An Open Letter to the Organizers and Supporters of the Connecticut Right to Life Education Alliance (CRLEA)

An Open Letter to the Organizers and Supporters of the Connecticut Right to Life Education Alliance (CRLEA)
From: Norman Harold Patterson Jr., Director of the Connecticut Foundation to Abolish Abortion
www.AbolishAbortionCT.org

June 29, 2025

Dear Friends and Fellow Laborers for Life,

As you gather today in Cheshire to launch the Connecticut Right to Life Education Alliance (CRLEA), I write to you not merely as a fellow citizen or concerned Christian—but as a brother compelled by Scripture to speak plainly and appeal earnestly.

My name is Norman Harold Patterson Jr., and I serve as the Director of the Connecticut Foundation to Abolish Abortion. We are a Christian abolitionist organization committed to seeing the complete and immediate end of abortion in our state—not by education alone, not by slow reforms, and not by political calculation, but by establishing justice in accordance with God's Word.

We are encouraged to see so many in Connecticut who care deeply about the lives of unborn children. We commend your willingness to organize and serve. But we write today to issue a gracious yet firm plea:

Do not rebuild the same Pro-life infrastructure that has failed to abolish abortion for the past 50 years. Instead, join us in the work of abolition.

For decades, the Pro-life movement has embraced a strategy of incrementalism—regulating when and how a baby can be murdered in the womb rather than demanding that such murder be outlawed altogether. These regulations (heartbeat bills, pain-capable bans, 15-week laws, etc.) have left countless children unprotected, even as they secured political wins and fundraising victories.

Abolition, by contrast, demands equal protection under the law for all human beings, from fertilization onward, without compromise, without exception, and without delay. It affirms that abortion is not merely a social tragedy but murder—and must be treated as such under just law. You can read more about the principles of abolitionism in the Norman Statement, found here:
👉 https://www.abolishabortionct.org/thenormanstatement

At our foundation, we do not seek to merely lessen abortion—we seek to abolish it to the glory of God. This includes introducing legislation in Connecticut that recognizes the unborn as persons deserving full legal protection, and that holds accountable any party who, with malice aforethought, takes the life of a child in the womb. That includes abortionists, those who assist them, and yes, in many cases, the mothers themselves.

Let me be clear: We are not about vengeance. We are not out to “throw women in jail.” But we do believe in justice—and justice means the law must treat all murder as murder, regardless of the age or location of the victim. Many post-abortive women have testified that if abortion had been criminalized, they never would have done it. When we excuse the mother as a "second victim," we fail to deter the crime and deny the truth.

The Pro-life movement, sadly, has repeatedly blocked abolition bills in every state where they have been introduced—often siding with pro-abortion legislators to kill the very efforts that could end abortion forever. We hope and pray that this does not happen in Connecticut.

With the Dobbs decision now behind us, and Roe v. Wade consigned to the ash heap of judicial history, the door is wide open for Connecticut to stand for righteousness. This is not a time to rebuild failed systems. It is a time to return to first principles.

So I humbly urge each of you gathered at the Legionaries of Christ Seminary today: Reconsider the path. Rather than form another Pro-life educational bureaucracy that will inevitably fall into compromise and pragmatism, join the movement of immediate, uncompromising justice. Join us in calling evil what it is. Join us in honoring God rather than appeasing political pressure. Join us in defending all preborn children without exception.

Our hand is extended. Let us not be adversaries in the battle for life, but co-laborers in the pursuit of justice. Reject gradualism. Reject compromise. Reject the love of money that so often governs nonprofit strategy. And join us in proclaiming and practicing equal protection for the preborn—without apology and without exception.

In the name of Christ our King,
for the glory of God and the defense of the least of these,

Norman Harold Patterson Jr.
Director
Connecticut Foundation to Abolish Abortion
www.AbolishAbortionCT.org