Fox analyst at Vitae event: 'Life is the issue'

Nearly 300 people were in attendance Tuesday, April 2, 2019, at Capital Plaza Hotel in Jefferson City as the Vitae Foundation hosted a fundraising luncheon featuring keynote speaker Monica Crowley. The luncheon was a less formal meal prior to the evening's main event that was expected to draw over 700 guests.
Nearly 300 people were in attendance Tuesday, April 2, 2019, at Capital Plaza Hotel in Jefferson City as the Vitae Foundation hosted a fundraising luncheon featuring keynote speaker Monica Crowley. The luncheon was a less formal meal prior to the evening's main event that was expected to draw over 700 guests.

In her years in foreign policy and the political realm, Monica Crowley had never been asked to speak about the subject of life.

But the Fox News analyst was delighted to speak about that issue twice - during lunch and dinner programs - as the keynote speaker of Vitae Foundation's 27th annual Jefferson City Pro-Life Event at Capitol Plaza Hotel and Convention Center.

"I was born in Arizona, grew up in New Jersey, and now I live in New York. I am a political and foreign affairs analyst for Fox (News channel). My doctorate is in national security and foreign policy. But I have never been asked to speak about life," Crowley, who also served as foreign policy assistant to former President Richard Nixon from 1990 until his death in 1994 and had written two bestsellers about those experiences, told a luncheon crowd of 100-plus guests. "But I am so happy that Vitae has asked me to talk about it."

The Vitae Foundation is a national nonprofit organization that uses digital media campaigns to reach women facing unplanned pregnancies and often connects them with local Pregnancy Help Centers. The foundation also "wants to re-establish a culture of life by opening minds and hearts to once again recognize that each child is a gift from God," according to its website.

Crowley's own realization she was pro-life was quite an "epiphany" after thinking she was pro-choice for many years.

"Being free is being allowed to be wrong but eventually I found that I could no longer rationalize what I was being fed. One of the reasons for that change was Trig Palin, Sarah Palin's son - a beautiful, God-given little boy that happens to have Down syndrome," said Crowley, who is a host of the nationally syndicated radio program "The Monica Crowley Show" and is a regular panelist on "The McLaughlin Group." "Others viewed him as a burden. I took one look at that baby, and I viewed him as a gift from God.

"Once life is devalued in any form, it is devalued in all forms. The question of when does life begin is an actual, debatable question."

Crowley shared Gallup poll statistics and other recent research highlighted earlier in the program from Vitae Foundation administration that show after recent legislative decisions in matters of abortions Americans' attitudes toward the issue have changed. Crowley said a new poll showed Americans are as likely to identify as pro-life as they are pro-choice, nearly split at 47 percent as pro-life and 48 percent as pro-choice.

"Just in January, those numbers were 28 percent (pro-life) to 65 percent (pro-choice), respectively. That is about a 25- to 30-point swing in about 60 days," Crowley said, believing this opinion has shifted after Virginia and New York state governments working recently to lessen restrictions on late-term abortions. "This is where Vitae comes in - we have an opening on public opinion since Roe v. Wade was ruled in 1973. It makes what Vitae does more critical than ever before. Now is the time to recognize the new common ground we have and exposing it and stopping the obscenity of infanticide and the obscenity of abortion, period."

Vitae Foundation President Debbie Stokes added, from their research, they found more than 20,000 resident abortions were reported in Missouri in 1980. In 2017, there were 6,790. She said the foundation has carried on many initiatives the organization has started in recent years, as well as started new projects to reach more women struggling with an untimely pregnancy.

For 27 years, Vitae Foundation has used a pro-women approach in "saving more and more women and babies," Vitae senior market director Stacey Kromer said. She said Vitae has invested in millions of dollars of research to better understand the mind of a woman considering an abortion and share that information with mothers, pregnancy help centers and supporters.

"Vitae's ongoing investment in the woman-focused approach has led to the exciting collaboration of an emerging movement called Pro Women's Healthcare Centers. If a woman can develop a positive, pre-existing relationship with a medical clinic that cares about her fundamental, emotional needs," Kromer said, later adding, "That is where Pro Women's Healthcare Centers make a difference. Their mission is to provide passionate, high-quality medical services to social services to empower women to care for their health beyond a pregnancy test."

Following the foundation's pro-life event last year, Vitae began its inaugural school curriculum project. Named in honor of longtime Vitae board member and supporter Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann, the curriculum's goal is to complement existing materials by empowering youth to be messengers of the culture of life, Kromer said.

"Kids are smart. They are self-thinkers and influence one another," she added. "We are giving them the tools to communicate their convictions in a way to move others."

Crowley said she sees how some political observers see the life issue as a "luxury issue," prioritizing it after other issues like the economy, jobs, the deficit, government spending and national security.

"They are all incredibly important issues and issues that are immediate, urgent and directly affect them. We are also told that voters don't focus on life until those other issues are doing better - the economy growing, jobs are plentiful, the nation is safe," she said. "Life is treated as a luxury issue to be carried on wholly when the rest of the issues are going well. You then have the luxury to worry about it.

"What we all know is life is not a luxury issue. It is the issue. Without life and all its protections, nothing else matters - not the economy, the jobs picture, nothing. Life is the issue around which everything else falls."