Thank God for Great Pro-life Attorneys, like Tom Brejcha

The pro-life movement needs not only good attorneys, who know the law and are effective at defending the rights of their clients.

Pro-Life Attorney, Tom Brejcha, Thomas Moore Society

Highlights

By Pro-life Leader Frank Pavone, National Director, Priests for Life
10/18/2023 (1 year ago)

Published in Marriage & Family

Keywords: Frank Pavone, Tom Brejcha, pro-life, attorney

The pro-life movement needs great attorneys, and thank God for the many he has provided. Among them is my long-time friend Tom Brejcha, the Founder, President, and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Society.

He was honored last week by our friends at Human Life Review, and I want to add my voice to the many who have been paying tribute to him.

A great attorney knows we are in an existential battle for America, and shares the passion of the Founders, who pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to defend the principles on which our nation is founded. 

Great attorneys are not only willing to defend their clients, but are ready to endure the fierce opposition of a movement that wants to destroy everything the pro-life movement believes in. This opposition is increasingly ready to weaponize the mechanisms of justice against its ideological and political opponents and their attorneys.

The default position of great attorneys is not, "Here's what you do to stay out of trouble," but rather, "I am going to help you accomplish your mission, and we will fight tooth and nail against anyone who tries to hinder it."

Tom and his team have helped countless pro-life activists in their mission of defending the unborn, intervening to save them from dismemberment, and advocating for their rights in the public square. He is best known for his role in defending Joe Scheidler, and others from Pro-life Action League, in a case, NOW vs. Scheidler, that went to the Supreme Court no less than three times, over the course of more than two decades.

The abortion forces tried to frame peaceful pro-lifers across America as racketeers. It tried to equate them with mobsters. It tried to redefine their loving, compassionate intervention for babies and their families with organized crime.

The long litigation resulted in victory for those who peacefully assemble at abortion mills across America to stop the killing.

In a recent interview with Tom, we were reminiscing about December 8, 1993, when he and I, along with others from Pro-life Action League, gathered in a side chapel of the National Shrine of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC and I offered Mass for them just prior to the case's first round of oral arguments at the US Supreme Court. 

Little did we know how long this case would drag on, but not a day of it passed without the same kind of intense prayer.

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I told Tom that his perseverance in this and many other high-profile cases, is a sign both of his faith in God and his faith in our Constitutional Republic which, for all its stains, wounds, and failings, is the best earthly tool we have to defend our rights.

Tom also knows that by defending his clients, he is defending us all. Each of these cases sets a precedent for future cases, establishes a set of arguments for future attorneys, and both educates and inspires pro-life activists to open their mouths and come out onto the streets to defend the unborn.

Ultimately, defending the unborn is not just an aspiration. It is an emergency with a short timeline, because lives are at stake. Victory is not simply intellectual or spiritual; it is physical. And essential to that victory, whether we like it or not, is engaging the legal process.

Thanks to Tom Brejcha and so many pro-life attorneys like him, that process does not have to scare us off. Indeed, we can embrace it with confidence, knowing the ones we defend and the One in whom we place our trust.