Open Letter to Dr. James Dobson

America has killed twenty million children during this long distraction, all in pursuit of a ban that from the beginning Never Had The Authority To Prevent Even A Single Abortion. Dr. Dobson, you and these other leaders needed to warn Christians of all this, but instead you joined together in calling evil good. Please stop foisting onto the church the falsehood that this gruesome ruling will "protect children." This decision, to use your word, is more "Naziesque" than the PBA it regulates.

This wicked ruling does not even prohibit aborting partially born children. It is not a ban, but a partial-birth abortion manual. These "pro-life Justices" give instructions on what can be called Navel Birth Abortion, only a four-inch variation from a textbook PBA. Steps from the ruling:

1) The abortionist may partially deliver the unborn child all the way to the bellybutton, but not "past the navel." 2) Then "a leg might be ripped off," etc. to "kill the fetus." 3) Or alternatively, "find... less shocking methods to abort..."

Ambassador Alan Keyes, RenewAmerica Judie Brown, American Life League Flip Benham, Operation Rescue / O.S.A. Prof. Charles Rice, Notre Dame Law School John Archibold, founding board member, Nat'l Right to Life, AUL Jim Rudd, Covenant News John Lofton, The American View Brian Martin, TheologyWeb.com Eric Guttormson, TheologyOnline.com Dr. Patrick Johnston, ProLifePhysicians.org Chuck Baldwin, Crossroad Baptist Church Steve Curtis, LifeCommercials.com Ken & Jo Scott, ProLife Colorado Gino Geraci, Calvary Chapel South Denver Rev. Tom Euteneuer, Human Life International Brian Rohrbough, Colorado Right To Life

I agree with several of you.

South Dakota has seen the divisive spirit raise its head on the pro-life movement here in the last 2 years. When we are making in-roads into the enemy's territory, that is when he will fight back the hardest. One sure way to destroying a movement is to cause it to split, or present it with factions.

The author should have gone straight to Dr Dobson in person, following scriptural guidelines, to address their concerns about this. This appears to me to be a public flogging of a public Pro-Life figure with the expectations of the rest of us in the movement to pick up sides. I have respect for Rev. Tom Euteneuer and his positions on LIFE in the past. I also appreciate some of the writings I have read from Judie Brown. Conversations with Dr Keyes have impressed upon me his wise perspective on certain issues. I also have great respect for Dr James Dobson, the Family Research Council, Jay Sekulow and the ACLJ and others listed. (Jay Sekulow understands law and rulings.) I cannot help but feel that this article was devised to destroy the unity of the pro-life movement at the National level.

I am not a legal secretary to translate the ruling. I do know that I see a letter that addresses complaints by specific page number and detailed quotes. It is as though the author holds Dr Dobson accountable for the rulings and how they were written. This isn't possible! My take, IMHO, is the specifications in the ruling were written by the justices for clarification, not to cue abortionists on HOW to do their work. They have plenty of ideas on that on their own!! Because of all the controversy in the abortion battle, the justices had to be specific to avoid loop holes. Again, I am not an attorney, but that is how I see that piece of the criticism.

I am greatly concerned!! ALL of us should be on our knees, asking God where this should be going. Life is first and foremost a spiritual battle! The words of a popular contemporary song come to mind, "there's only grace, there's only love, there's only mercy and believe me its enough". My heart is pained for the Pro-Life movement and the hits it is currently taking!! While the fist fights in the schoolyard, so to speak, are going on...babies are still being murdered. Where are grace, mercy and love? Let's keep our eye on the goal, our focus on the Lord.

Some have complained that the signers of the Open Letter to Dr. James Dobson did not give him sufficient time to respond prior to publication of our public letter. Dr. Dobson runs a $150 million dollar enterprise, and has worldwide celebrity status, and as such (understandably), few Christian leaders can pick up the phone and talk to him. And when a leader makes public statements that are untrue, there is no biblical requirement that a correction must first be private. But regardless, the signers have published this letter only after an intensive two-year effort to reach Dr. Dobson personally with a warning about this PBA travesty. On June 29, 2005, we sent four men to Focus headquarters and they presented a lengthy warning in-person, meeting with James Dobson’s V.P. of Public Policy Tom Minnery and with Dr. Dobson’s judicial analysts. One result of this meeting was another meeting with a Focus staff lawyer, James Odom at the private El Paso Club, which meeting he characterized as private, but during which we urgently addressed our concerns. Another result was a personal letter written by Tom Minnery suggesting that perhaps he would invite us back to Focus to present our concerns to another group of staff. Also, a far less confrontational open letter to Dr. Dobson was published two years prior to the current letter, warning Focus that “today’s abortionists simply use a different method on late-term babies” other than PBA, and that a PBA ban will “not cancel a single abortion as a result.” Also, on May 15, 2007 we sent three Federal Express letters to Focus president Jim Daly, to Focus Institute president Del Tackett, and to Dr. Dobson, offering them a chance to discuss the matter with us prior to publication. The cover letters stated, “We plan to run the enclosed Open Letter as a full page ad in a Colorado newspaper and a condensed version in a national Christian magazine, signed by pro-life ministries including American Life League, Operation Save America / Operation Rescue, Denver Bible Church, and Colorado Right To Life. If you would like to discuss this with us before publication, please call Bob Enyart of DBC or Brian Rohrbough of CRTL.” Focus never called. They didn’t call CRTL. They didn’t call HLI. They didn’t even call Judie Brown at American Life League. Our open letter reveals our efforts to reach Dr. Dobson, and specifically quotes from his own personal reply to our concerns, showing that we have in fact reached him. Replying to a letter raising these concerns which was mailed to his home address, Dr. Dobson responded on Focus letterhead and included a hand-written note, dated Feb. 24, 2006, actually defending decisions of judges who rule to kill the innocent, as long as they bow to process. If this tragic development does not distress any particular Christian, then no defense of the form of our criticism will matter. In 2000, federal judge Samuel Alito voted to keep PBA legal in New Jersey, and Dr. Dobson (along with FRC’s Gary Bauer, etc.) commended him for that ruling because Alito was merely following “the long-established principle” of “precedent.” But there is an older legal precedent which the pro-life industry has relegated to a second-tier authority, Thou shall not murder. Over the years the pro-life movement has slid to where it now advocates the legal theory of the defendants at Nuremberg. And very few care or have even noticed. Dr. Dobson’s tragic claims are only the most public indication of a thousand particulars that show the pro-life movement has adopted moral relativism and legal positivism, which principles inherently spell continued death for the unborn.

Cicero wrote: “Another case where pursuit of the perfect overcomes the good... In an ideal world we would have reversed Roe v. Wade the minute it was passed...”

First, as cited in the post, some impressive and knowledgeable people condemned the ruling.

As for saying that Rohrbough should have gone to Dr. Dobson privately first, I understand that he did. Email CRTL and you’ll get an answer.

It’s important to remember that Roe v. Wade was never “passed” by a legislature. It was a court decision and thus it is not a law—no matter who says so. Even so, many of us depend on the Court to overturn Roe, yet it seems unlikely unless some state legally defines personhood from fertilization through natural death. Then an abortion group would challenge the state law in SCOTUS. I suppose that unless some personhood law goes to SCOTUS, no trigger law will ever be enacted either.

Another option is Congress passing the Right to Life Act and the president signing it. We should work for that, but President Bush is for rape/incest exceptions, so he probably might not sign it.

Some of us are forgetting exactly what inJustice Kennedy did with his PBA decision. He knows people are at least squeamish about the original PBA method, so he helps abortionists by instructing them how to commit a PBA via a new method. I’m grateful that vacuuming out a baby’s brain remains outlawed, but there isn’t really a PBA ban and that’s a problem.

Finally, here’s the Dobson reaction and it isn’t quite factual: “Today, the Supreme Court takes the scalpel out of the hands of abortionists who would brutally and fatally puncture the skulls of babies who are just inches and moments away from birth,” said Carrie Gordon Earll, senior analyst for bioethics for Focus on the Family Action.

Dr. James C. Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family Action, said: “We thank God that the Supreme Court has affirmed the value of human life by banning the Nazi-esque barbarism that is partial-birth abortion.

Any crack in the dam is to be celebrated. This public attack is crazy. Instead of publicly tearing into someone who is on their side, how about banding together to make a ‘documentary’ - they seem to be very popular these days. As someone suggested, one utrasound machine would make a big difference. How about getting the laws enforced. Texas already had a ban on PBA because of how state law is written - however, from what I hear, it is not enforced. How about the problems in KS - why not apply some muscle there to get the corruption out of their government? I can’t believe HLI attacked him on this - of all things. They should have known that it would be twisted, gloatingly by the media. As someone said, attack the ruling or the actual law itself. Attack where it really matters - the abortionists and their cronies. The family is the key.

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