Thursday, July 26, 2012

BOOK REVIEW: Pro-Life Activists in America, Meaning, Motivation, and Direct Action (2002) by Carol J. C. Maxwell

As a former Pro-Life Activist from 1984 to 1992, I have always been interested in reading literature others have written about the movement that I was a part of for 8 years. Carol J. C. Maxwell holds a Ph. D. and is an anthropologist. She wrote this book, Pro-Life Activists in America, Meaning, Motivation, and Direct Action as a part of her anthropological studies. On page one of her book, she stated that she, “embarked on two years of field observations to provide an anthropological account of this social movement (i. e. the pro-life activist movement).” All though I would agree that the pro-life activist movement qualifies as a “social movement” per se, I think the scope of Dr. Maxwell’s study was too narrow. The reason there was a pro-life activist movement, was because our civil government abolished laws that protected its unborn human citizens. The origin of the movement was solely based on a re-action to the federal government’s action. Hence there is a reason the movement came about in the 70s. The reason a pro-life activist movement did not exist in the 60s, 50s, 40s and earlier is because unborn babies were legally protected in the decades leading up to the 70s.


I think an anthropological study of legalized abortion as a whole and its impact on American society as a whole would have been more comprehensive angle to take as opposed to studying a single facet of that issue. As of the date of this article, 53 million babies have been aborted since 1973. I think a study documenting how the loss of 53 million potential wage earners and taxpayers has affected our national economy and the solvency of Social Security and Medicare /Medicaid would be a much more constructive and comprehensive anthropological study. Doing an anthropological study on just the pro-life activist movement would make about as much sense as doing an anthropological study on the abolitionist and the underground railroad during the pre-Civil War 1800s without doing an anthropological study of slavery in America and how it affected American culture. Or, doing an anthropological study on Corrie Ten Boom and other Christian Nazi resistors who hid and harbored Jews without doing an anthropological study of Hitler and the Nazi holocaust as a whole. BTW, when pro-lifers equate their cause for the unborn to Slavery and the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews, Dr. Maxwell calls that an attitude of “ethic of extensivity.” (page 12)

Another thing that gave me pause about this book is Dr. Maxwell taking a neutral posture on the abortion issue. She wrote on page six:
When interviewees asked my position on abortion, I told them that I had trouble reconciling abortion with my personal values, but neither could I know what another woman would best do. As I recall, only one activist pushed me to take a stand on one side or the other of the pro-choice/pro-life divide, but I did not feel the need to define myself according to that dichotomy. The other interviewees appeared to accept or at least tolerate, the neutrality created by the tension of my beliefs.

Dr. Maxwell said that she spent two years (from September 1989 to August 1991) “making field observations” of pro-life activists. Yet, she said that her neutrality on abortion was created by the tension of her beliefs. What? During my 8 year tenure as a pro-life activist, there was one thing you could always count on. Pro-Lifers displaying placard sized photos of aborted babies. I would find it very hard to believe that Dr. Maxwell never once saw a picture of an aborted baby during those two years of interviewing. I find it very hard to believe that she is totally unaware of the carnage that is taking place at the abortion mills where she conducted her interviews. This woman is smart enough to write a book and earn a Ph.D. Yet, she doesn’t know “what another woman would best do” concerning the killing of her unborn baby? Suppose it was legal to kill one week old neo-natal babies. Would Dr. Maxwell still say that she would not “know what another woman would best do”? What other issues in the political spectrum is Dr. Maxwell having an internal struggle over? What about gun control, same sex marriages, illegal immigration and universal government run health care? Is Dr. Maxwell neutral on those issues also?

On multiple occasions, Dr. Maxwell wrote that the motivations of the pro-lifers participating in direct action as being “complex.” When it comes to the pro-life side of the abortion issue, I can assure you that our motivations for activism were quite simple. Babies are killed at the abortion mills and they were there to stop the killing. That is the root motive, you need not go any further than that. And if Dr. Maxwell learned anything during her two years of field observations, she would have known that.

I found one piece of data that Dr. Maxwell gave on page three to be very interesting. She wrote:
By the early 1990s, an estimated forty thousand individuals had participated in sit-ins at abortion facilities and related locations in the United States (Ginsburg 1993:564).

The footnote in the parentheses references the following source:
1993 Saving America’s Souls: Operation Rescue’s Against Abortion. In Fundamentalism and the State: Remaking Politics, Economics, and Militance. Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Applebby, eds. Pp. 557-88. Chicago: University Press.

Now I could be wrong, but 40,000 seems a little high to me. I have often wondered how many pro-life activists have been arrested prior to 1994 and my estimate was much lower than that. I would be curious to know how Martin E. Marty or R. Scott Appleby arrived at that number since Dr. Maxwell cited them as her source. I wonder if they made the distinction between total arrests of pro-life activists and total number of pro-life activists who have been arrested since a lot of them have been arrested multiple times.

Dr. Maxwell published some statistical data on pro-lifers in the appendix of her book. She displayed over a dozen different statistical tables that covered basic demographic fields such as level of education, age, average household income, occupations, religious affiliation, marital status, family size and so on. Her data was compiled within a two year period of a movement that spanned a little more that 20 years and the data gathered was isolated to the pro-life activists working in the mid-west region of America. Anybody who knows anything about compiling sats knows that the data compiled is based on a small sampling size of the body of work that you are investigating and analyzing. However, as thorough as Dr. Maxwell was in compiling and presenting her data, (and I don’t question its accuracy) I don’t think her sampling size was not big enough to paint an accurate demographic picture of the pro-life activists movement as a whole. Especially if she thinks 40,000 pro-life activists has participated in sit-ins.

This book is not an easy read, and is not well formatted in a ready friendly way. As I drudged through the book, I kept asking myself, who is her audience? Her writing style and vernacular was very academic. I don’t think the pro-abortion people would take an interest in this book, why would they want to read an academic dissertation on pro-life activists? They already think that they were a bunch of crazy loons. I can’t imagine very many pro-lifers wanting to read this book either. The pro-life activists who participated in the rescue movement already know what motivated them to action. As for the non-activist pro-lifers, half of them thought that breaking the law was wrong, and the other half were too scared to break the law or just too lazy. As interesting as some of the stats might be, in the end, this book was written by an academian for a bunch of other academians.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

May 26, 1988 James C. Kopp Interview, Part 1

Editor’s note: About 10 years prior to James Kopp performing a post natal termination procedure of an abortionist in 1998, I had a chance to sit down with him for about an hour and a half for an interview. I recently, found the cassette tape of that interview while rummaging through my old cassettes a few weeks ago. After I listened to the tape, I was reminded of the deep wisdom and insight that James shared. I was so amazed at what he said, I decided to transcribe the interview and share it with you. This interview is quite long, so I will present it in several parts. Here is part 1.


MJ: There are a lot of things I don’t know about you just form a personal perspective. Could you tell us about who you are and where you are from and some basic background information before we start talking about rescue missions (sit-ins at abortion mills)?

JK: I was born in Pasadena, CA in 1954. I come from a family of five and I have one sister in heaven, and I guess part of my background includes the fact that my own immediate family has three single mothers. So to me, pro-life is very personal and the cost that mothers have to pay is something that I as a male could understand. I went to school in California, and I studied Darwinistic Biology as an under graduate many years ago, and was saved overseas in Francis Schaffer’s ministry and at the same time, through over Darwinism. But, I decided to finish up grad school even though by that time I started to think about pro-life and so I finished my Masters which was in embryology and fertilization. That started to get me into pro-life.

MJ: What year was this?

JK: I finished my Masters in I think about ’82. One of the reasons I got into pro-life was that… At one point during the Masters, I thought I might be interested in med school, so I became a pre-med, and I had some clinical experience. And, one day I was standing in the morgue of the Stanford Hospital and I assisted and observed autopsies there because I was in the pathology department and did my little bit of research at night. They brought in a baby that was 8 months from conception that had been aborted, for having Down’s syndrome. The Pathologist was particularly pleased to show me this baby because she knew that I was pro-life. She knew that I was in the morgue and she sent the baby in and she said, “You see enough of this kind of garbage and you really start to believe in abortion.” Those were the words she said to me, and I don’t think I will ever forget it. Up until then, I had some pro-life involvement intellectually, but it wasn’t until I saw that baby right in front of me, which was an absolutely beautiful baby that had been killed because it had Down’s syndrome. And, I heard those words and they just chilled me through my bones, “You see enough of this kind of garbage and you really start to believe in abortion.” Oh, and she also said, ”You pro-lifers really make me sick.” I was so stunned that I could not think of much to say but what happened is that I made a promise to God in my heart that I would try and do more. Up until then I had done political work in pro-life and my family has been involved in California politics for decades.

MJ: What year was this when you saw the aborted baby?

JK: That was 1982 also. The first rescue I did was in ’83 or ’84 and the first Crisis Pregnancy Center (CPC) that I opened was in ’84. So, it was after then I got on the pathway of CPCs and rescues.

MJ: You said you had your conversion overseas. Was this in Switzerland?

JK: Yes.

MJ: What was the name of the town?

JK: The name of the town was HuĂ©moz-sur-Ollon. But the name of the ministry was L’Abri.

MJ: How many rescues have you done to date?

JK: I really don’t know the exact number, but it is somewhere between 15 to 20 I think. In terms of really big national type rescues with 100 or more people maybe 4 or 5 of those. And probably half a dozen lock-in rescues… maybe more.

MJ: Do you know how many arrests you’ve had?

JK: Well, let’s see... That’s right, some of the rescues did not involve arrests, so I have probably been arrested about 15 times. Not a lot.

MJ: Not a lot? (laughing) One of the things about you that is going against the grain of society is that a lot of people are soft and we have a lot of conveniences. And here, we have someone like you who has literally sold out everything for pro-life. I understand that you even took a vow of poverty at one time.

JK: (laughing) I don’t know about a vow.

MJ: That’s what John Witte told me.

JK: Well the hardest part was when I sold my trumpet. I used to be in the union and I put myself through college, or shall I say the Lord put me through college being in the union. And the hardest thing was when I sold my trumpet, which was an extremely good trumpet. That was how I made my living which was the culmination of my career as a professional musician. So that part hurt me, but ever since then it’s been downhill. I mean, in the sense that, once you…. I mean everyone has a trumpet if you know what I mean. Everyone’s got that one thing. You know, they will give up everything else, you know what I mean? And that trumpet meant probably more to me than anything else in terms of material things. I have already been moving in the direction of what I called, being judgment proof. You know, having no assets so that if N.O.W. (National Organization for Women) sues me, I would have nothing to fear. Which is the place I want to be in. So, I had been moving in that direction for a long time.

MJ: I could just see N.O.W. going after that trumpet. “We got to get Kopp’s trumpet!”

JK: (Laughing)

MJ: We read about Samuel Rutherford, Dietrich Bonheoffer, Corrie Ten Boom, then we look at people in our day and age… and I ask where are our heroes? And we have Joan Andrews and a handful of others. But our generation desperately needs some heroes that will sell everything out and just be radical. In our day and age this concept is very foreign and I just feel that we have a lot of soft Christians now days.

JK: Yeah, I think I see where you are going, and I definitely agree. In fact, any time the Lord has asked me to make a sacrifice… and of course, I cannot make a sacrifice in my own strength. If I were to form the resolution that I should sell my trumpet, that would be no big deal. That doesn’t mean anything if it is in the flesh. But, if you were to pray about it and you are sure that is what the Lord wants, and if you go to him and say, “okay Lord.” Then you are offering it up to God and He’s doing it. I definitely think that we don’t offer up enough things to the Lord, we are hanging on to too many things. That, I don’t think too many people would argue with you, especially in the United States. In my opinion, part of the core of this whole problem is that there has never been a country in the entire History of the planet that has had such a very large number of people with such an average high level of freedom from war, poverty, disease, coldness, hunger and pretty soon when you get that isolated and that independent, God is just an idea after a while. God is out there working on the fine things like do I feel good. If you go into most churches these days, people are concerned with feeling good. They are not thinking about, am I starving? Or, is that guy starving? Have I heard the Gospel? Or, has that guy heard the Gospel? You can say the same thing about missions. There are very few people in this country who will do missions, same thing with pro-life. So I certainly agree… Oh, I know what I was going to say, I ramble.

MJ: That’s okay.

JK: The other thing I was going to say too is, long ago could have done what I call an arrest cycle. I have done two of them now. Or, one or two, I can’t remember exactly. But anyway, its where I come into a town and keep doing rescues until they give me a hard time. And during the hard time I assess and say to the Lord, “do you want me to continue in this town, or do you want me to go to another one? Okay? That is what I would call and arrest cycle

MJ: Okay.

JK: In St. Louis, (laughing) they rotated me out to another position before I got in jail for a hard time because in St. Louis you can get arrested 100 times and never see the inside of a jail cell for more than 6 or 8 hours, it’s really incredible in St. Louis. But, the reason I have not done perpetual arrest cycles, in other words, keep going until you get arrested more and more, is that I sense that the Lord has asked me along the way to stop and take the time to open up Pearson Centers. Or, Crisis Pregnancy Centers. If my whole goal in life, and this is not my whole goal, but if my entire 100% goal in life was to save as many babies as I could, that I physically could myself, I would do nothing but open Crisis Pregnancy Centers. I think there is more at stake than just, how many babies can Jim Kopp save. There is a slightly bigger picture, not much bigger. But anyone who sets themselves a goal, I want to save as many babies as I can. That’s not a bad goal, and I certainly would certainly never fault that, but I think there is a little bit more to it. Something that the Lord has been showing lately is that there is more involved than babies. In China for example, if you go and do a rescue in mainland China, you will be in jail for 25 years, and you will be a martyr and the Lord would certainly honor all your prayers, who knows on a mystical level?

JK: (cont’d) But practically speaking, you can’t do anything in China to really help save the babies until you do something about communism. And you can’t do something about communism without being good Christians in general. You have to have a body working together and part of the body working together is exhortation and a word of knowledge and all these things that are… You see what I mean? There is slightly more to the picture than physically, just how many babies can Jim Kopp save with the hours that I’ve got left in my life. That’s why I take the time out, or I dare say the Lord has asked me to take the time out in Delaware and maybe in Texas, California, New Jersey, New York state or wherever he sends me, to leave a trail of these CPCs and they become focal points for pro-life work. And they become stepping stones for people who want to step up into rescues. Most people can’t take that step straight from political work to rescues. They just can’t do it, they need a stepping stone in the middle. A place where they can meet the girls, get a hands on view of how terrible it is out there, how badly these women are being lied to, and pushed around by their boyfriends, and pushed around by the abortionists…

MJ: Isn’t that the truth. All in the name of pro-choice.

JK: Exactly! Get a real solid picture. Demythologize the pro-choice deal, and then they start to get mad. It’s like when I saw that baby in the Stanford morgue, I got mad. If you come to me after that and start talking about trumpets, I would say… Hey! forget trumpets! We are on another level. You know? And I’ll tell you something, most national leaders that I know, that I have had the privileged of meeting… it’s a funny thing, but they have had a similar kind of experience. Not the exact same experience, but something like it.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Matthew A. Jackson, Pro-Life Activist Profile


Matthew A. Jackson, Pro-Life Activist (1984 to 1992):
·         Participated and/or organized several dozen pickets of abortion mills;
·         Participated and/or organized pickets of the homes of 8 abortionist;
·         Sidewalk counseled 2 mothers approaching an abortion not to go through with their scheduled abortions and took them to a CPC;
·         Was the 1st Pro-Lifer to devise the concept of the lock and block rescue;
·         Directly participated in 8 rescue missions (sit-ins) risking arrest:
- 4 with Randall Terry/Operation Rescue, New York City, May 1988;
- 3 with Don Tresman/Rescue America, Hou., TX, Sep ’86, *Jan ’88 & *Mar ‘89 (* lock & block)
- 1 with James C. Kopp, Houston, TX, Jun ’88 (assisted lock & block);
·         Arrested 8 times:
- 3 class B misdemeanor arrests resulting in convictions and one jail sentence;
- 5 class C misdemeanor arrests.
·         Indirectly participated in 8 rescue missions in a support and training (lock & block) role;
·         Assisted Robert H. Ruff in raiding the Houston Planned Parenthood dumpster in November of 1986.  The intention was to look for the dead babies that PP recently killed.  Instead, they found a few dozen discarded file boxes that had files containing more than two years worth of classified documents.  Some of them were financial statements that revealed how PP was funded and how they misused and embezzled tax dollars.  This discovery is known to be the greatest amount of inside information ever to be gathered on PP.  Robert went on to decipher all the information that he acquired on PP and in 1990, he published his findings in a book that he wrote entitled, Aborting Planned Parenthood.
·         Was the 1st Pro-Lifer in Harris County, TX to serve a jail sentence (8 days) for participating in a rescue mission;