For Immediate Release:

Rift Opens in Christian Right
Unprecedented Criticism of Dobson by Major Ministries

An ad hoc coalition of pro-life Christian ministries publishes today, May 23, 2007, a critical Open Letter addressed to Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs as a full-page ad in that city's largest newspaper. The letter documents gross misrepresentation by Dr. Dobson and certain Christian organizations regarding the recent partial-birth abortion ruling.

Signers of the open letter include:
- Brian Rohrbough, president, Colorado Right to Life
- Rev. Tom Euteneuer, president, Human Life International
- Flip Benham, director, Operation Rescue / Operation Save America
- Judie Brown, president, American Life League

Judie Brown runs one of the largest pro-life ministries in America. Operation Rescue is the nation's most-well known pro-life activist organization. Human Life International ( HLI.org), founded by Father Paul Marx, has 90 offices in 75 countries. Colorado Right To Life is the nation's oldest Right To Life organization, and its president Brian Rohrbough is known internationally for fighting against violence as with his interviews on Good Morning America, Oprah, Fox News, and the BBC; and after the Amish school shootings on the free-speech segment at the CBS Evening News.

The open letter criticizes the leadership of the U.S. Christian right for a 15-year effort which achieved a partial-birth abortion ruling that actually encourages abortionists to devise "less shocking methods to abort the ['late-term'] fetus" (p. 30). The ruling, celebrated by leaders of the pro-life industry, provides instructions on how to legally kill a baby by a partial-birth abortion by delivering the child (breech), just not "past the navel." To actually violate this regulation (p. 17) "requires the fetus to be delivered 'until … any part of the fetal trunk past the navel is outside the body of the mother. '"

The Colorado Springs Telegraph Gazette approved this open letter for publication after confirming the accuracy of the Gonzales v. Carhart ruling excerpts. The letter also lists fifteen other pro-life leaders who are in agreement with the signers' negative analysis of the ruling. The signers made repeated efforts to reach Dr. Dobson personally, and he has received an advance copy of this letter, the text of which is attached, and at the Gazette.com , and at ColoradoRightToLife.org/openletter.

Contact Leslie Hanks
V.P., Colorado Right To Life
303 753-9394 or 720-394-8946
lhanks@coloradorighttolife.org