Dear John,
Yesterday, I read that gratitude is healthy.
Makes sense, but now science has proved it. Folks that make a daily list of 5 things for which they are grateful are happier and healthier over time. On that measure, I stand as the happiest, healthiest woman that ever lived. Our SBA List family has hundreds of thousands of items to be grateful for every day! You, John, and each one of our 285,420 members are reasons for great fanfare and rejoicing.
As a team, each playing a part, you and your SBA List showed what tough love means this election. We flexed the loving muscle of the pro-life movement and changed the face of public office in our nation.
You paved the way for arguably the most pro-life Congress ever: of the 87 new Republican members in the House, 80 of them are pro-life.
The abortion centered women’s movement had its rendezvous with destiny: you produced a 70% increase in the number of pro-life women in the House, paved the way for the only one in the Senate, and supported 4 pro-life women governors (that’s out of 6 women governors overall!).
Then, topping my own personal list is God’s gift of each one of my five children and my husband. They bless me with a continual “life GPS.”
For instance, my daughter just read one of my favorite books of all time, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. She understood right away (took me years) the gravity of the meaning in the title. Here’s the key passage:
"Atticus said to Jem one day, 'I'd rather you shoot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to a kill a mockingbird.'
That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.
'Your father's right,' she said. 'Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.'"
My daughter said, “I thought of abortion.” I had not. I had thought of the two strong male characters perceived in the town as expendable. Tom Robinson, the powerless black man wrongly accused and convicted of rape. I thought of the young man Boo Radley, mentally a child, and relegated to a life in the basement next door.
Add the unborn because they fit beautifully: each one with value beyond measure, sent for our joy, but unappreciated for their intrinsic value.
They surprise us with their gifts. “They don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out” in whatever way they were sent to sing. To kill them is surely a sin in the way Atticus describes it—and a grievous loss. For the unborn, it is the loss of almost 4,000 brilliant and unique songs per day.
That’s why the victory for them is so sweet. And why now is the moment. You created this moment we can seize on their behalf for sure, but also for our own joy. We need the “music” they were sent for us to enjoy.
John, you are a blessing and reason for a scientifically-correct, happier life in our world. Thank you for your own music!
May God bless you this Thanksgiving Day!
Marjorie Dannenfelser
President, Susan B. Anthony List
www.sba-list.org 
