News

Atwell to speak at WRTL State Convention

By Jeff Kurowski
Compass Assistant Editor

Bob Atwell will speak at next month's Wisconsin Right to Life (WRTL) State Convention with a target audience in mind.

"What I really try to do is speak to the men." he said, "For too long it's been women leading the (pro-life) movement. It's been much easier and safer for them to speak about what our culture has defined as a women's issue. It's not only a women's issue. I try to tell men the truth."

"This problem is often caused by the misled desire of men to separate physical relations from the joy and responsibility of fatherhood," added Atwell, president of Nicolet National Bank in Green Bay and a founding director of Starboard Media Foundation, a national Catholic radio apostolate headquartered in Green Bay. "I really want to be one of those voices that's calling to men to say 'guys, you need to be men as our Lord expects men to be.' We need to be models of fatherly love, and understand what it means to honor and respect women and children. Don't tell me it's a women's issue. Every aborted child has a father."

Fathers are called to responsibility, but do not have rights to intervene and protect a child, which also poses problems, said Atwell.

"Most men are running from responsibility, which is part of the reason this issue doesn't come up very often, but I've met with men who say, 'what can I do?'" he said. "They have no say whatsoever. As men, we need to be prayerful, patient and persistent in protecting the child."

The Wisconsin Right to Life State Convention is scheduled for April 21-22 at the Hotel Mead in Wisconsin Rapids. Workshops feature separate tracks for adults, collegians, teens and "tweens" (ages 10-12).

Atwell will speak at Sunday's prayer breakfast, which follows an ecumenical prayer service. The event opens on Saturday, April 21, with general sessions followed by workshops addressing a variety of life topics. The first day closes with a banquet for adults and a pizza party for teens and tweens.

Olivia Gans, director of American Victims of Abortion (AVA), an outreach project of the National Right to Life Committee, will be the banquet keynote speaker. Gans was a student when she had an abortion. Following almost two years of suffering emotionally from her abortion experience, she helped to organize one of the nation's first peer-to-peer post-abortion support groups in the New York City area. She became AVA director in 1985.

The convention is a good opportunity to energize people and reform the pro-life movement in Wisconsin, said Atwell.

"The pro-life movement is a little bit stunned and a little bit divided at this time," he said. "We need to go to the deepest and most beautiful truth which is life and the human person, and our desire and obligation to love generously."

Medical ethics is causing some division in the movement, he said.

"Most people, even if they don't support overturning Roe v. Wade, object to most abortions," he said. "In some ways, the battle has shifted to the battle of medical ethics and embryonic stem cell research where there is a great deal of confusion."

Embryonic stem cell research and in vitro fertilization are the "most Catholic" pro-life issues today, added Atwell.

"As Catholics, we find it pretty easy to partner with other denominations and humanists about abortion," he said, "but what is so obvious to us about embryonic stem cell research is not obvious to other denominations. There is a biotech nightmare emerging right in our midst."

Atwell, who describes himself as a student of Pope John Paul II, will primarily focus on abortion during his talk and how it has touched his life. While the number of abortions in Wisconsin continues to decline, there is still much work to be done, he said.

"We should take stock in the progress in our state, but there are still 10,000 victims," he said. "Trying to describe success as only 10,000 victims a year is difficult. We need to continue to share in the understanding that life is sacred. Whatever we think about the things around us, we ought to be able to agree that protecting the most vulnerable from the moment of conception until natural death is the most important struggle of our time. If we can get that right, it helps so many other things come together."

For convention registration forms or additional information, visit the Wisconsin Right to Life Website at www.wisconsinrighttolife.org.