Focus on the Family president Jim Daly on Friday said he will bridge a great divide by asking abortion-rights advocates to work with his conservative Christian ministry to make abortion less common.
Reproductive-rights supporters say they want abortion to be legal, safe and rare, Daly said, and so his Colorado Springs-based media powerhouse will try to walk that common ground with them — lessening demand for abortion.
The “let’s talk” offer to reproductive-rights groups signals a sea change in Focus’ uncompromising approach to the abortion issue. It is bound to engender controversy about whether detente advances or hinders Daly’s ultimate goal of making abortion illegal.
However, it is in keeping with his makeover of the house that James Dobson built. Daly has said he wants the ministry, which it says reaches 220 million listeners worldwide with its daily broadcasts, to have more conversations and fewer fights.
And Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains said it is willing to listen.
“As I think about this,” Daly said during his Friday broadcast, “I think about the babies that we’re losing right now because we cannot sit down and say, ‘You want to make it rare — tell us how.’ We won’t agree that (abortion) is safe. We certainly will fight for the day that we can overturn Roe vs. Wade, because we want every life to be sacred.”
In the meantime, Daly said, he wants to work with people who may disagree with Focus but with whom “we can eliminate 10,000, 20,000 or 30,000 of 1.2 million babies lost every year.”
The 1.2 million figure, reported in 2008 by the Guttmacher Institute, originally a division of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, is widely accepted by both abortion-rights advocates and abortion foes.
Guttmacher also reports that 22 percent of all pregnancies, excluding miscarriages, end in abortion.
“Welcome any opportunity”
Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains spokeswoman Monica McCafferty said the organization has been working for more than 90 years to improve women’s options.
“We certainly welcome any opportunity to work with anyone who wants to work on the root causes of unintended pregnancies,” she said. “Most of what we do is prevention.”
Planned Parenthood, McCafferty said, takes a comprehensive approach to preventing unwanted pregnancies through education and improving access to affordable birth control. But abortion, she said, must remain legal.
“We certainly never want to see the day when women can’t make this personal, private decision for themselves,” she said.
Michael Cromartie, vice president of the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, said Daly’s outreach is a bold move and likely to be misread by many conservatives.
“I suspect he will take a hit on this,” Cromartie said. “People on the right will say he is giving up. But I think it could be effective.”
Cromartie said Daly just might convince people there are too many abortions in the country.
“I think it’s the kind of step the movement needs to make,” he said.
Focus spokesman Gary Schneeberger said the ministry doesn’t yet have the list of abortion-rights supporters it will contact, but Focus will reach out to that movement.
“It’s something (Daly) is clearly very passionate about,” Schneeberger said. “It’s a ‘Schindler’s List’ moment for us: How many lives can we save on the way to our goal of ending abortion? We don’t know how it will be received.”
Schneeberger said Focus accepts the opposition’s word that it wants to reduce the numbers of abortions.
“I suspect things will happen very quickly. Within the next month, we certainly will have some conversations,” he said. “This is a legitimate attempt to see if there isn’t some overlapping goal.”
Recent horror stories
Daly said his reaching out was partly a result of recent revelations in the media about human trafficking and the horror story of Pennsylvania abortionist Dr. Kermit Gosnell, recently charged with murder in grisly late-term abortions.
“And I think the Lord is saying here is a window of opportunity,” Daly said. “This is about human beings and the death of human beings. And I think the entire nation should come together and say, ‘Wait a minute. We’re better than this.’
“We don’t have to see this kind of tragedy, this kind of evil, show itself again.”
Psychologist and author Juli Slattery, appearing on the program Friday with Daly, said some abortion opponents will question how Focus could work with people fighting to keep abortion legal.
“Some people are going to say that you are making a big compromise,” Slattery said.
Daly said he and other abortion opponents weren’t going to quickly reach their endgame: an abortion ban.
“I think that’s obvious after 40 years,” Daly said. “So what do we do right now to save the babies this year that will be lost if we don’t sit down and decide how we’re going to make it rare?”
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com
