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There is a difference between being marginally pro-life and being willing to fight for the rights of the unborn. I was watching the movie Amazing Grace tonight and thinking that what we need is a modern day William Wilberforce. Someone who will dedicate their life to ending abortion no matter the cost to their health, political career, or popularity. When Wilberforce first introduced his bill it was defeated overwhelmingly and even after he launched a dramatic campaign to raise public support he still was not able to get all of the votes for many years. He fought to abolish slavery for 20 years and lost his health in the process but finally he got England to ban the International Slave Trade and shortly thereafter to ban all slavery in her colonies. To do this he was willing to spend his youth, health, popularity, and political career. Thats the sort of committment we need to end abortion. I don’t think Fred has anywhere near that kind of dedication to saving the unborn.

Interesting thing that you and I watched Amazing Grace the same night. It is a wonderful and inspiring film. I'm glad that I bought it and sorry that I missed it in the theater.

It also got me to thinking about the same thing you just brought up. I thought about how it would be great if we had a modern-day William Wilberforce for the pro-life movement. And then I realized that we already have one who has been working tirelessly for decades and who has had more of an effect on the issue than anyone else.

Our modern-day William Wilberforce is Dr. John C. Willke, MD. Dr. Willke is a physician, author and lecturer who has devoted his life to ending abortion. He was the founder of the National Right to Life Committee and served as its president for ten years. NRLC is America's premiere organization fighting for the protection of unborn children and educating about the evils of abortion. Dr. Willke founded the International Right to Life Federation which is a worldwide, non-sectarian federation of pro-life organizations from over 170 countries. The organization fights for the protection of innocent human life from conception to natural death throughout the entire world. They have representatives to the United Nations, European Union, etc., and hold pro-life conferences all around the world. As founder of the premiere pro-life organization in American as well as the premiere international pro-life federation, Dr. Willke is known as the father of the pro-life movement, nationally and internationally.

Dr. and Mrs. Willke are authors of many books on the subject of abortion. These books are considered the authoritative primers on the evils of abortion and are the most widely read books in the world presenting the scientific case for the unborn. These books include the forth generation book, Abortion Questions and Answers: Why Can't We Love Them Both, Handbook on Abortion, Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia - Past & Present, and Abortion and Slavery - History Repeats. These works have been translated into 30 languages.

Dr. Willke has appeared on almost every major network and cable news show in the United States. Dr. and Mrs. Willke have lectured in 74 countries.

Dr. Willke also created the Life Issues Institute, a pro-life think tank and America's top organization for distributing educational materials for the pro-life movement. He also serves on the American Academy of Medical Ethics Board of Reference along with other notable physicians such as Dr. C. Everett Koop.

It is important to point out that our modern-day William Wilberforce, just one month ago, endorsed Mitt Romney for President. Dr. Willke said, "Governor Romney is the only candidate who can lead our pro-life and pro-family conservative movement to victory in 2008."

I don’t think Fred has anywhere near that kind of dedication to saving the unborn.

No. I've challenged others to name one piece of pro-life legislation of which Sen. Thompson was a primary sponsor. I heard crickets. I've challenged them to find a pro-life speech or statement that he's made on the floor of the Senate. Silence.

Beyond simply casting votes for pro-life legislation other people wrote and sponsored, Sen. Thompson did not show any dedication to the pro-life cause. For example, the legislation to ban the barbaric partial birth abortion procedure was voted for by Sen. Thompson. However, he did not deem it important enough from him to even be a co-sponsor. Only a dozen or so Republican Senators did not co-sponsor that bill. Thompson joined such Senators as Chaffee, Snowe, Jeffords, McCain, and Specter in leaving his name off of the bill. This is typically the case with Fred Thompson and it speaks again to his lack of dedication and indifference to the pro-life cause.

Sen. Thompson, in a questionnaire he completed for a pro-abortion group, highlighted his support for taxpayer funding of Title X "family planning" programs. Title X is the primary source of taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is the nation's largest purveyor of abortion as well as its strongest and most powerful advocate. Every year that Thompson was in the Senate, another few hundred million dollars in taxpayer funding was sent to Planned Parenthood. As far as I can find, he never offered any resistance to that funding, never proposed an amendment to stop it, and simply voted to continue that funding.

Dr. John Willke, founder of the National Right to Life Committee, founder and President of Life Issues Institute, and founder and President of the International Right to Life Federation has stated that one of our primary goals should be to defund the forces behind abortion. He says that Planned Parenthood is the "primary force behind abortion." Planned Parenthood is "getting about half-a-billion in government money a year" at the federal, state, and local levels, Willke has said. "If they lose their money," he has predicted, "the abortion movement will crumble. To defund Title X [family-planning programs] is the heart of the matter." Sen. Thompson not only voted to continue taxpayer funded Title X family-planning programs, but highlighted that fact to a pro-abortion group in the aforementioned questionnaire.

To make matters worse, Thompson was a primary architect of the unconstitutional McCain-Feingold-Thompson campaign finance reform legislation and one of its top supporters in Congress. The National Right to Life Committee fought a lengthy battle against the CFR legislation, categorizing votes for CFR as votes that were NOT pro-life, and even sending letters to members of Congress stating that CFR would do "great harm to the pro-life cause." CFR unfortunately passed, thanks in great part to Thompson's efforts, and the National Right to Life Committee challenged it all the way to the Supreme Court - hoping to have it overturned. Fred Thompson actually filed an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court opposing the NRLC's efforts and defending CFR despite the great harm it was doing to the pro-life cause.