When Raymond Ruddy retired in 2001 as chairman of Maximus, Inc., a government-consulting group based in Reston, Va., he knew he wanted to spend his time doing good. The call to involvement had taken root in his heart 11 years earlier.

In 1990, two philanthropists urged Ruddy to work with the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps, a group that helps underprivileged children. He recognized its work as noble and worthwhile but knew that it did not represent the end of his search.

That came when he learned that close to 1.4 million babies are aborted in the womb each year in the United States. The number shocked him.

“I knew we had to change this,” he told the Register.

So began the pulse of the Gerard Health Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to funding pro-life works.

Named after St. Gerard Majella, patron of expectant mothers, this organization’s current list of projects is vast and expansive. In 2007 alone it dispensed millions of dollars to more than 35 pro-life and pro-family groups.

In his years-long fight for life, Ruddy has come to make a couple of observations. For one, he says, the pro-life movement has become more divided than it once was. This he attributes to differences in opinion on how to change hearts and minds along with public policy — and disagreements over which of those two tasks ought to take precedent.

And, he points out, overturning Roe v. Wade is not going to happen overnight.

“It is very difficult to change a Supreme Court decision,” says Ruddy. “That’s why it is important that we have the right judges serving on our courts.”

Model Recipient

One work that has benefited from the Gerard Health Foundation is Students for Life of America (online at StudentsForLife.org). Serving more than 450 student pro-life groups across the country, Students for Life of America’s mission is educating college students on the issues of abortion, euthanasia and infanticide.

Members also strive to equip pro-life college students with the skills and resources they need to be effective and successful leaders in the pro-life movement.

According to the group’s executive director, Kristan Hawkins, money received from the Gerard Health Foundation in 2006 changed the face of the organization.

“The Gerard Health Foundation helped turn Students for Life of America from an all-volunteer organization to a nationally recognized organization with six full-time staff members,” says Hawkins.

Hawkins adds that Students for Life has started more than 200 new campus pro-life organizations, trained thousands of pro-life students and produced multiple videos exposing Planned Parenthood and their abortion allies — all thanks to funding from the Gerard Health Foundation.

“Without the Gerard Health Foundation, all of the success of Students for Life would not have been possible,” says Hawkins. “They are making strategic investments in the pro-life movement to secure a future where abortion is not recognized as a right but as a harmful act that kills and wounds.”

The future of the pro-life movement is at the heart of a new initiative the foundation unveiled last summer — Life Prizes.

With this program, the foundation looks to award $600,000 to individuals or organizations making heroic contributions to pro-life works. The funds will go to as many as six recipients per year or as few as one.

Cathy Ruse serves as Life Prizes’ executive director. In her many years working in pro-life legislation and policy on the national level, she has not seen an awards program of this scope in the pro-life area.

“I was very excited to be a part of this initiative,” says Ruse. “It makes a lot of sense to give some recognition on this level.”

A group of 100 pro-life leaders nationwide was selected and asked to nominate potential winners. Nominees are evaluated according to their advances in public advocacy, scientific research, outreach and public-disclosure activities, legal action or other noteworthy pro-life achievements.

A selection advisory committee, which includes Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput and Alveda King, evaluated the 20 or so finalists.

The winners of the first Life Prizes were announced in December. The presentations, slated for Jan. 23 in Washington, D.C., are sure to be a high point of this year’s March for Life.

According to Ruse, the idea for Life Prizes was Raymond Ruddy’s brainchild. Its aim is threefold: to reward heroic efforts in what she describes as “the civil-rights battle of our age,” to inspire a new generation of young people who are willing to take up the battle for life, and to give them real-life role models to emulate.

“The pro-life views of young people are much stronger than they were a generation ago,” says Ruse. “We need to build on that by lifting up pro-life heroes.”

Kristan Hawkins, who served as a Life Prizes nominator, couldn’t agree more. “I believe the program is really going to help inspire this generation’s pro-life activists,” she says. “It will help reward some pro-life heroes who work tirelessly for the unborn each and every day.”

Eddie O’Neill writes from

Green Bay, Wisconsin.

FOR MORE INFOGerard Health Foundation, 21 Eliot St., Suite 4, South Natick, MA 01760, (508) 655-8813