As president of Susan B. Anthony List, I’ve had the privilege of working together with many amazing pro-life women in Congress. Even so, there are a few who stand out for going above and beyond in their commitment to unborn children and their mothers – a description that perfectly fits Martha Roby. We were proud to see her advance in her primary last week.
Earlier this year, SBA List kicked off our endorsement of Martha’s re-election campaign with a tour of the 2nd District. Our team was grateful for the opportunity to meet with conscientious pro-life voters who were concerned about how policy being made in Washington affects them.
These voters want a champion, and they couldn’t have a better one than Martha Roby. Martha speaks with passionate conviction and seizes every opportunity to be a leader on life, so much that we can hardly imagine the House without her.
Martha was one of the first to speak out on the House floor when shocking undercover videos surfaced showing high-level staff of Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion business, discussing their techniques for crushing the bodies of unborn babies in late-term abortions in order to harvest fresh organs, for which procurement companies would pay them. It soon became apparent that, beyond the horror of watching a casual chat about such brutality over salads and glasses of wine and realizing that these precious babies truly are worth more to Planned Parenthood dead than alive, there was compelling evidence of possible federal crimes.
More recently, an investigative report and video series by Live Action has exposed Planned Parenthood’s systematic failure to report suspected human trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and girls. The abortion giant portrays itself as a champion of women’s rights, but has actually helped pimps, traffickers, and abusers cover their tracks, all while raking in more than half a billion dollars in taxpayer funding every year.
Martha, like all of us, is sickened and outraged by these abuses. She has fought tirelessly to hold Planned Parenthood accountable, and her efforts along with those of her colleagues are beginning to pay off. Already facing federal investigation for their role in the harvest and sale of baby body parts for profit, Planned Parenthood now has lawmakers calling for an investigation of their failure to report child sexual abuse. The Trump administration has taken an important step to disentangle taxpayers from the scandal-ridden abortion business with the new Protect Life Rule, which draws a bright line between abortion and family planning in the Title X program. Since Planned Parenthood refuses to comply, they stand to lose approximately $50-60 million a year.
Martha will not rest until tax dollars are completely redirected away from Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses to community health alternatives that outnumber Planned Parenthood facilities by an average of 20 to one nationwide and provide the comprehensive health care women want and deserve – not abortion.
Martha took a leading role in two of this year’s biggest pro-life victories in the House of Representatives. She co-sponsored the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act to prevent babies who survived failed abortions from being left to die – yes, believe it or not, this happens in America and some of our staff have personally witnessed it – by requiring them to be treated like any other premature baby born at the same age. Martha also spoke on the House floor in support of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would save an average of 15,000 babies each year from excruciating late-term abortions after five months, more than halfway through pregnancy. The United States is one of only seven nations in the world – China and North Korea included – that allow abortion on-demand through birth. Polls consistently show that two-thirds of Americans think this is unacceptable and want to change our laws. Martha Roby is working to do just that.
Martha is also a tremendous supporter of the good work of pregnancy help centers and an advocate of adoption as a loving, courageous option. She won’t stand for the abortion industry’s self-serving attacks on those who provide compassionate support to women in need without charging a dime. She demonstrates that the pro-life movement has so much to offer women and families, the abortion industry with its one pitiful offering of death for the child is truly backward.
This year’s elections present the greatest opportunity the pro-life movement has had in many years, and there is so much work to be done. When it comes to policies that have a very real, lifesaving impact in Alabama and across the country, voters should know they can count on Martha Roby to fight for them. SBA List wholeheartedly supports her and urges pro-life Alabamans to send her to Washington once again.
Marjorie Dannenfelser is president of the national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List, a network of more than 630,000 pro-life Americans nationwide.
