Monthly Events Needed
A grassroots pro-life group will benefit from going beyond annual events and having activities every month. Reliance on annual events will not provide the continuity for strong and sustained outreach. Annual events, such as Life Chain, National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children, a display at a state or county fair, and attending another group's fundraising gala are all valuable arrows for your quiver. However, your foot soldiers and board members should have your activities on their minds and in their relationships day-by-day and week-by-week. Having monthly events “just around the corner” will help build this reality.
Monthly events are easy to remember: XYZ event is always on the third Tuesday. ABC event is always on a Saturday. PQR is always 4 to 6 PM. Don’t unnecessarily change time and locations.
Pro-Life Waco’s current monthly events are Life Chain, pedestrian overpass outreach, It’s a Baby Waco at Planned Parenthood, and CVS/Walgreens/Target protest.
Protests, such as CVS and Walgreens, have a heightened need to be monthly. A single protest has minimal impact on a protest target. Persistent recurrence attracts management attention. In 2018, Pro-Life Waco protested WACOAN magazine for a full-page ad for Planned Parenthood Waco. We delivered four monthly protests. This stopped when WACOAN owners, through their attorney, agreed to never again print an ad from Planned Parenthood. See five Victories in Waco.
All of PLW’s monthly events are public square outreach. You may also have outreach within other branches of the pro-life tree, such as sidewalk counseling and 40 Days for Life prayer vigil. This will also help sustain and grow your pro-life group.
Another approach for one of your monthly events could be a social gathering with a meal and program. For the first two decades of the 21st century, PLW held Second Sunday Luncheon Gathering. We pulled together to provide an Italian pasta meal and had a program with a live speaker or a video. We also discussed recent public square outreach and planned our next outreach events.
Beyond sustaining and growing your group, another reason for action each month is to build up your communication links to swing into action for one-time ad-hoc events. In the summer of 2022, we had our most recent ad-hoc situation in Waco. A pro-abortion group urged the Waco City Council to attempt to enact an ordinance that would require the Waco police force to deprioritize enforcement of Texas abortion laws. After we learned about the move, we swung into action or organized a strong showing at the next city council meeting. Over 300 pro-lifers showed up. Overflow rooms were required, and 45 life defenders spoke for up to three minutes. The press covered our initiative, and the ordinance received no further consideration. Without the foundation of monthly outreach, we could not have met the unwelcome challenge so strongly.
