on abortion, it works on two other fronts: opposing euthanasia and opposing infaniticide.

In that session, however, members talked almost exclusively about abortion.

The groups biggest legislative push is getting bills passed banning a late-term abortion procedure they call "partial-birth abortion."

Jim Cole, state government affairs chairman of Missouri Right to Life, said polling date showed "a 9 percent shift toward our side from the debate on partial birth abortion."

One member, Orville Burkemper, from St. Louis County, challenged that strategy. He said the group needs to push for a law that would give the unborn child full legal status and the right to due process under law.

Cole, an attorney, said the "sad reality" was that the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe vs. Wade effectively eliminated that as a strategy, because that decision specifically prohibited state legislatures from declaring non-viable fetuses humans with rights.

He added that the right-to-life movement cannot hope to change that through constitutional amendment, the only means available because it can't muster the two-thirds majority necessary to pass it through Congress or gain ratification from three-fourths of state legislatures.

Delegates agreed that the organization needs to emphasize recruiting young people, targeting high schools for bringing in speakers and literature.

Penny Lea, keynote speaker at the evening banquet, has given 11 speeches at high schools in the recent weeks including Portageville, Donaphin, Naylor, Kelly and North Pemiscot, LeGrand said.

One delegate spoke of putting "high quality fetal models" in 50 parochial and public schools.

The convention continues today at the Bavarian Halle in Fruitland with a Catholic Mass and a Protestant Service at 9 a.m., and a speech by Henry Clever, a St. Charles pediatrician who will speak about RU 480 and other chemical means of abortion.