WASHINGTON – The de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame awarded National Right to Life Vice President Tony Lauinger and his wife, Phyllis Lauinger, M.D., its Evangelium Vitae Medal.

Tony Lauinger is State Chairman of Oklahomans For Life and Vice President of National Right to Life. Phyllis Lauinger, M.D., provides free health care to Tulsa’s uninsured through Xavier Medical Clinic and has delivered pro-life lectures to various audiences over the years.

“We are extremely grateful for Tony and Phyllis Lauinger and their lifelong work dedicated to protecting the most vulnerable among us,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “And we thank the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture for recognizing the Lauingers’ commitment to the right to life.”

According to the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, the Evangelium Vitae Medal is “the nation’s most important lifetime achievement award for heroes in the pro-life movement, honoring individuals whose outstanding efforts have served to proclaim the Gospel of Life by steadfastly affirming and defending the sanctity of human life from its earliest stages.” The Evangelium Vitae Medal is named after Pope John Paul II’s 1995 encyclical.

After he and his wife received the award, Mr. Lauinger delivered remarks that included the following:

Phyllis and I would like to dedicate these cherished medals to all the unsung, unheralded heroes of the pro-life movement who have never been recognized, honored, or thanked…  Those who have labored in the vineyard this past half century without any acclaim, following their consciences and the call that the Good Lord put on their hearts to do as the Book of Proverbs counsels, and rescue those being led to slaughter….

The Supreme Court in 1973 condemned to death the unborn children of America, but what they could not do was extinguish the determination of pro-life citizens to defend those children….

Pro-life Americans flatly refused to leave the voiceless unborn child without a voice, refused to let the issue die, refused to let Roe v. Wade be the last word.

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of affiliates in each of the 50 states, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.