The Daily Signal - #544: She Had an Abortion at 19. Now She Helps Lead the Pro-Life Movement.

Episode Date: September 12, 2019

Catherine Glenn Foster had an abortion when she was just a teenager. Today, she’s leading the fight against abortion as president of one of the nation’s largest pro-life groups. In this episode, she sits down for an exclusive interview to share about her story, what she’s doing now, and the recent achievements of the pro-life movement. We also cover these stories: -President Trump remembers 9/11 and warns Taliban -Congressman-elect Dan Bishop credits Trump with helping him win a close race -Trump voices concern over youth vaping, suggests government action The Daily Signal podcast is available on Ricochet, iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, or Stitcher. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave a review. You can also leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at [e-mail]. Enjoy the show! Release date: 10 September 2019 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Thursday, September 12th. I'm Rachel Del Judas. And I'm Daniel Davis. Catherine Glenn Foster had an abortion when she was just a teenager. Today, she's leading the fight against abortion as president of one of the nation's largest pro-life groups. In this episode, she'll sit down for an exclusive interview to share about her story, what she's doing now, and the recent achievements of the pro-life movement. Don't forget.

If you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on iTunes and encourage others to subscribe. Now on to our top news. Well, Americans remembered 9-11 on Wednesday, 18 years after the terror attacks. President Trump spoke at the Pentagon where he honored the victims. We come here in the knowledge that we cannot erase the pain or reverse the evil of that dark and wretched day. But we offer you all that we have, our unwavering loyalty, our undying devotion and our eternal pledge that your loved ones will never, ever be forgotten.

The president would go further in his speech. He issued a clear threat to the Taliban, which he recently canceled negotiations with. We had peace talks scheduled a few days ago. I called them off when I learned that they had killed a great American soldier from Puerto Rico. and 11 other innocent people. They thought they would use this attack to show strength, but actually what they showed is unrelenting weakness. The last four days, we have hit our enemy harder

than they have ever been hit before, and that will continue. And if for any reason they come back to our country, we will go wherever they are and use power the likes of which the United States has never used before. And I'm not even talking about nuclear power. They will never have seen anything like what will happen to them. Meanwhile, the families of 9-11 victims gathered for a ceremony at the World Trade Center Memorial in New York. Nick Harris remembered his mother who died in the attacks and criticized Minnesota Congresswoman Alon Omar for casually referring to the 9-11 attacks by saying, quote,

some people did something. Here's what Nick had to say. Today I am here to respond to you exactly who did what to whom. Madam, objectively speaking, we know who and what was done. There is no uncertainty about that. Why are your confusion? On that day, 19 Islamic terrorist members of al-Qaeda killed over 3,000 people and cause billions and dollars of economic damage.

Is that clear? But as to whom? I was attacked. Your relatives and friends were attacked. Our constitutional freedoms were attacked. And our nation's founding on Judeo-Christian principles were attacked. That's what some people did. Got that now?

Shortly after his remarks, Omar tweeted, quote, September 11th was an attack on all of us. We will never forget the thousands of Americans who lost their lives in the largest terror attack on U.S. soil. I will continue to fight to make sure we care for the first responders and families who lost loved ones. Hashtag never forget. A congressman-elect Dan Bishop is crediting President Trump with helping him pull off a win in Tuesday's special election race in North Carolina. Bishop edged past his Democratic opponent 50 to 48 percent and it closely watched. race one day after Trump held a big rally for him. Here's what Bishop said on Fox and Friends Wednesday.

I was only in this race for six months against someone who was in it for two years, and we really only were competitive in terms of funding for about six weeks. So the president and the vice president stepping in and committing the way they did to this race was tremendous. And a lot of credit goes to the president. Meanwhile, Republican Greg Murphy is also celebrating his win, in a separate special election, also in North Carolina, he easily defeated Democrat Alan Thomas by 24 percentage points. President Donald Trump is voicing concern over vaping after a meeting with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar

and acting Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Ned Sharpless, calling it a, quote, problem, and saying that his administration will do what it can to curb the practice. Not only is it a problem overall, but really specifically, with respect for children, Trump told reporters Wednesday at the White House. Bloomberg reports that 3.6 million school-age children raped in 2018. We may very well have to do something very, very strong about it, Trump said. Up next, Rachel's exclusive interview with Catherine Glenn Foster, a leader in the pro-life movement.

All right, I want to tell you about our favorite morning newsletter here at the Daily Signal. It's called the Morning Bell, and it'll change the way you experience the news. Every weekday, we at the Daily Signal, deliver the top news and commentary directly to your inbox, and it's all for free. Morning Bell gives you quick access to the policy debates shaping Washington, analysis from experts here at the Heritage Foundation, and commentary from top conservatives like Ben Shapiro, Michelle Malkin, Dennis Prager, and others. It's super easy to sign up. Just go to DailySignal.com and click the Connect button in the top right corner. As soon as you sign up, expect the newsletter in your inbox the very next day. We're joined today on the Daily Signal podcast by Catherine Glenn Foster.

She's the president and CEO of Americans United for Life. Catherine, thank you so much for being with us today. It's a pleasure. So to start off, can you talk about a little bit about Americans United for Life its mission and what you guys are doing right now? Absolutely. So we were founded in 1971, two years before Roe v. Wade struck down life-affirming laws nationwide and introduced this nationwide regime of abortion on demand. And what we do is work in the state houses, in Congress, in the courts, in the public, to educate people and to pass laws relating to life, life affirming laws and then pushing back on some of these threats to life that we've seen introduced in in a few states recently.

You guys have been busy. I know you recently conducted a poll on the public opinions on their opinion of late-term abortion as well as Planned Parenthood funding, Title 10 funding, which is essentially family planning funding. What were the findings of this poll that you guys did? Sure. Well, we found out that 80% of Americans overall and two-thirds of even self-described pro-choice Americans oppose late-term abortion. They oppose these abortions that are taking place when the children are viable, when the children are capable of feeling pain, and when the risk to the mother is so much greater, exponentially greater risk that we've seen as the pregnancy progresses and as the child is growing. risk of death even. And so two-thirds of even self-described pro-choice Americans oppose that. We have a ways to go. We have a third of pro-choice Americans still to reach. But, you know, that already shows us that most Americans agree on some of the fundamentals about life,

whether we're talking about abortion or the full spectrum of life issues that we deal with at Americans United for Life. Most Americans are in agreement when you start getting down into the actual policy questions. It's interesting because if you were to be following Planned Parenthood on social media anywhere, you would never know numbers like that existed that two-thirds of these Americans are actually pro-life. So that's interesting that you guys have found them. I'm glad you're sharing that. You have your own personal story about what led you into the pro-life movement. Can you talk a little bit about your own story? Absolutely. You know, I had never really thought much about abortion until it confronted me personally. My best friend in seventh grade was pro-life and would talk

about it and her whole family was pro-life and it was it was this beautiful witness but but I didn't really know what abortion was you know it's one of those things that you know it was it was just sort of in the background and and so I didn't really connect with that and it didn't really come up in my thinking again until I was 19 years old myself and I was a sophomore at college and I found myself unexpectedly pregnant had no idea where to turn I didn't know there was a pro-life movement hadn't been exposed to that at all all I knew was that I was that I I had this one friend, and I didn't even think about that, really. I'm just thinking, what do I do?

Where do I go? I wish that I had felt comfortable to tell my mother. I did tell her just a few weeks later, but I just, I was sitting there struggling in the campus health clinic. Right after I found out, I thought, you know what, I would love to tell her. I'm afraid to tell her because I just don't want to disappoint her. I didn't think she would be angry. I just, I didn't want to disappoint her. And no one said, oh, let's call your mom or, you know, who do you need to call?

You know, what can we do to help you? Let's hold hands. I'll put my arm around you. We'll find resources. You know, you're strong enough. You're smart enough. You can do it. You know, all of those things that now I know I would say to a woman and I do say to women who are facing these situations.

You know, no one was saying that. No one pointed me towards a pregnancy center. No one helped me along that journey. And so I was left to just, you know, Google late at night or search, I think it was Ask Jeeves or something at the time. And I'm just searching on the internet, you know, what do I do? Where do I go? And I found abortion clinics, abortion facilities online. And so I picked the second cheapest one I could. I'm thinking, okay, maybe it's a little bit safer than the absolute cheapest. And I made an appointment for that Saturday. I knew that it would have to be fast because I was bonding. You know, I was walking around campus. I was wearing my boyfriend's oversized sweatshirt and I was actually talking with my baby as I was walking, you know. But I went into that facility because I didn't know where else to turn. I didn't feel like there was any other choice.

Small Christian college, you know, what do you do? I had no idea who to tell. And so I walked in and from the moment I walked in that door, nothing restored my choice, my autonomy, my sense of empowerment, it was just stripped from me over and over and over by everything that happened behind those closed doors. Wow. So what was your journey to healing and also talking about what had happened in your past and then your journey into the Paulythe movement?

What did that look like? Yeah. So healing was tough. You know, in the facility itself, it was, again, just so disempowering, you know, asking questions, not getting answers, not being given real information. Step one is you pay. And then all of a sudden, you know, you're given a pill. And then they're doing the ultrasound.

And I said, well, you know, can I see the ultrasound? I want to see my child. I'm still trying to make a decision here. And they said, no, it's against policy. And then going forward from there, you know, they said that in fact my child wasn't even old enough. And I said, well, there's my answer. Okay.

I'm gone. I'm out of here. Keep the money. And they said, well, let's. check again. They check again. And they said, well, old enough after all. And then on the, on the actual table, I changed my mind. And I tried to get up. And I said, let me, let me go again, just keep the money, but, but this is wrong for me. And they ended up sending more people in and held me down and forcibly aborted me. So there were layers of trauma to heal from. It wasn't, I mean,

every woman has a different path and a different journey. And it's so difficult for so many of us, but mine, and frankly, I've talked to so many other women, represented other women who had similar experiences of not being given information, not being allowed to see our ultrasounds, being held down, all of these aspects of it. So I was sobbing. I was screaming. I was sobbing. They're trying to make me shut up. I was the last patient to leave the clinic alive that day. My boyfriend drove me back to college, hour and a half or so away.

And I just, I remember lying in bed for days, not wanting to move, not knowing how to go on. It was, it was incredibly traumatic. And then I just sat up one day and I said, I have to. You know, I can't go back to karate. You know, I've got my pass for that. You know, I can't do quite the same things that I was planning on for this semester, but I have to pull myself together and find some way forward. And a few weeks later, I told my mom, she was telling me about her good friend's

daughter who had gotten pregnant. And I said, yeah, you know, it really, it's, it's happening a lot, right? And she said, Catherine, is there something you want to tell me? And I said, yeah, there is. And I told her, and she was as loving and understanding as, you know, almost every mom is, no matter how scared we are. In fact, I was talking to someone just recently a few months ago, and she shared this perspective because I'd always kind of been in my own perspective in this because there's so much to unpack there. And she said, you know, how much your mom must have hurt that you didn't feel like you could go to her? And I said, I'm sorry, I have to stop the conversation right now. I'm going to call my mom.

Give me like five minutes. And I called my mom up in the middle of this interview. And I said, Mama, I'm so sorry. You know, I wish that I had done better. And she, you know, she was starting crying. And she's, you know, I forgive you. I do. I wish that you had just felt like you could come to me because it was not any kind of an abusive relationship.

There was no reason for me to think. I just, I didn't want to disappoint her. But, you know, so much of life is that, you know, you find a way forward through difficult journeys. And we would have found a way. So she helped me find counseling. I started going to counseling at a local center, a pregnancy center, where my parents live in Johnson City, Tennessee. and that was very healing in a lot of ways. And I just kept going.

You know, I graduated college. I went and got a master's and I started working. And it never occurred to me that I would come back here until I just felt this calling to go to law school. And I followed that path. And during orientation, I was in this talk, this orientation talk on health care law, this introductory conversation. And they're in the front row. I'm very excited about it. I'm thinking like 24.

If any of your listeners ever watched 24, Jack Bow, or I'm thinking like bioterrorism and like, I don't know, cool things like that. So I'm very excited about this health care law kind of thing and, you know, all the different ways that health care and biological issues impact people. And all of a sudden, sitting in that talk, I just, it hit me. No, you're going to be dealing with abortion. You're going to be dealing with euthanasia and the spectrum of life issues and just protecting and valuing life and making sure that people are able to really experience the dignity that we all have.

Wow. That is beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing that. Well, House Republicans on Tuesday held a hearing to make a case for a bill to protect babies who survive abortions. And given your own personal story, I can imagine you have some heavy insight on this. House Democrats have blocked Republicans 80 times from voting on this bill. Why do you think this legislation is so controversial? This legislation, first of all, should not be controversial.

Let's just start there. For some reason, it's become it, but it shouldn't be. This is something that we all should be able to agree on. And in the past, so often we've seen that agreement, that consensus from both sides of the aisle. This is a bill that's needed. We know that there are babies who are born alive during an abortion. We know that they are at that point outside the womb. You know, we're not talking about an abortion anymore.

We're talking about two separate human beings, two separate individuals in two separate places, not one inside the other. And these are people who both deserve medical care and treatment. And yet some people seem to think that at that point it should still be a decision between a woman and her doctor. And I think there are a lot of reasons for that why people may be. may think that, you know, it's about, it's about that commitment, you might say, to the abortion cause, because if you, if you draw a line, really, I think, any place but conception, you know, at that point, it's very hard to draw a line anywhere else. You know, is it viability?

Well, that can change. And that's, we're talking about percentages there. Is it, you know, is it, is it, is it, you know, when the, when the child has fingernails or toenails, it was, is it, you know, what point is it a long, along that line. Is it when there's a 50% chance of survival or an 80 or and 95 or, you know, there's just, there isn't any point that really makes sense. And so, and so you see certain politicians get caught up, I think, in defending something that in some cases, they don't even necessarily want to be defending. But when you look at their backing, when you look at, at the party platform and the pressure that you're seeing in. many cases, the political pressure, again, from some elements when, again, the majority of the American public is not in favor of this. 80% of people overall oppose this idea of infanticide, oppose even late-term abortions. And when you have two-thirds of self-described pro-choice Americans opposing late-term

abortions, opposing infanticide, you can see how out of touch that perspective is. And you start thinking, well, okay, let's track this back. Let's figure out how we got there and how certain people got there to where they're defending what seems to be utterly indefensible. Well, we're starting to see these numbers and states across the country, there's more pro-life convictions. Nine states this year have passed laws putting restrictions on abortions. I'm just curious what your thoughts are on what's been happening in states like Ohio and Alabama, where they are passing pro-life legislation. Sure. Yeah. If you look nationwide, we're seeing such an incredible time. time for life. We're seeing about 60 pro-life bills passed into law every single year since 2011.

We're seeing more than ever before. In fact, just this year alone, we've seen 46 states introduce life-affirming laws and 58 bills were passed in 22 states already. If you look at the spectrum of life-affirming law. This is really where we should be because what we're looking at is a situation where people who are on both sides, introducing bills on both sides of the life issue, are looking at certain key markers. They're looking at, first and foremost, arguably, the makeup of the Supreme Court and the federal bench generally and seeing shifts there, some shifts that could be very encouraging for life. Also looking at polling, and we've been talking about polling and these shifts toward life, these shifts especially after New York, when so many people, so many folks just said, Okay, if New York, if that kind of absolutely radical law attacking life, attacking the dignity of human life is what pro-choice looks like, then we want no part of that. And so we saw in one month from just before to just after the New York bill passed into law, I saw about a 10-point swing in the percentage of Americans who call themselves pro-life.

We saw a dramatic increase in the percentage of Democrats who called themselves pro-life after. New York. And it's no surprise when people are celebrating the death of innocent human beings, the most disenfranchised vulnerable members of our communities. It's no surprise when they're lighting up New York Pink and cheering for something that is such an attack on human life. And so when you look at the Supreme Court, when you look at the polls, and most of all, when you look at the abortion rate itself, the fact that it is now the lowest it's been since 1972, the year before Roe was passed into law. So the abortion right now, when abortion is generally legal in America, is now the same as it was in 1972 when it was legal in just a few states.

That is a dramatic shift. It's down 50% since 2006. And even more than that, the rate of abortion within the unintended pregnancies, that has dropped dramatically. And so even women who didn't plan to get pregnant, weren't trying to get pregnant, didn't, may not even know how they ended up quite in this situation. They are still choosing life. You know, with the technology that we have, with the, you know, scientific advances in the medicine, we're seeing more and more women choose life as they get this awareness and they're looking for holistic solutions and true life affirming care.

And they want consistency. They want authenticity. They don't want, okay, well, these people deserve life. These don't. And so the abortion rate is down. And so with that and the polling in the Supreme Court, both sides are looking at these markers. and they're saying, well, hang on, if this is going on, then before long, the abortion issue may be returning to the states. Rome may be overturned and the abortion issue may be returning to the states.

And at that point, you know, that's when we can make so much more progress even. You know, we would expect some states like New York to go the direction that they are. We're not giving up there. We are fighting there. We are fighting back against the bad laws. We are advancing the good bills. We're doing everything that we can. But it's predictable that some states would go that way, even though the abortion rate in New York is dropping as well, even though the polling in New York is just the same.

But we would see, based on the politics there, we would see states going that way. We would see other states like Alabama going the other way and heading towards life affirming laws. And it's so exciting to see, you know, other states going in that direction. And then most of the states are in the middle. You know, most of the states would have some laws that would be life affirming, some limitations on abortion, some protections for women's health. and safety, but they wouldn't go quite so far as either either New York or Alabama. And so this is when we have this real opportunity. And so right now we're doing the work. We at Americans United for Life, we're laying the groundwork so that we can get that test case to overturn Roe

so that we have the framework of laws in place for once Roe is overturned and it goes back to the states. And so you're seeing these conditional laws being passed so that as soon as Rose overturned, that law goes into effect. The condition is that Rose overturned. And then these laws are just saving lives now. You know, right now lives are being saved. Two million lives saved just from the Hyde Amendment, not to mention all of the pro-life laws that are getting passed. And so that's millions of people who are here in the world today, thanks to, in large part, the life-affirming laws that we've been able to pass. Thanks to the pregnancy centers that I wasn't aware of when I was 19 years old.

Thanks to the sidewalk counselors. Thanks to all these different aspects that are coming together to educate. and to build a more life-affirming America. Thank you so much for sharing that perspective. You mentioned New York and how they've passed aggressive pro-abortion laws. I know Illinois is another state that has passed laws taking away some prohibitions on late-term abortions. What do you think this says about the direction of pro-abortion advocates and where they're trying to go now that they're seeing this groundswell of pro-life efforts in legislation? Yeah, I think we're looking at those few certain states where they think it's,

if I could say low-hanging fruit, you know, for them, where they think, okay, they have the political structure in place. They have what they need to pass these laws. And where they're, you know, just like in any political system, there's so many different things that people are focusing on and thinking of. And so in some of these states, maybe the citizens, the people who live there, they might not hold their elected officials as accountable on the life issue as on some of. other issues, even though, again, the polling is showing that there's a lot of consistency nationwide. We're not talking about 50% of Americans very pro-life, 50% of Americans very pro-choice. We're talking about most Americans agreeing on at least rolling back abortion to the end of the first trimester. Seventy-five percent of Americans want it rolled back at least to that

point, which requires overturning row. But until that point, Planned Parenthood, certain other lobbying groups, plan parented action, and these different groups are looking at states like New York and Illinois and planning for what happens once Roe is overturned. And so they've targeted, obviously, New York we saw with Governor Cuomo. We saw what happened in Virginia, with Governor Northam there, and that, no real word for it, a disaster debacle. Everything that went on. there and then delegate Tran there who you could even see her discomfort when she was having to defend really infanticide in front in this in this hearing and and you could see that she was not comfortable with that. I think we could all kind of tell. Governor Northam saying, oh, well,

if the if the child is born alive, then that's a decision between a woman and her doctor about whether to provide care for this living, breathing, separate child and not anymore within the woman's body. You know, that's what we need to be talking about, is highlighting these kinds of extreme bills that are being introduced. And sadly, at times, even passed into law because it is indefensible. It is indefensible. And so I don't think it was surprising for many of us,

at least many of us who work on these issues when just a few short days later, after Governor Northam's interview became public that it also became public, that in fact he had worn blackface and disenfranchised so many, so many people in the American public in our communities. You know, huge percentage of the American population that he said, well, you know, lesser, not quite enough, not quite the same. Such a double standard. Exactly, exactly. And he offended 100% of us. I mean, who wasn't offended by what came out with really our apparently top three?

Democrats in Virginia. Just absolutely appalling. And so it's not surprising. When you're willing to disenfranchise some, you know, everyone really is at risk. And certainly that applies to the case of newborn babies in the case of Governor Northam. Well, looking at what happened to the former CEO of Planned Parenthood in July, she was abruptly fired. And it was reportedly because she wasn't zealous enough in pushing Planned Parenthood's abortion agenda. What do you think this says about the future of Planned Parenthood? I think that, first of all, this isn't the first time this has happened. This is not the first time that they have doubled down on abortion as a central part of their

platform. It happened multiple times before, in fact, when they had a shake-up at the top back a couple of few decades ago, when they said, no, every single affiliate, not necessarily every facility, but every affiliate grouping would have to perform abortions, even the ones who didn't want to. And so all of the affiliates are trying to scramble and sometimes merge or come up with these creative solutions to do that. In this case, it felt even more personal. I feel like, you know, here we're talking about a physician, an accomplished physician, a woman, a woman who's also a minority. and someone who has such experience and such depth there.

But she wasn't pro-abortion enough for them. She wasn't supporting abortion enough. She wasn't political enough for them. And even though when her tenure began, she did begin talking about abortion openly and saying abortion is health care. Even so, that was not enough for them. They wanted someone more political, someone who's going to be pushing abortion even more. And so it was really, it was really tragic because she was someone who, she was so much more than an ideologue.

You know, she really, she brought her heart to that role. And she believed in it. And we had, we had some disagreements. But she was willing to, to reach out to the life community, to find common ground. And we did have so much common ground when it comes to issues like health care, that it was, it was devastating. and especially, I would say even more so because of her experience with miscarriage and knowing that she has lost a child and been through that experience and then to have her ousted like that.

It was, I know it was painful for many of us. You know, we're just, we're looking at this and it's hard to imagine. You just feel terrible for her. Well, Catherine, thank you so much. for being with us today on the Daily Signal Podcast. Where can people follow your work at AUL? So our website is AUL.org. We are on social media, Facebook, Twitter, whatever. Go check us out there. And we will update you on everything that's going on with pro-life bills and laws and court cases and everything else going on in the life movement. Well, thank you again. And we'll see you next time. Pleasure to be here.

Well, we will leave it there for today. Thanks for listening to the Daily Signal podcast brought to you from the Robert H. Bruce Radio Studio. the Heritage Foundation. Please be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, or SoundCloud, and please leave us a review or a five-star rating on iTunes to give us any feedback. We'll see you again tomorrow.

The Daily Signal podcast is executive produced by Kate Trinko and Daniel Davis. Sound design by Lauren Evans and Thalia Ramprasad. For more information, visit DailySignal.com.