Operation Rescue took a critical role in the campaign to pass a municipal 20-week abortion ban with nationwide implications in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which was defeated yesterday by a ten-point margin. Now, the extremist anti-choice group says it is looking “forward to another try” at banning later-term abortions in the city.
Operation Rescue spokeswoman Cheryl Sullenger told LifeSiteNews that the group will continue its efforts to enact the Albuquerque ban. She even tried to explain away the measure’s decisive defeat by arguing that voters were confused by the ballot language:
“Pro-life supporters may have suffered a political loss, but we are far from defeated. We’ll be back,” said Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Policy Advisor for Operation Rescue, who was in Albuquerque for the vote. “It is clear that the people are uncomfortable with late-term abortions and would like to see them end. We learned a lot from this campaign, and we look forward to another try that will better reflect the true feeling of the voters on this subject."
Priests for Life founder Fr. Frank Pavone said pro-life activists in the city "should not feel discouraged" by the defeat of the measure. "The fact is, of course, that children have in fact been saved through this effort, simply because we have raised the issue of fetal pain, which does not even cross the minds of many abortionists," he said.
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“We understand that some supporters of the ordinance actually voted against it because they thought they were voting against abortion. That is an issue that can be easily corrected next time around,” said Sullenger. “Now the local activists in Albuquerque have been seasoned and things just might turn out differently if we can get another bite of this apple.”
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But according to Operation Rescue, the pro-life campaign to protect unborn babies after twenty weeks from abortion succeeded in focusing the attention of the world on the matter of late-term abortions and created a template for activists in other communities to use to affect change in abortion laws in their communities, rather than relying on Washington D.C.
“I am so very proud of the work done by Albuquerque activists, especially Bud and Tara Shaver, who poured three years of their lives into exposing abuses at the largest late-term abortion abortion clinic in the nation,” said Sullenger, who worked with the Shavers for a year at Operation Rescue Headquarters in Wichita, Kansas. “They are the best and it was my honor to work with them on this campaign. We can only expect more exciting things in the future from them as their work to end abortion in New Mexico continues.”
