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Colorado RTL

Leslie Hanks

Tier 1 - Personhood Now


Colorado RTL and Leslie Hanks advocate enforcement of the God-given, inalienable right to life of every unborn person from the beginning of their biological development.
  • Leslie Hanks since the 1990s has been the vice president of America's first "Right To Life" organization, Colorado Right To Life.
  • Leslie is a nationally-respected leader in the resurgent personhood movement and has long supported state and federal legislation, Human Life and Personhood Amendments and is a pioneer in the paradigm shift from regulating the killing of children to the strategy of advocating for the God-given right to life and personhood of the unborn!
  • Leslie was a key activist in Colorado's historical statewide 2008 Personhood initiative for which her organization led the effort to gather 131,000 signatures. Conventional wisdom held that an absolute ban on abortion could receive perhaps 13 percent of the vote. Yet CRTL's support for Colorado for Equal Rights' Amendment 48 doubled that claim, garnering more than half-a-million votes even though Planned Parenthood, which gets $600 for every child they kill, outspent the personhood campaign 10 to 1,1 and this happened in a liberal state where even many Republicans are pro-choice and the state party chairman banned Colorado's largest pro-life organization from their annual convention but welcomed in Republican for Choice.2 And those 585,000 votes for an outright ban on abortion came with the opposition of National RTL, the major 'pro-life' Republican candidates and everyone on Tiers 3 and 4.
  • Leslie has long opposed 'pro-life' legislation that ends with, "and then you can kill the baby."3
  • Leslie was a longtime legislative liaison for Concerned Women for America in Colorado but has since resigned her CWA membership saying that, "CWA has repeatedly undermined the eventual re-criminalization of abortion by their continued support for abortion regulations and pro-choice candidates."4
  • Leslie's effort to explain to Family Research Council's Gary Bauer that it was wrong for Samuel Alito to vote to keep legal partial birth abortion in New Jersey is documented in the groundbreaking Focus on the Strategy II DVD.
  • Leslie's effort to expose the Partial Birth Abortion fiasco5 is mentioned in the widely-reported Open Letter to Dr. James Dobson (which was signed by key prolife leaders including Ambassador Alan Keyes).
  • In the fight to save Terri Schiavo, as part of her many years of street protesting and activism, Leslie led the effort to bring members of Colorado RTL to Pinellas County, Florida in an attempt to peacefully but physically intervene to get water and food to Terri.
  • In the fight for Terri's life, Leslie Hanks worked to expose the moral bankruptcy of Tier 2, 3 and 4 individuals and organizations which actually endorsed assisted suicide in their misguided effort by calling for the need for "written directives" before the state can allow a person to be starved to death.6 Leslie saw this development as tragic but predictable. A world in which 'pro-life' leaders call for the regulation of suicide was NOT a safe world for the vulnerable Terri.
  • As the vice president of one of NRTL's more active state chapters, Leslie worked to oppose the efforts of her own national organization. If the Hemlock Society has proposed legislation for the federal government to abide by state pro-suicide laws, Christian activists nationwide would have protested. But in the immoral fog of Tier 3 'pro-life' strategy, NRTL committed perhaps the most immoral act of all during the Terri battle, and introduced the Incapacitated Persons Legal Protection Act which would have been the first federal law to legitimize state assisted suicide laws that permitted “the withdrawal of food or fluids” simply with “a written advance directive valid under applicable law.7
  • Leslie helped prevent the murder of Lauren Richardson, another brain-injured woman slated for starvation and dehydration because of her handicap. Leslie worked with Laruen's father, Randy, to help him resist those who wanted his daughter dead.
  • Leslie has led the effort to expose the starvation death and memorialize the memory of little Dylan Walborn of Broomfield, Colorado who was a victim of America's "mercy-killing" euthanasia movement. As documented in an 8-page Denver Post feature.8 9 10 11 12 13
  • Annually, Leslie brings to light that abortion creates a significantly-increased risk for breast cancer as has been established scientifically,14 and also that the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure is dishonest in not disclosing its financial contributions to Planned Parenthood. Race for the Cure Protest The nation's largest abortion provider bears great responsiblilty for America's greatly increased breast cancer rate.
  • Leslie's blogs at Prolife Blogs, the Passionate Prolifer, and at FreeRepublic.com help to document the long struggle in the fight to end child killing.
  • Leslie successfully worked to stop compromise within Colorado RTL as the nation's oldest "right to life" group started to succumb to regulating the murder of children.
  • Leslie successfully lobbied for Columbine dad Brian Rohrbough to become the president of her organization. Thereafter, Brian spoke to seven million people on the CBS Evening News the night of the Amish school murders; nationally he was voted Pro-lifer of the Year; and he was nominated in 2008 as Ambassador Alan Keyes' vice presidential running mate; and has influenced governing officials around the nation to introduce personhood legislation!)
  • When Mr. Rohrbough left CRTL to become president of American Right To Life, Hurricane Katrina transplant to Colorado, Pastor Joe Riccobono, became the new president of Colorado RTL. Mr. Riccobono has actively fought against child killing since 1990 but being a relative newcomer to Colorado, in an interview he recommended that ProlifeProfiles highlight the work of Leslie Hanks.
  • Leslie Hanks was an important part of the successful pro-life effort that prevented the National RTL Committee from passing their immoral Fetal Pain Act which would have rightly informed a woman that her child would feel pain if aborted, but then wickedly offered a 'solution' to that woman, by providing anesthesia, which in many instances would have the unintended effect of relieving the woman's guilt and helping her justify her abortion. As it was described by Steven Ertelt, editor of LifeNews.com and president of NRLC-affiliate Wyoming RTL, the Fetal Pain Act would result in the child being killed more humanely. Leslie is one of the leaders who have helped thwart the pro-life industry's desire to raise funds and pursue this immoral strategy.
  • As a wife, mother, grandmother and career woman, Leslie still makes the time to work as much as many full-time leaders yet she has never accepted a salary for her pro-life work.
Summary:

Colorado Right To Life and Leslie Hanks are among the leaders in the personhood wing of the pro-life movement!

Footnotes:
  1. 1. Colorado RTL March for Life notice
  2. 2. Simpsons more reliable than Schaffer
  3. 3. American RTL article
  4. 4. Yahoo! News ARTL press release: Questioning CWA's Pro-life Credentials
  5. 5. American RTL PBA summary
  6. 6. BEL Terry Schiavo debrief
  7. 7. Operation Rescue Nat'l / OSA: "Pro-life Community Just Switched Positions: Supports Assisted Suicide
  8. 8. Colorado RTL article
  9. 9. LifeNews Steven Ertelt article
  10. 10. Colorado RTL article
  11. 11. Denver Post Politics West  article
  12. 12. Denver Post article
  13. 13. CWNewz article
  14. 14. Colorado RTL article Breast cancer link to abortion