August 17, 2025 • 41 mins
Mike McClellan is the Executive Director of Maine Right to Life (MRTL), a state affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee, dedicated to advocating for the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death. McClellan actively engages in legislative advocacy, testifying on bills such as LD 253, LD 682, LD 886, LD 887, LD 1007, and LD 1154 before the Maine Judiciary Committee to promote pro-life values. He plays a key role in lobbying efforts, public awareness campaigns, and grassroots mobilization to protect life at all stages.
McClellan has been featured in interviews, including with the Christian Civic League of Maine and CatholicTV, discussing MRTL’s mission and events like the summer banquet featuring Dr. Abby Johnson.
Lori Cloutier holds a leadership position at Maine Right to Life, working alongside Mike McClellan to advance the organization’s mission of protecting human life. She is actively involved in MRTL’s outreach and educational efforts, including initiatives like the distribution of baby boxes to support families. Cloutier has appeared on platforms such as CatholicTV’s This Is The Day to discuss MRTL’s work and its commitment to promoting compassionate alternatives to abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, and physician-assisted suicide. Her contributions focus on raising awareness and inspiring community involvement in pro-life advocacy.
Thank you for watching The Ever-Living Podcast, a heartfelt space to share the stories and voices of women who champion a culture that values and protects life. Each episode we seek to empower, offering connection, hope, and strength through the journeys of those who work and pray for this cause. Crafted for women seeking purpose and community, we welcome you to join us in cherishing every single heartbeat.
McClellan has been featured in interviews, including with the Christian Civic League of Maine and CatholicTV, discussing MRTL’s mission and events like the summer banquet featuring Dr. Abby Johnson.
Lori Cloutier holds a leadership position at Maine Right to Life, working alongside Mike McClellan to advance the organization’s mission of protecting human life. She is actively involved in MRTL’s outreach and educational efforts, including initiatives like the distribution of baby boxes to support families. Cloutier has appeared on platforms such as CatholicTV’s This Is The Day to discuss MRTL’s work and its commitment to promoting compassionate alternatives to abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, and physician-assisted suicide. Her contributions focus on raising awareness and inspiring community involvement in pro-life advocacy.
Thank you for watching The Ever-Living Podcast, a heartfelt space to share the stories and voices of women who champion a culture that values and protects life. Each episode we seek to empower, offering connection, hope, and strength through the journeys of those who work and pray for this cause. Crafted for women seeking purpose and community, we welcome you to join us in cherishing every single heartbeat.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to ever Living, a podcast where we share the
stories and voices of those who work and pray to
protect life in New England and beyond. Welcome to ever Living.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome Jason, Thanks Cindy. I'm so glad to be here
and i just want to talk a little bit. So
I'm with New Hips Right to Life, so with Sindy,
and we have this amazing banquet coming up in October
on Thursday, October sixteenth, and we want to invite everybody.
Our speaker, I'm really excited about it. Her name is
(00:42):
Darlene Pollock. She's a former president of New Hampshire Right
to Life, but she's also a nationally known speaker and
leader on fighting sex trafficking and so we are so
privileged to have her. So if you have any availability
on that night and you want to come and support
the work of Advocation for the innocent from the unborn
(01:03):
till natural death, please consider joining us. Just go to
nartl dot org and click on banquet. There's also opportunities
if you can't make it, to either make a donation
or to become a sponsor. And if you have a business,
that's a great way to get your.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Name out Oh, looks like there's dinner.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, we usually have a very good dinner. I always
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
And it's just a great place for people who value
life around New Hampshire to gather.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, and there's awards, you can hear an update on
what's been going on this past year and what we're
hoping to see in the next year. It's just a
really exciting it's almost the event of the year in
the life area.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
And to help New Hampshire Right to Life continue its
work for the next year. And when is.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
It, Jason Thursday, October seventeenth or sixteenth. Sorry, And there
are discount tickets early bird tickets that you can yet
if you purchase by August twenty seventh, awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
And what if you're a business that you want to
support the.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Banquet, then you can purchase a sponsorship and we have
all the information available on our website for that and
we'd love to we'd love to have your business or
your person.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
And what if you're a church and you want to
sit at the same table.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Well, then you can actually get a discount on the
table if you purchase a table of ten us Cindy,
you know so much about this you know, just want
to ask.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah, I love the softballs and you hit them all right. Well,
let's welcome from Maine Right to Life, Laurie Clutier and
Mike McClellan. Welcome to every living.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Thank you, Cindy and Jason, Thank.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
You so Laurie and Mike, thank you for being here today.
Can you explain your role in main Right to Life
and a little bit about what you do there.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Well, we started main Right Life started fifty one years
ago with some lay people and the support of the
Dices of Portland, and I've been with them since twenty
twenty two and we're they're leading pro life organization in Maine.
And we have like as our new executive director who's
(03:17):
been with us since February January February, So there's some changes,
but we've been we've had a busy year and with
thanks to Mike to help pick up some of the
responsibilities because we had a big banquet this year. So
we've been trying to just build our community and it's
(03:38):
been flat since COVID, and so that's what we're doing
now is building our baseline.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
And I would just add I guess that we are
the main national rights to life organization, just like you
are in New Hampshire.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Great, and we have some photos from your recent banquet.
Let's take a look.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
Okay, well that's that's myself and Laurie and then in
the middle we started this year a new award which
was to like, in a sense, the Legislator of the Year.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
So that's Representative Reagan Paul, who is amazing, and that's
her receiving the award. That's doctor Abbie Johnson, who I'm
assuming if people are watching this program, they probably know
who she is. She's famous for having been a planned
parenthood I think in Chicago director of the Year nationally
(04:41):
and then had an amazing life change, an amazing incident
where she now is arguably the biggest advocate for life
and for pro life. And she was our guest.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Speaker and Mike, did I hear that there's a movie
about her.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Yeah, I'll tell you the name of it, but there's
actually a movie about her.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
She wrote a book, Unplanned, Unplanned.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Unplanned, Thank you good. It's a great movie. Enjoyed it
and I think at our event she announced a second
movie is coming out, which is kind of the follow up,
you know, the next steps after she got involved in
the pro life movement.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Oh wow, Yeah, what an encouraging story going from like
somebody who is part of the abortion industry who's really
passionate about it too. I think I think it was
like she saw an ultrasound one day and she was
asked to assist in an abortion, and then that was
when she realized about the humanity of this child.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Exactly like that she was. She was you know, if
you watch the movie for read the book, and then
if you heard her speak about it, she was much
more blunt, wouldn't you say, Laura? I mean she really
she really got down and dirty and she didn't take
the easy way out. She you know, I think the
persona is this poor person. She didn't know what she
(05:56):
was doing, and she kind of owned it and said
in a lot of ways she did know what she
was doing, and then she had this transformation. So it
was a pretty amazing thing to listen to.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, I mean, God really made a big impact on
her life for good.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Definitely.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
So, Mike, you've joined Maine mytal life since January or
you've been Yeah, So what's this year been like? How
would you how did you describe twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Well, Laurie did a great job. It's kind of I mean,
it's been a whirlwind. I was a policy director for
a family policy alliance organization for eight years and in
a restructuring basically they kind of cleaned house and the
main Right to Life opportunity came out. Before that, I
was actually a main state representative, so I was in
the state House for six years. So I've been advocating
(06:50):
for life for since twenty ten at least. But this
has been a much more focused obviously, and it's been
an education in many ways. But as Laurie said, one
of the great things with Main Right to Life is
the last couple of years they haven't really had an
executive director. They had a couple of interim people. The board,
(07:11):
you know, with Laurie's leadership stepped up and really kept
things going so that when I stepped in, we could
start moving forwards. And so I'm really upbeat about what's coming.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Great, awesome. Laurie or Mike, could you describe the I
guess the climate of Maine, like what is what it's
like living there and the pro life movement in Maine
for anybody outside of Maine.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Mike Illat you lead on this, I'll fill in as needed.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
But well, I'll be blunts. Main's the greatest place to live,
no offense to New Hampshire. New Hampshire is a beautiful place.
Maine is a beautiful place to live. I'm sitting right
now looking at the white mountains at my backyard, obviously
far away. It's it's really a tricky thing describing Maine.
(08:03):
Since Richard Nixon, which is in like nineteen seventy, Maine
has been run by the Liberal Party and other than
for two years, which I was elected for two of
those years. So it's been a definite track of a
policy change. You know, the abortion, the laws and the
policies have just incrementally grown. We are, arguably, in the
(08:26):
United States, one of the lead abortion centers, I think
in the whole country, even given how small we are.
But like a lot of places, if you've got a
political map, you know, one of those maps that shows
you the color of the political parties, you'd see a
lot of red. If you look at the last election
in Maine, the main House only has a four seat difference,
(08:51):
and yet yeah, amazing, and two terms ago it was
in the twenties, so we've made it again incremental change.
But the people in leadership are leading like they have
super majorities. So we've had some terrible legislation passed by
one vote, and you know, we've had someone I think
(09:12):
you want to talk about sixteen nineteen at some point.
We've had some legislation where we just slammed the state House.
I mean, we just earned like eighty twenty and turn
you know, thousands of people and then they voted the
wrong way. So it's a conundrum and very frustrating because
the people remain while statistically there's polls that say they
(09:35):
believe in abortion. Uh, in no way do they believe
in the abortion that we have. So so what do
you learning that I forget?
Speaker 2 (09:44):
So just on that what you're saying, Mike. I think
I've heard a lot of times the other side likes
to say, oh, well, sixty percent support abortion rights, but
if you actually talk to those people, they don't support
abortion up till birth right exactly. A lot of them
are like, oh, fifteen weeks, that's yeah, that's that's about
as far as we can go. And that's actually like
eighty percent of or ninety percent of Europe right.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
And when I when I was elected in twenty ten.
I served twenty ten through twenty fifteen. The conversations we
were having now people would have laughed at Back then,
there would have been no thought about some of the
laws that now actually are law.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Yeah, so what are the what is the current law
in Maine about abortion and.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Protecting Do you want me to do that? Or yes,
I can't keep this thing in my ear. Well, we
pretty much any abortion law that you could think of,
I think we've passed we'd have a shield law, which
you know, when we argued about it, we tried to
point we tried to point out to the legislator legislature
(10:49):
that there could be a case of somebody getting hurt
and you know, you know, assaulted in another state and
brought to Maine and then it could all be dealt
with by main law. Main main law enforcement is not
allowed to intercede in situations like that. This year and
we have abortion up to birth, and this year we
(11:12):
actually passed the what do they call it, the Well's
it's a shield law, but it basically allows uh doctors
to not put their names on prescriptions, you know, to
protect the doctors. Uh so, and we're we are clearly
we are mailing abortion pills to other states and and
again shielding any I think there was some litigation that
(11:35):
was shielded. So it's it's not good. It's not good.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
One one more thing that's really interesting is in my
political life years ago, used to see these battles about
new ideas in California, and somebody along the way had
the great idea, you know, if we go to Maine,
it doesn't it doesn't cost one hundred million dollars. It
costs ten million dollars to have the battle, win, win
the fight, and then move it, you know, move it
(12:04):
to the bigger states. And so we're actually finding ourselves
being a testing ground at times for really bad, really
bad legislation.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
And I think one of the things people don't realize
that you were talking about the shield laws, Mike, Yeah.
I think one of the people things people don't realize.
For instance, this case in Texas that has been getting
national attention, where there was an abortion doctor in New
York who mailed the abortion pills to a girl in Texas.
A lot of people don't realize the reason this all
came to light was because she had to go be
(12:35):
rushed to the er or I don't know if rush,
but she ended up in the emergency room. And part
of the thing that people don't realize is that these
abortion pills carry much higher risk than even surgical abortions,
Like something like eleven percent was the most recent estimate
I saw.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
And I can tell you having testified in the main
legislature about that and about some other points that we're
called They tell us we're lying, you know. I remember
testifying on trying to make the abortion the pill that
you know can end the abortion fell, you know, trying
to bring that up, and they told us we were
lying that there's no such thing as a pill that
(13:15):
stops an abortion, you know, even though we were showing
that there was like two thousand babies had been saved,
and that was years ago. So we're basically called liars
at times.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
And to call it, to call abortion a states rights issue,
I mean, if the mail is going back and forth
like it's, it's not contained in the state anymore.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Yeah, So, right, do you want to talk.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
About so so, Laurie, I now my understanding is you
were you were made right to life in twenty twenty three,
and I heard you guys broke some records in Maine.
Can you tell me about that?
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Is that up at the capitol? I'm assuming that's what
you mean. Yeah, it seems like me in the news lately,
national news, but for all the wrong reasons because of
this LD sixteen nineteen. But it was amazing. We had
was it twenty four hours of constant testimony or thirty
(14:15):
six hours and we started eight o'clock in the morning,
and it went through the whole light and there was
long lines. It got to the point where they would
cut back testimonies for us down from three minutes to
one minute to push them through and to shut us down.
Then in the middle of the night, there were a
(14:37):
lot of young young kids there, students, and they were
singing hymns in the hallways. It was so powerful and
so moving, and I think the last testimony was like
seven o'clock in the morning. I think the the other
side was blown away actually of how what had happened overnight.
(14:57):
It was just so amazing. But then to have them
not listen to the people and vote their own what
they wanted to choose. But it was a beautiful. It
was beautiful to witness that all day long and continue
through the night.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
So what did l D sixteen nineteen, What did that?
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Michael? How did you go to that? You have the
legislature pro Jeez.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
I just can't keep this in my ear. I you know,
it's funny. I didn't write it down. There's been so
many bills. I'm trying to think back what it was
even about.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Allow abortion viability.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
Yes, it was actually the viability. It was a viability bill.
And as Lurie, I mean again Lourie described it perfectly.
It was. It went well over a day. I testified
at six o'clock the next morning, and and you know,
it's easy to focus on all the bad stuff because
it was. It was a terrible law that then some
(15:56):
other terrible laws followed, but there was so much beauty
in it, so many people showed up. A funny thing,
not funny perhaps, but a funny thing was we had
a rally before that. It was a couple of days earlier,
I think, and all the main media said, oh, that
was kind of cute. They had two hundred people at
the state House and we were shaking our heads like
there was a lot more than two hundred. Well, luckily
(16:18):
the security people have a tracker, and I went to
them and they're and they're all kind of on our side.
They all they were always rooting for us. And they said,
we had eight hundred and eighty eight people at that event.
Wow with the meat. But the media said two hundred,
which everybody can get two hundred there, and we there's
a lot of events with two hundred. As Laurie said,
there was music through the night, just people were joyful
(16:42):
and realistic and if I remember, don't quote me on this,
but it was something like we had like six hundred
and fifty people testified and they had like sixty, but
there was a lot more people there. There were a
lot of people that either didn't choose to testify or
you know, they had a number of systems so they
(17:03):
so there. Yeah, there. Their number came up at three
in the morning and they just couldn't, you know, stay
that long. So it was such a total victory for
mein except except for the final votes.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Yeah, it looks like there are many many, uh people
of Maine who care about life and are willing to
stay up all night and all day to defend life.
That's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
One thing we found this year, which was I'm just
kind of processing it now, Maine. Maine is a citizen legislature.
I think that's what you guys too. Our legislators are
not full time. So we were done. We were done
I think in June this year, and the second next
year will be done in May. And there was a
lot of bills this year. Uh there was actually, for
(17:51):
the first time in many years, there were a lot
of good life bills. There were bills that thought to
protect women. And we didn't expect any of them to win,
and and I don't think any of them did win.
But we didn't have good turnouts. And in fact, I
can think of one bill. I was the only person
on our side that showed up. And we've I think
Laura and I and other people we've talked about there
(18:12):
was two whole years of showing up like we did,
you know, and many of these people were new. These
are people that did not want to be in politics,
They did not really want to be at the state House.
But they showed up because it was right and they
went for two years and they did the right thing,
and their government failed them by over and over voting
the wrong way. And so this year was kind of quiet.
(18:34):
And so that's one of the challenges we have, Lourie,
I think is you know, reinvigorating people. Next year is
going to be an election year and there's a lot
of opportunity with that.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
How about safe haven laws in Maine? What are the
safe haven laws? And how are there also baby boxes?
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Actually, it's interesting, it's ongoing. We have through Saint Haven.
It's the only company nationally that offers this. And we
have money already saved that from being right to Liza
to support the first baby box is eighteen thousand dollars
to set that up. And we have the fire station
(19:19):
and the fire chief in Rumfids that's very eager to
put this in and they've been dragging their feet a
little bit, but we should hopefully surely we'll be seeing
one be installed. And there's many other fire stations that
are very interested in this. And we were waiting for
the rulings on this, and Mike can go into details
more of the rulings, and that's what we've been pushing
(19:41):
for the last couple of years on these rulings. That's
the capital the Stayhouse has been not the kind of
put kicking the tire down the road, and after the
last couple of months of pushing and have been one
of our board directors who is an attorney, write letters
and put a lot of pressure. It was able to
(20:04):
make these rulings official. And well now we're just waiting
to have, like I said, the fire station in Rumfitt
to install the first one. And Mike, you might want
to explain how the rulings work.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Well, I mean even go and that's good, good job there,
But again, how sad is it? I was I was
a policy director when this, when this first happened, it
was twenty one maybe that it came up, and uh,
my good friend who's also a policy director with the
Catholic Church, Suzanne, actually approached me and other people and said,
you know what, we want to keep this under the radar.
(20:40):
We don't want to make a big deal about this
because we don't want to draw you know, the planned
parenthood people in and all that. So I literally was
asked not to testify. I mean, what what could be nicer,
what could be more beautiful than a safe even babybox?
So we didn't, we didn't testify. It passed committee, it
passed in the House kind of with not much problem,
(21:03):
and then the other side started really kicking at it
and really threw a lot of hurdles in the front
of it, but it did pass. And so like any legislation,
I'm sure this is how New Hampshire works. Then it
goes into a department I think in this case it
was Department of Health and Human Services and they have
to create rules and that's that's kind of how you know,
(21:24):
Washington works and all that. And then for the first
time in my career, the rules just didn't come, and
they didn't come, and they and we kept asking what's
going on, and they kept dragging feet, and it was
it was just clear. I mean, you know, I don't
know for a fact, but I'm sure it was just
you know, people on leadership who were basically saying, you know,
(21:46):
hold this thing up. So as as Laurie mentioned, one
of our board members, I think around the time I
showed up was just starting as a lawyer starting to
kind of come at them and say, you know, either
get this going or else. And I'm sure said a
very nicely. So they did finally write the rules, and
they only broke a couple of months ago. And again
(22:07):
we started like in twenty twenty one should have been
happening in twenty two. So we're you know, kind of
going through a process now with rumfert is trying to
figure out what the rules say and make sure it's all,
you know, all good and legal. I won't say who,
but just today I got word from another fire chief
and another part of the state that they are actively,
(22:29):
you know, applying in their part of the state to
hopefully be mean second safe haven babybox. So again, this
is like the future. I think this is gonna and
it's We've Laurie and I've talked about how what a
positive thing this is going to be, you know, to
be able to show people what this thing is, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
And for those of us and those for our listeners
who don't know what to safe haven baby boxes, can
you can one of you guys just describe that you
want to do it?
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (22:56):
So it usually takes place either a police department or
fire station or a hospital, and that what they do
is install this baby box on the side of the
outside wall and it's temperature controlled, open the box, put
(23:17):
the baby in there. Within I think three minutes or
a minute. I'venot recall them the details of the time,
but the allte alarm goes off a silent alarm goes
off inside the building, which alarms the people in charge,
and then they can come and get the baby, and
they take the baby right to the hospital for care,
(23:39):
and the it's given over to foster care. So it's
done anonymously. And it's a great place, especially when you
get to rural areas, and Maine has a lot of
rural areas, and it's a great place for a baby
to be given up for adoption rather than a dumb
(24:00):
stir or just left out to die. And we have
seen that many times here in main where they found
a baby and a sand pit. And there's a that's
been going around as we try to force this issue
with the people. And I think I would not last
year to get signatures and run fit for this. And
(24:21):
everybody wants this. It's great, it's said here we are
in this century that we have to do this, But
everybody wanted this baby box to happen. So it's a
great safe way for a planned pregnancy, a mom to
go in and walk away and give the baby a future.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
And so safe Haven is actually a company, so you
can you can look them up and you can see it.
The one thing that Laurie didn't mention was the location
has to be staffed twenty four to seven. Yes, so
it could be a fire department, but only if there's
always somebody there. Right, That's an important concept, and again
it creates options and we're just so excited. One state
(25:04):
that's really run with this is Indiana, and I think
they have like one hundred and fifteen of them and
they've had some amazing stories.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Wow. And how old can the child be or how
young like to be placed in the in the baby box?
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Yeah, I'm not sure about how old, but I mean
how young?
Speaker 3 (25:23):
I mean literally up to three months? I believe.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Wow, so you git sure? We just extended ours to
sixty days for one week, So that's that's pretty amazing
that you guys do up to three months?
Speaker 4 (25:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Are there any you may be wrong on that?
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Now?
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Who say that? Jason? That makes more sense. Actually, I'll
have to look into that because I think you're right.
I think it's thirty days. That's like a mentumna, So
I apologize.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Are there any pregnancy resource centers in Maine that you'd
like to highlight or share with our listeners?
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Yes, And this might be a good opportunity to talk
about this pro life Alliance initiative that we did last year.
We have sixteen pregnancy resource centers in Maine and what
we've done is we, along with them and the Nights
of Columbus, the Dices of Portland forty Days for Life,
(26:21):
and we meet quarterly on a zoom and we schedule
an hour and we bring in speakers and it's a
way to unite us and make us a stronger army
because we need to build ourselves up here in Maine
because of what we've been dealing with. So it's great
and like I said, we just bring some great speakers
and we get a chance to pregnancy resource centers to
(26:45):
share their stories. Our next goal with that is to
get a platform on our website to have them have
access and use that to connect, share fundraises, babyball drives,
and be one way that we all connect and have
a strong voice together. So it's coming up on the
(27:07):
year that we've been doing that show.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
So we're looking at your website right now. It's main
Right to life dot org. Yes, yeah, and let's see
what is there.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
See. One thing to mention too is I don't know
if this is other. I don't know if you guys
do this or other states do this main Right to Life.
When someone donates to us, we give a small percentage
of that money to the Pregnancy of Resource centers and
we actually allow people to choose if they want, which
one gets it.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Mm hm oh wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
So I see you have a Pro Life family picnic
in September.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Yes, free event. We're working with the Nicer Columbus with that.
That's pretty excited. Somebody came up to me last spring
and because we do an annual event at the State
House hands at the Capitol and it's during the work week,
and they said, we would really like to have Pro
Life do something for the family on a weekend. So
(27:59):
the Nice Columbus is working with us, and we're pretty
excited about this. This is the first one we've done,
and we're going to move it over throughout the state
every year because Main so large long that we'll go
up north one year and we'll just jump around to
different counties throughout the state.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Okay, so here people can donate and volunteer.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Yes, yeah, yeah, great.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
This is a long website for us too. We just
put this up year ago, so we've gone a lot
of changes in the last few years.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
We updated your website regularly. I mean I mean every Friday,
I update the legislative page. We always have events happening
things like that. So anybody that was interested in Maine
can go to that site pretty much at least weekly
and learn something new. And Laurie and Board and all
did a great job. There's so many resources on that website.
(28:55):
I know in my previous job, if I needed stats,
if I needed a picture, I needed things, I went
to main Right to Life website. And now you are. Well,
now I'm a small part of it.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Do you have social media that our listeners could subscribe to?
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Okay, so I have that here for you. It's also
it's on our website if you scroll scroll around a lot,
but not social media, but just as important, maybe we
started a weekly email newsletter which now is by every
is bi weekly every other week. And just basically if
you go to our website and you sign up for information,
(29:37):
then you'll get that delivered. Uh. And again it's usually
pretty useful information. We're on Facebook at and it's all
it's all spelled out. Maine Right to Life is our
hand all Maine m A I N E. So at
Maine Right to Life. We're on X, which is of
course the former Twitter, and it's the handles at Maine
(29:59):
A RTL, so again spelled out at Maine m A
I n E rt L and Instagram, which I had
been banned from by my wife. She said I had
too many social media things going on. So then I
inherited this job and found out we had an Instagram account.
I'm trying to figure out. It's the kind of strange
thing to me. But at main Right to Life all
(30:20):
spelled out again, and we're pretty active on all of them,
I know, since I run some of it. I try
to make Facebook family friendly and X once in a
while a little more opinionated.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
F y.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
I okay, so to two different.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
Two different outlooks.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yeah, yeah, okay, you can choose, you can choose which
one you want.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Yeah yeah, So yeah, So how how can we all
be praying for the future of Main Right to Life
and families in Maine? And and yeah, and they.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Can work to you, well, thank you, And again I
give a lot of credit to the people before me.
We are actually fifty years I think you said fifty one,
So we're fifty to fifty one years. This year been
around a long time, been a lot of amazing people involved,
and in a time not that long ago in Maine
there was kind of a break in the pro life movement.
(31:23):
Without getting into it, it's kind of splintered it a
little bit. And so you know, you could pray for
Maine to be united like like we were for sixteen
nineteen the legislation where just everybody came. We also because
of that, we you know, we've lost people that in
the past supported main right to life, and so part
(31:44):
of why I was brought in and have been struggling
with is to kind of re engage people or and
order to get new people involved. So we really, you know,
we can do the work, but we need people to
pray for us, support us financially in some cases, and
you mentioned earlier about volunteering and things. So my hope
(32:05):
is you know, you know, Laurie and I when we
were talking about me doing this, we talked a lot
about education, and you know, so we're not only fighting
in Maine. You know, people that don't they don't understand.
Sometimes they hear abortion and they think that we're back
in the fifties versus where we were not there at all.
We're not We're not in the close anger days. We
(32:26):
are in the days where babies are being born and
being considered to get aborted, and people don't seem to
get that. The media and main is pretty much in
the bag against us. They just aren't honest, to be honest,
with a few exceptions, and so it's it's a battle.
And if you know, for me personally, if I didn't
(32:48):
know the God of the universe, have you shaken my
head staying what am I doing here? But I know
I know he has great plans.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
So yeah, and to have friends in the States who
are also supporting definitely you're not alone.
Speaker 4 (33:05):
Right, Well, we appreciate you guys.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
We just Mike and I went to the National Right
Convention in Kansas in June, and I think from Mike
it was really great because it really it was very strong,
strong voices, gave us hope. There's many other states we
realize that are in the same boat as us. But
we came back from that national media really excited and
(33:32):
we got great support from National They've been really helpful,
and so I think that kind of when we came back,
we came right into the Abbey banquet. It really ignited
us to continue because we do need to educate more
to the people of Maine. So that's one of our
(33:52):
goals this year is to do that.
Speaker 4 (33:55):
Yeah, and you guys help us by letting us to
your podcast. This is how up until.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Well, we're we're all in this fight together. And you know,
I honestly think you're mentioning the media earlier, Mike. I
think especially for that that battle you guys fought in
twenty twenty three where they're extending abortion to legalize it
all the way through birth. Yeah, I think most people
realized these babies could actually be born and given away.
(34:23):
It's even safer for the mother in many cases than
like a two or three day late term abortion. And
then I think most people don't realized that that that
that that's actually what they're talking about. They're not talking
about life of a mother or anything like that.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
The Babylon Bee. The Babylon Bee, which is a satire
kind of a I guess a Christian conservative. If you
know it, you know it, and they just put joke
headlines up. They're not real. They had one up the
other day that said something like, oh no, the Post
office did not deliver the abortion pills on time, and
an adorable baby was born, and I thought, wow, yeah,
(35:01):
that really says it all.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
It reminds me of Jonah and Ninevah and it said,
you know, they did not know their left hand from
their right. And I feel like that's how we're operating here,
is you know, God, would you send us a Jonah
who can walk around the city three days and then
they turn away? Because I think if people who actually
realize what we're talking about, I think a lot more
(35:24):
people would be on our side.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
Well honestly, like like we we just want God to
be glorified. I became a Christian after college, so before then,
I mean, like, yes, I you know, would I've been
pro life, I don't know. So I think for just
(35:47):
God's mercy and his his just for his name to
be known more. I think that he and Jesus already
has the victory over over death. Do you guys have
life affirming scripture or messages that you'd like to share
(36:10):
with our listeners this week?
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Yeah? One one, there's a quote Saint Catherine of Siana
has been one doctor of the church, and she's been
somebody that I go to a lot. And this quote.
She actually has two, and I'd like to squeeze in
the second one because it really talks about what we've
been talking about. But the first one is be who
(36:32):
God meant you to be, and you will set the
world on fire. And God created us for a mission
for him to glorify Him. And I think Mike and
I and all our pro life is at all are
doing that for God's greater glory, and it's we may
not think that standing at the corner crayon or outside
(36:54):
of the clinic, but it is it. It's magnifying our Lord.
And the other one is proclaim the truth and do
not be silent through fear. Just those two really strong
quotes that I just love from Catherine of Sienna.
Speaker 4 (37:10):
M Right, thanks, Okay, well I do. And it was, Yeah,
it was interesting to think about this because it's hard
to pick one. Uh quick, A quick story. I don't
know if this ties into my verse or not, but
when I was a legislator my second term, they always
hand when you get elected, they ask you like where
do you want to sit? Things like that, And I
volunteered to be a mentor for a new and so
(37:33):
I was assigned a really nice guy. He's he's a
great person, but he frustrated me because he was from
the big city and so he didn't always vote what
he believed. He sometimes voted, you know, what his city believed.
And I would come home and I'd be so frustrated.
And one night my wife just said, you know what,
you just got to stop. But God did not send
(37:54):
you to Augusta to save the world. Jesus already did that.
All he's saying for you to do is go up
there and stand up for God and glorify God and speak.
And I just that comes back to me so many
times in my life. And I don't know if this
verse matches that or not. Kind of I think it does.
But anyway, I went with Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven,
(38:15):
for I know the plans I have for you, declares
the Lord plans to prosper you, not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and the future. And I
think main right to life is just you know, holding
on to that verse tightly.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Yeah, awesome, Well what to pray?
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Sure what we've heard, so let's pray. So Lord Jesus,
we are grateful to have these brothers and sisters that
made Right to Life right next door. Thank you for
the good work they are doing. Thank you the Lord
that you have blessed them with community. Lord, over six
hundred people that turn out and stay till all hours
(38:59):
of the night. God, that is so inspiring.
Speaker 4 (39:02):
Oops.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Sorry, yep, eight hundred over eight hundred, God, thank you
for the good work they are doing to represent life,
to represent your view on life, Lord, and to speak
to this culture in Maine that we need to turn
away from what we're doing in turn and turn to
(39:23):
the right direction. Lord, that a lot of these laws
in both of our states, Lord, do not reflect what
is humane and what is good. And I pray that
you would give them success. I pray that you would
give them encouragement and give them every tool they need
to succeed at what you've called them to. Please bless
Laurie and Mike especially, and the board of main Right
(39:46):
to Life and all the good works that you've called
them to in Jesus' name.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
Amen, A man, beautiful, Thank you.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
JA so much.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
Yeah, well, thank you for all the wonderful work. And
you guys are real inspiration to us. And we thank
you for your friendship. And we thank you for standing
for life and.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
What's basically to make the help the mothers of it
feel more supported and cared for and valuable.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
You know so, and loved and a voice for the voiceless.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
Thank you both, Thank you both.
Speaker 4 (40:24):
All right, all right, Well that's.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Our episode everyone. We'll see you next week on ever Living.
Speaker 6 (40:30):
Thank you for listening to the ever Living podcast. If
you have scripture questions or things you'd like to share,
please feel free to email us at ever livingpod at
gmail dot com. Also make sure to follow us on
Instagram at ever dot living podcast. And if you like
this podcast, please make sure to subscribe and share with
(40:50):
a friend and give us a five star review.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
See you next week.
Speaker 6 (40:54):
May God bless you and be very near to you,
and may you be ever living
Welcome to ever Living, a podcast where we share the
stories and voices of those who work and pray to
protect life in New England and beyond. Welcome to ever Living.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome Jason, Thanks Cindy. I'm so glad to be here
and i just want to talk a little bit. So
I'm with New Hips Right to Life, so with Sindy,
and we have this amazing banquet coming up in October
on Thursday, October sixteenth, and we want to invite everybody.
Our speaker, I'm really excited about it. Her name is
(00:42):
Darlene Pollock. She's a former president of New Hampshire Right
to Life, but she's also a nationally known speaker and
leader on fighting sex trafficking and so we are so
privileged to have her. So if you have any availability
on that night and you want to come and support
the work of Advocation for the innocent from the unborn
(01:03):
till natural death, please consider joining us. Just go to
nartl dot org and click on banquet. There's also opportunities
if you can't make it, to either make a donation
or to become a sponsor. And if you have a business,
that's a great way to get your.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Name out Oh, looks like there's dinner.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, we usually have a very good dinner. I always
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
And it's just a great place for people who value
life around New Hampshire to gather.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, and there's awards, you can hear an update on
what's been going on this past year and what we're
hoping to see in the next year. It's just a
really exciting it's almost the event of the year in
the life area.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
And to help New Hampshire Right to Life continue its
work for the next year. And when is.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
It, Jason Thursday, October seventeenth or sixteenth. Sorry, And there
are discount tickets early bird tickets that you can yet
if you purchase by August twenty seventh, awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
And what if you're a business that you want to
support the.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Banquet, then you can purchase a sponsorship and we have
all the information available on our website for that and
we'd love to we'd love to have your business or
your person.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
And what if you're a church and you want to
sit at the same table.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Well, then you can actually get a discount on the
table if you purchase a table of ten us Cindy,
you know so much about this you know, just want
to ask.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah, I love the softballs and you hit them all right. Well,
let's welcome from Maine Right to Life, Laurie Clutier and
Mike McClellan. Welcome to every living.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Thank you, Cindy and Jason, Thank.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
You so Laurie and Mike, thank you for being here today.
Can you explain your role in main Right to Life
and a little bit about what you do there.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Well, we started main Right Life started fifty one years
ago with some lay people and the support of the
Dices of Portland, and I've been with them since twenty
twenty two and we're they're leading pro life organization in Maine.
And we have like as our new executive director who's
(03:17):
been with us since February January February, So there's some changes,
but we've been we've had a busy year and with
thanks to Mike to help pick up some of the
responsibilities because we had a big banquet this year. So
we've been trying to just build our community and it's
(03:38):
been flat since COVID, and so that's what we're doing
now is building our baseline.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
And I would just add I guess that we are
the main national rights to life organization, just like you
are in New Hampshire.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Great, and we have some photos from your recent banquet.
Let's take a look.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
Okay, well that's that's myself and Laurie and then in
the middle we started this year a new award which
was to like, in a sense, the Legislator of the Year.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
So that's Representative Reagan Paul, who is amazing, and that's
her receiving the award. That's doctor Abbie Johnson, who I'm
assuming if people are watching this program, they probably know
who she is. She's famous for having been a planned
parenthood I think in Chicago director of the Year nationally
(04:41):
and then had an amazing life change, an amazing incident
where she now is arguably the biggest advocate for life
and for pro life. And she was our guest.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Speaker and Mike, did I hear that there's a movie
about her.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Yeah, I'll tell you the name of it, but there's
actually a movie about her.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
She wrote a book, Unplanned, Unplanned.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Unplanned, Thank you good. It's a great movie. Enjoyed it
and I think at our event she announced a second
movie is coming out, which is kind of the follow up,
you know, the next steps after she got involved in
the pro life movement.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Oh wow, Yeah, what an encouraging story going from like
somebody who is part of the abortion industry who's really
passionate about it too. I think I think it was
like she saw an ultrasound one day and she was
asked to assist in an abortion, and then that was
when she realized about the humanity of this child.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Exactly like that she was. She was you know, if
you watch the movie for read the book, and then
if you heard her speak about it, she was much
more blunt, wouldn't you say, Laura? I mean she really
she really got down and dirty and she didn't take
the easy way out. She you know, I think the
persona is this poor person. She didn't know what she
(05:56):
was doing, and she kind of owned it and said
in a lot of ways she did know what she
was doing, and then she had this transformation. So it
was a pretty amazing thing to listen to.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, I mean, God really made a big impact on
her life for good.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Definitely.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
So, Mike, you've joined Maine mytal life since January or
you've been Yeah, So what's this year been like? How
would you how did you describe twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Well, Laurie did a great job. It's kind of I mean,
it's been a whirlwind. I was a policy director for
a family policy alliance organization for eight years and in
a restructuring basically they kind of cleaned house and the
main Right to Life opportunity came out. Before that, I
was actually a main state representative, so I was in
the state House for six years. So I've been advocating
(06:50):
for life for since twenty ten at least. But this
has been a much more focused obviously, and it's been
an education in many ways. But as Laurie said, one
of the great things with Main Right to Life is
the last couple of years they haven't really had an
executive director. They had a couple of interim people. The board,
(07:11):
you know, with Laurie's leadership stepped up and really kept
things going so that when I stepped in, we could
start moving forwards. And so I'm really upbeat about what's coming.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Great, awesome. Laurie or Mike, could you describe the I
guess the climate of Maine, like what is what it's
like living there and the pro life movement in Maine
for anybody outside of Maine.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Mike Illat you lead on this, I'll fill in as needed.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
But well, I'll be blunts. Main's the greatest place to live,
no offense to New Hampshire. New Hampshire is a beautiful place.
Maine is a beautiful place to live. I'm sitting right
now looking at the white mountains at my backyard, obviously
far away. It's it's really a tricky thing describing Maine.
(08:03):
Since Richard Nixon, which is in like nineteen seventy, Maine
has been run by the Liberal Party and other than
for two years, which I was elected for two of
those years. So it's been a definite track of a
policy change. You know, the abortion, the laws and the
policies have just incrementally grown. We are, arguably, in the
(08:26):
United States, one of the lead abortion centers, I think
in the whole country, even given how small we are.
But like a lot of places, if you've got a
political map, you know, one of those maps that shows
you the color of the political parties, you'd see a
lot of red. If you look at the last election
in Maine, the main House only has a four seat difference,
(08:51):
and yet yeah, amazing, and two terms ago it was
in the twenties, so we've made it again incremental change.
But the people in leadership are leading like they have
super majorities. So we've had some terrible legislation passed by
one vote, and you know, we've had someone I think
(09:12):
you want to talk about sixteen nineteen at some point.
We've had some legislation where we just slammed the state House.
I mean, we just earned like eighty twenty and turn
you know, thousands of people and then they voted the
wrong way. So it's a conundrum and very frustrating because
the people remain while statistically there's polls that say they
(09:35):
believe in abortion. Uh, in no way do they believe
in the abortion that we have. So so what do
you learning that I forget?
Speaker 2 (09:44):
So just on that what you're saying, Mike. I think
I've heard a lot of times the other side likes
to say, oh, well, sixty percent support abortion rights, but
if you actually talk to those people, they don't support
abortion up till birth right exactly. A lot of them
are like, oh, fifteen weeks, that's yeah, that's that's about
as far as we can go. And that's actually like
eighty percent of or ninety percent of Europe right.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
And when I when I was elected in twenty ten.
I served twenty ten through twenty fifteen. The conversations we
were having now people would have laughed at Back then,
there would have been no thought about some of the
laws that now actually are law.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Yeah, so what are the what is the current law
in Maine about abortion and.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Protecting Do you want me to do that? Or yes,
I can't keep this thing in my ear. Well, we
pretty much any abortion law that you could think of,
I think we've passed we'd have a shield law, which
you know, when we argued about it, we tried to
point we tried to point out to the legislator legislature
(10:49):
that there could be a case of somebody getting hurt
and you know, you know, assaulted in another state and
brought to Maine and then it could all be dealt
with by main law. Main main law enforcement is not
allowed to intercede in situations like that. This year and
we have abortion up to birth, and this year we
(11:12):
actually passed the what do they call it, the Well's
it's a shield law, but it basically allows uh doctors
to not put their names on prescriptions, you know, to
protect the doctors. Uh so, and we're we are clearly
we are mailing abortion pills to other states and and
again shielding any I think there was some litigation that
(11:35):
was shielded. So it's it's not good. It's not good.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
One one more thing that's really interesting is in my
political life years ago, used to see these battles about
new ideas in California, and somebody along the way had
the great idea, you know, if we go to Maine,
it doesn't it doesn't cost one hundred million dollars. It
costs ten million dollars to have the battle, win, win
the fight, and then move it, you know, move it
(12:04):
to the bigger states. And so we're actually finding ourselves
being a testing ground at times for really bad, really
bad legislation.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
And I think one of the things people don't realize
that you were talking about the shield laws, Mike, Yeah.
I think one of the people things people don't realize.
For instance, this case in Texas that has been getting
national attention, where there was an abortion doctor in New
York who mailed the abortion pills to a girl in Texas.
A lot of people don't realize the reason this all
came to light was because she had to go be
(12:35):
rushed to the er or I don't know if rush,
but she ended up in the emergency room. And part
of the thing that people don't realize is that these
abortion pills carry much higher risk than even surgical abortions,
Like something like eleven percent was the most recent estimate
I saw.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
And I can tell you having testified in the main
legislature about that and about some other points that we're
called They tell us we're lying, you know. I remember
testifying on trying to make the abortion the pill that
you know can end the abortion fell, you know, trying
to bring that up, and they told us we were
lying that there's no such thing as a pill that
(13:15):
stops an abortion, you know, even though we were showing
that there was like two thousand babies had been saved,
and that was years ago. So we're basically called liars
at times.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
And to call it, to call abortion a states rights issue,
I mean, if the mail is going back and forth
like it's, it's not contained in the state anymore.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Yeah, So, right, do you want to talk.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
About so so, Laurie, I now my understanding is you
were you were made right to life in twenty twenty three,
and I heard you guys broke some records in Maine.
Can you tell me about that?
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Is that up at the capitol? I'm assuming that's what
you mean. Yeah, it seems like me in the news lately,
national news, but for all the wrong reasons because of
this LD sixteen nineteen. But it was amazing. We had
was it twenty four hours of constant testimony or thirty
(14:15):
six hours and we started eight o'clock in the morning,
and it went through the whole light and there was
long lines. It got to the point where they would
cut back testimonies for us down from three minutes to
one minute to push them through and to shut us down.
Then in the middle of the night, there were a
(14:37):
lot of young young kids there, students, and they were
singing hymns in the hallways. It was so powerful and
so moving, and I think the last testimony was like
seven o'clock in the morning. I think the the other
side was blown away actually of how what had happened overnight.
(14:57):
It was just so amazing. But then to have them
not listen to the people and vote their own what
they wanted to choose. But it was a beautiful. It
was beautiful to witness that all day long and continue
through the night.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
So what did l D sixteen nineteen, What did that?
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Michael? How did you go to that? You have the
legislature pro Jeez.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
I just can't keep this in my ear. I you know,
it's funny. I didn't write it down. There's been so
many bills. I'm trying to think back what it was
even about.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Allow abortion viability.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
Yes, it was actually the viability. It was a viability bill.
And as Lurie, I mean again Lourie described it perfectly.
It was. It went well over a day. I testified
at six o'clock the next morning, and and you know,
it's easy to focus on all the bad stuff because
it was. It was a terrible law that then some
(15:56):
other terrible laws followed, but there was so much beauty
in it, so many people showed up. A funny thing,
not funny perhaps, but a funny thing was we had
a rally before that. It was a couple of days earlier,
I think, and all the main media said, oh, that
was kind of cute. They had two hundred people at
the state House and we were shaking our heads like
there was a lot more than two hundred. Well, luckily
(16:18):
the security people have a tracker, and I went to
them and they're and they're all kind of on our side.
They all they were always rooting for us. And they said,
we had eight hundred and eighty eight people at that event.
Wow with the meat. But the media said two hundred,
which everybody can get two hundred there, and we there's
a lot of events with two hundred. As Laurie said,
there was music through the night, just people were joyful
(16:42):
and realistic and if I remember, don't quote me on this,
but it was something like we had like six hundred
and fifty people testified and they had like sixty, but
there was a lot more people there. There were a
lot of people that either didn't choose to testify or
you know, they had a number of systems so they
(17:03):
so there. Yeah, there. Their number came up at three
in the morning and they just couldn't, you know, stay
that long. So it was such a total victory for
mein except except for the final votes.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Yeah, it looks like there are many many, uh people
of Maine who care about life and are willing to
stay up all night and all day to defend life.
That's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
One thing we found this year, which was I'm just
kind of processing it now, Maine. Maine is a citizen legislature.
I think that's what you guys too. Our legislators are
not full time. So we were done. We were done
I think in June this year, and the second next
year will be done in May. And there was a
lot of bills this year. Uh there was actually, for
(17:51):
the first time in many years, there were a lot
of good life bills. There were bills that thought to
protect women. And we didn't expect any of them to win,
and and I don't think any of them did win.
But we didn't have good turnouts. And in fact, I
can think of one bill. I was the only person
on our side that showed up. And we've I think
Laura and I and other people we've talked about there
(18:12):
was two whole years of showing up like we did,
you know, and many of these people were new. These
are people that did not want to be in politics,
They did not really want to be at the state House.
But they showed up because it was right and they
went for two years and they did the right thing,
and their government failed them by over and over voting
the wrong way. And so this year was kind of quiet.
(18:34):
And so that's one of the challenges we have, Lourie,
I think is you know, reinvigorating people. Next year is
going to be an election year and there's a lot
of opportunity with that.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
How about safe haven laws in Maine? What are the
safe haven laws? And how are there also baby boxes?
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Actually, it's interesting, it's ongoing. We have through Saint Haven.
It's the only company nationally that offers this. And we
have money already saved that from being right to Liza
to support the first baby box is eighteen thousand dollars
to set that up. And we have the fire station
(19:19):
and the fire chief in Rumfids that's very eager to
put this in and they've been dragging their feet a
little bit, but we should hopefully surely we'll be seeing
one be installed. And there's many other fire stations that
are very interested in this. And we were waiting for
the rulings on this, and Mike can go into details
more of the rulings, and that's what we've been pushing
(19:41):
for the last couple of years on these rulings. That's
the capital the Stayhouse has been not the kind of
put kicking the tire down the road, and after the
last couple of months of pushing and have been one
of our board directors who is an attorney, write letters
and put a lot of pressure. It was able to
(20:04):
make these rulings official. And well now we're just waiting
to have, like I said, the fire station in Rumfitt
to install the first one. And Mike, you might want
to explain how the rulings work.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Well, I mean even go and that's good, good job there,
But again, how sad is it? I was I was
a policy director when this, when this first happened, it
was twenty one maybe that it came up, and uh,
my good friend who's also a policy director with the
Catholic Church, Suzanne, actually approached me and other people and said,
you know what, we want to keep this under the radar.
(20:40):
We don't want to make a big deal about this
because we don't want to draw you know, the planned
parenthood people in and all that. So I literally was
asked not to testify. I mean, what what could be nicer,
what could be more beautiful than a safe even babybox?
So we didn't, we didn't testify. It passed committee, it
passed in the House kind of with not much problem,
(21:03):
and then the other side started really kicking at it
and really threw a lot of hurdles in the front
of it, but it did pass. And so like any legislation,
I'm sure this is how New Hampshire works. Then it
goes into a department I think in this case it
was Department of Health and Human Services and they have
to create rules and that's that's kind of how you know,
(21:24):
Washington works and all that. And then for the first
time in my career, the rules just didn't come, and
they didn't come, and they and we kept asking what's
going on, and they kept dragging feet, and it was
it was just clear. I mean, you know, I don't
know for a fact, but I'm sure it was just
you know, people on leadership who were basically saying, you know,
(21:46):
hold this thing up. So as as Laurie mentioned, one
of our board members, I think around the time I
showed up was just starting as a lawyer starting to
kind of come at them and say, you know, either
get this going or else. And I'm sure said a
very nicely. So they did finally write the rules, and
they only broke a couple of months ago. And again
(22:07):
we started like in twenty twenty one should have been
happening in twenty two. So we're you know, kind of
going through a process now with rumfert is trying to
figure out what the rules say and make sure it's all,
you know, all good and legal. I won't say who,
but just today I got word from another fire chief
and another part of the state that they are actively,
(22:29):
you know, applying in their part of the state to
hopefully be mean second safe haven babybox. So again, this
is like the future. I think this is gonna and
it's We've Laurie and I've talked about how what a
positive thing this is going to be, you know, to
be able to show people what this thing is, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
And for those of us and those for our listeners
who don't know what to safe haven baby boxes, can
you can one of you guys just describe that you
want to do it?
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (22:56):
So it usually takes place either a police department or
fire station or a hospital, and that what they do
is install this baby box on the side of the
outside wall and it's temperature controlled, open the box, put
(23:17):
the baby in there. Within I think three minutes or
a minute. I'venot recall them the details of the time,
but the allte alarm goes off a silent alarm goes
off inside the building, which alarms the people in charge,
and then they can come and get the baby, and
they take the baby right to the hospital for care,
(23:39):
and the it's given over to foster care. So it's
done anonymously. And it's a great place, especially when you
get to rural areas, and Maine has a lot of
rural areas, and it's a great place for a baby
to be given up for adoption rather than a dumb
(24:00):
stir or just left out to die. And we have
seen that many times here in main where they found
a baby and a sand pit. And there's a that's
been going around as we try to force this issue
with the people. And I think I would not last
year to get signatures and run fit for this. And
(24:21):
everybody wants this. It's great, it's said here we are
in this century that we have to do this, But
everybody wanted this baby box to happen. So it's a
great safe way for a planned pregnancy, a mom to
go in and walk away and give the baby a future.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
And so safe Haven is actually a company, so you
can you can look them up and you can see it.
The one thing that Laurie didn't mention was the location
has to be staffed twenty four to seven. Yes, so
it could be a fire department, but only if there's
always somebody there. Right, That's an important concept, and again
it creates options and we're just so excited. One state
(25:04):
that's really run with this is Indiana, and I think
they have like one hundred and fifteen of them and
they've had some amazing stories.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Wow. And how old can the child be or how
young like to be placed in the in the baby box?
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Yeah, I'm not sure about how old, but I mean
how young?
Speaker 3 (25:23):
I mean literally up to three months? I believe.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Wow, so you git sure? We just extended ours to
sixty days for one week, So that's that's pretty amazing
that you guys do up to three months?
Speaker 4 (25:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Are there any you may be wrong on that?
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Now?
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Who say that? Jason? That makes more sense. Actually, I'll
have to look into that because I think you're right.
I think it's thirty days. That's like a mentumna, So
I apologize.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Are there any pregnancy resource centers in Maine that you'd
like to highlight or share with our listeners?
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Yes, And this might be a good opportunity to talk
about this pro life Alliance initiative that we did last year.
We have sixteen pregnancy resource centers in Maine and what
we've done is we, along with them and the Nights
of Columbus, the Dices of Portland forty Days for Life,
(26:21):
and we meet quarterly on a zoom and we schedule
an hour and we bring in speakers and it's a
way to unite us and make us a stronger army
because we need to build ourselves up here in Maine
because of what we've been dealing with. So it's great
and like I said, we just bring some great speakers
and we get a chance to pregnancy resource centers to
(26:45):
share their stories. Our next goal with that is to
get a platform on our website to have them have
access and use that to connect, share fundraises, babyball drives,
and be one way that we all connect and have
a strong voice together. So it's coming up on the
(27:07):
year that we've been doing that show.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
So we're looking at your website right now. It's main
Right to life dot org. Yes, yeah, and let's see
what is there.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
See. One thing to mention too is I don't know
if this is other. I don't know if you guys
do this or other states do this main Right to Life.
When someone donates to us, we give a small percentage
of that money to the Pregnancy of Resource centers and
we actually allow people to choose if they want, which
one gets it.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Mm hm oh wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
So I see you have a Pro Life family picnic
in September.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Yes, free event. We're working with the Nicer Columbus with that.
That's pretty excited. Somebody came up to me last spring
and because we do an annual event at the State
House hands at the Capitol and it's during the work week,
and they said, we would really like to have Pro
Life do something for the family on a weekend. So
(27:59):
the Nice Columbus is working with us, and we're pretty
excited about this. This is the first one we've done,
and we're going to move it over throughout the state
every year because Main so large long that we'll go
up north one year and we'll just jump around to
different counties throughout the state.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Okay, so here people can donate and volunteer.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Yes, yeah, yeah, great.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
This is a long website for us too. We just
put this up year ago, so we've gone a lot
of changes in the last few years.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
We updated your website regularly. I mean I mean every Friday,
I update the legislative page. We always have events happening
things like that. So anybody that was interested in Maine
can go to that site pretty much at least weekly
and learn something new. And Laurie and Board and all
did a great job. There's so many resources on that website.
(28:55):
I know in my previous job, if I needed stats,
if I needed a picture, I needed things, I went
to main Right to Life website. And now you are. Well,
now I'm a small part of it.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Do you have social media that our listeners could subscribe to?
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Okay, so I have that here for you. It's also
it's on our website if you scroll scroll around a lot,
but not social media, but just as important, maybe we
started a weekly email newsletter which now is by every
is bi weekly every other week. And just basically if
you go to our website and you sign up for information,
(29:37):
then you'll get that delivered. Uh. And again it's usually
pretty useful information. We're on Facebook at and it's all
it's all spelled out. Maine Right to Life is our
hand all Maine m A I N E. So at
Maine Right to Life. We're on X, which is of
course the former Twitter, and it's the handles at Maine
(29:59):
A RTL, so again spelled out at Maine m A
I n E rt L and Instagram, which I had
been banned from by my wife. She said I had
too many social media things going on. So then I
inherited this job and found out we had an Instagram account.
I'm trying to figure out. It's the kind of strange
thing to me. But at main Right to Life all
(30:20):
spelled out again, and we're pretty active on all of them,
I know, since I run some of it. I try
to make Facebook family friendly and X once in a
while a little more opinionated.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
F y.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
I okay, so to two different.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
Two different outlooks.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yeah, yeah, okay, you can choose, you can choose which
one you want.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Yeah yeah, So yeah, So how how can we all
be praying for the future of Main Right to Life
and families in Maine? And and yeah, and they.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Can work to you, well, thank you, And again I
give a lot of credit to the people before me.
We are actually fifty years I think you said fifty one,
So we're fifty to fifty one years. This year been
around a long time, been a lot of amazing people involved,
and in a time not that long ago in Maine
there was kind of a break in the pro life movement.
(31:23):
Without getting into it, it's kind of splintered it a
little bit. And so you know, you could pray for
Maine to be united like like we were for sixteen
nineteen the legislation where just everybody came. We also because
of that, we you know, we've lost people that in
the past supported main right to life, and so part
(31:44):
of why I was brought in and have been struggling
with is to kind of re engage people or and
order to get new people involved. So we really, you know,
we can do the work, but we need people to
pray for us, support us financially in some cases, and
you mentioned earlier about volunteering and things. So my hope
(32:05):
is you know, you know, Laurie and I when we
were talking about me doing this, we talked a lot
about education, and you know, so we're not only fighting
in Maine. You know, people that don't they don't understand.
Sometimes they hear abortion and they think that we're back
in the fifties versus where we were not there at all.
We're not We're not in the close anger days. We
(32:26):
are in the days where babies are being born and
being considered to get aborted, and people don't seem to
get that. The media and main is pretty much in
the bag against us. They just aren't honest, to be honest,
with a few exceptions, and so it's it's a battle.
And if you know, for me personally, if I didn't
(32:48):
know the God of the universe, have you shaken my
head staying what am I doing here? But I know
I know he has great plans.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
So yeah, and to have friends in the States who
are also supporting definitely you're not alone.
Speaker 4 (33:05):
Right, Well, we appreciate you guys.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
We just Mike and I went to the National Right
Convention in Kansas in June, and I think from Mike
it was really great because it really it was very strong,
strong voices, gave us hope. There's many other states we
realize that are in the same boat as us. But
we came back from that national media really excited and
(33:32):
we got great support from National They've been really helpful,
and so I think that kind of when we came back,
we came right into the Abbey banquet. It really ignited
us to continue because we do need to educate more
to the people of Maine. So that's one of our
(33:52):
goals this year is to do that.
Speaker 4 (33:55):
Yeah, and you guys help us by letting us to
your podcast. This is how up until.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Well, we're we're all in this fight together. And you know,
I honestly think you're mentioning the media earlier, Mike. I
think especially for that that battle you guys fought in
twenty twenty three where they're extending abortion to legalize it
all the way through birth. Yeah, I think most people
realized these babies could actually be born and given away.
(34:23):
It's even safer for the mother in many cases than
like a two or three day late term abortion. And
then I think most people don't realized that that that
that that's actually what they're talking about. They're not talking
about life of a mother or anything like that.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
The Babylon Bee. The Babylon Bee, which is a satire
kind of a I guess a Christian conservative. If you
know it, you know it, and they just put joke
headlines up. They're not real. They had one up the
other day that said something like, oh no, the Post
office did not deliver the abortion pills on time, and
an adorable baby was born, and I thought, wow, yeah,
(35:01):
that really says it all.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
It reminds me of Jonah and Ninevah and it said,
you know, they did not know their left hand from
their right. And I feel like that's how we're operating here,
is you know, God, would you send us a Jonah
who can walk around the city three days and then
they turn away? Because I think if people who actually
realize what we're talking about, I think a lot more
(35:24):
people would be on our side.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
Well honestly, like like we we just want God to
be glorified. I became a Christian after college, so before then,
I mean, like, yes, I you know, would I've been
pro life, I don't know. So I think for just
(35:47):
God's mercy and his his just for his name to
be known more. I think that he and Jesus already
has the victory over over death. Do you guys have
life affirming scripture or messages that you'd like to share
(36:10):
with our listeners this week?
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Yeah? One one, there's a quote Saint Catherine of Siana
has been one doctor of the church, and she's been
somebody that I go to a lot. And this quote.
She actually has two, and I'd like to squeeze in
the second one because it really talks about what we've
been talking about. But the first one is be who
(36:32):
God meant you to be, and you will set the
world on fire. And God created us for a mission
for him to glorify Him. And I think Mike and
I and all our pro life is at all are
doing that for God's greater glory, and it's we may
not think that standing at the corner crayon or outside
(36:54):
of the clinic, but it is it. It's magnifying our Lord.
And the other one is proclaim the truth and do
not be silent through fear. Just those two really strong
quotes that I just love from Catherine of Sienna.
Speaker 4 (37:10):
M Right, thanks, Okay, well I do. And it was, Yeah,
it was interesting to think about this because it's hard
to pick one. Uh quick, A quick story. I don't
know if this ties into my verse or not, but
when I was a legislator my second term, they always
hand when you get elected, they ask you like where
do you want to sit? Things like that, And I
volunteered to be a mentor for a new and so
(37:33):
I was assigned a really nice guy. He's he's a
great person, but he frustrated me because he was from
the big city and so he didn't always vote what
he believed. He sometimes voted, you know, what his city believed.
And I would come home and I'd be so frustrated.
And one night my wife just said, you know what,
you just got to stop. But God did not send
(37:54):
you to Augusta to save the world. Jesus already did that.
All he's saying for you to do is go up
there and stand up for God and glorify God and speak.
And I just that comes back to me so many
times in my life. And I don't know if this
verse matches that or not. Kind of I think it does.
But anyway, I went with Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven,
(38:15):
for I know the plans I have for you, declares
the Lord plans to prosper you, not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and the future. And I
think main right to life is just you know, holding
on to that verse tightly.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Yeah, awesome, Well what to pray?
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Sure what we've heard, so let's pray. So Lord Jesus,
we are grateful to have these brothers and sisters that
made Right to Life right next door. Thank you for
the good work they are doing. Thank you the Lord
that you have blessed them with community. Lord, over six
hundred people that turn out and stay till all hours
(38:59):
of the night. God, that is so inspiring.
Speaker 4 (39:02):
Oops.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Sorry, yep, eight hundred over eight hundred, God, thank you
for the good work they are doing to represent life,
to represent your view on life, Lord, and to speak
to this culture in Maine that we need to turn
away from what we're doing in turn and turn to
(39:23):
the right direction. Lord, that a lot of these laws
in both of our states, Lord, do not reflect what
is humane and what is good. And I pray that
you would give them success. I pray that you would
give them encouragement and give them every tool they need
to succeed at what you've called them to. Please bless
Laurie and Mike especially, and the board of main Right
(39:46):
to Life and all the good works that you've called
them to in Jesus' name.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
Amen, A man, beautiful, Thank you.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
JA so much.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
Yeah, well, thank you for all the wonderful work. And
you guys are real inspiration to us. And we thank
you for your friendship. And we thank you for standing
for life and.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
What's basically to make the help the mothers of it
feel more supported and cared for and valuable.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
You know so, and loved and a voice for the voiceless.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
Thank you both, Thank you both.
Speaker 4 (40:24):
All right, all right, Well that's.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Our episode everyone. We'll see you next week on ever Living.
Speaker 6 (40:30):
Thank you for listening to the ever Living podcast. If
you have scripture questions or things you'd like to share,
please feel free to email us at ever livingpod at
gmail dot com. Also make sure to follow us on
Instagram at ever dot living podcast. And if you like
this podcast, please make sure to subscribe and share with
(40:50):
a friend and give us a five star review.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
See you next week.
Speaker 6 (40:54):
May God bless you and be very near to you,
and may you be ever living
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