From Our Member Groups
∞ Feminists for Life is running a billboard campaign; one of the designs is pictured here. They also have a set of memes to share on social media.
∞ Democrats for Life has a major-media article from its Executive Director Kristen day: I’m a pro-life Democrat who presents a big dilemma for my party in 2024.
∞ Friends Witness for a Pro-life Peace Testimony has new pages on its website: a page of Videos that by virtue of being of interest to Quakers will also be of interest to consistent-lifers in general, and a response to a Friends Journal article countering that article’s contention that the Friends Committee on National Legislation should take a pro-abortion stand. The previous pages that made connections between abortion and other issues – nuclear weapons, death penalty, weaponized drones, and poverty – have been consolidated into one page: Connections: Abortion and Other Violence. Still available and of special interest to consistent-lifers: Explaining Pacifism, designed for all non-Quaker pro-lifers.
∞ Reminder: the Rehumanize annual online conference is coming up November 11.
Update on Referendums
Unfortunately, the idea of enshrining abortion as a “right” in state constitutions is the biggest trend we’re seeing among our issues. Arizona has a petition drive. Nevada had the legislature vote to put it on the ballot, but according to law they have to vote twice in different sessions, making 2026 the earliest it could go on, so on September 14 paperwork was filed for a petition drive for that. Those are both aiming for November 2024. See the full set here.
But Nevada also is joining the trend to amend state constitutions to remove the exception for prisoners for abolition of slavery, thus making one amendment we’re for and one we’re against. Arizona has a measure for increasing minimum wage, so ditto.
Ohio also has both pro-abortion and minimum wage on the ballot, but coming right up this November.
Racism and poverty are among the more common of our issues outside of abortion addressed by referendums. War rarely is, and there haven’t been any on either the death penalty or euthanasia for a while.
See the full list of referendums we’re tracking on our Peace and Life Referendums project website. If you know of any that should be added – especially local or outside-the-U.S. ones – please let us know. If you know of good resources or can offer good writing or art, we’re always looking for those.
Our Latest Blog Post
This October is the 70th anniversary of the publication of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. John Whitehead uses the occasion to comment on A Plea for Quiet - and for Peace: Consistent Life Ethic Themes in Fahrenheit 451.
Quotation of the Week
Louis T. March
Mercator, November 8, 2022
War destroys life – communities, nations, generations. It causes environmental degradation and life-ravaging stress leading to multiple maladies, including menstrual dysfunction and decreased fertility . . .
If bloodshed, wall-to-wall mayhem, and economic upheaval are not enough to dissuade us from war, what is? Is humanity even capable of refraining from mass violence?
The right-to-lifers and the anti-war folks supposedly share a common purpose: saving lives. Maybe they should join forces to try and stop this madness. Stranger things have happened.