The Rehumanize International Conference 2026

Posted on October 27, 2026 By Rachel MacNair

The conference started out with a dinner honoring long-time consistent lifer and pro-life feminist Carol Crossed, seen here at the microphone:

Carol has served on our Board of Directors and for a time was our Executive Director; she’s still on our Advisory Board and quite active with us.

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Here we offer some thoughts from attendees from our Board:

Sarah Terzo

I learned a lot at the conference. When listening to Julia Smucker’s talk, I was struck by how complicated the US immigration system is. It made me wonder why there couldn’t be an easier path to citizenship. I felt I came away with a better understanding of the nuances of the immigration debate.

Beth Fox and Miles Gloetzner had compelling things to say about end-of-life care. Beth talked about the red tape that made it so difficult for her to access hospice. She says that when one place got her application they threw it out after seeing that her age was listed as 34 because they thought it was an error. Her age made it difficult for her to access the services she needed.

Miles revealed that Medicare caps hospice benefits at $33,000, meaning that if people enter hospice too soon and don’t die within a certain amount of time, they can max out their benefits and be kicked out of hospice, ending up much worse off than before. This is a political decision someone made to balance the budget, and it’s a serious problem that a lot of people don’t realize they may run into at the end of their lives. As Miles noted, dying in this country is very expensive.

Beth also spoke about the ableism people display when they assume disabled people have a poor quality of life. When she needed to be on a respirator, several doctors tried to dissuade her, telling her she should choose death instead. Beth remarked that had she listened to her doctors, she would have missed out on so much. Beth also revealed that people have said to her that if they were in her position, they would kill themselves. I had someone say something like that to me. (I am also a disabled wheelchair user.) I don’t know how anyone can possibly think that is ok.

Richard Stith

Eric Scheidler’s talk asked Rehumanize and its friends to keep being bridges, presumably from pro-life to liberals and the left. But I was also struck by the fact that his presence at the Rehumanize conference was a bridge from us to mainstream, traditional pro-lifers.

Our seamless-garment approach is often viewed with suspicion by strongly anti-abortion folks. They mistakenly think we might not be absolutely opposed to abortion, if we also oppose other violations of human dignity. But Joe and Ann Scheidler, and their son Eric, are universally known to be solidly against abortion. So I think having him join us helps overcome that wrongful suspicion by our fellow anti-abortion activists.

I was also impressed by the gentle tone and content of his talk. He has clearly put his heart and soul and mind into the task of building a society where all children, and their moms and dads, are welcomed, protected, and supported.

Rachel MacNair

I was pleased with how rich and insightful all the presentations were. I presented on the upcoming peace-and-life referendums with a good audience with thoughtful questions. Also, as Richard says above, I was pleased that Eric Scheidler gave such a fine presentation and that the room was crowded, so there’s good networking going on there.

One of the points Eric made was that there are two approaches to ending abortion that must go together. If we only make it illegal, then desperate women will travel or otherwise get abortions surreptitiously. Obviously, those stuck in poverty or near poverty need material help and social services as well. On the other hand, merely offering the social services might lower the abortion rate but doesn’t do the job by itself – Scandinavian countries have admirable social services but still plenty of abortions. I would add that plenty of middle-class and upper-class women who have no material obstacles to childrearing are also still getting plenty of abortions. As Eric points out elsewhere, illegalization in a few states hasn’t meant widespread prosecution; it’s meant that abortion facilities have shut down. So people do need to have an understanding that it’s legally out of the question, and that will make them more likely to seek out the social services.

This reminded me of a recent article in The New York Times: We Know How to Fix Homelessness. Look at Denver. Homeless encampments may be seen as a problem to people encountering them, but simply breaking them up and sending people away with no place to go is just plain cruel. Offering the needed social services helps, but doesn’t do enough when they can be ignored. In any event, we need to experiment and see what works best, not merely assert what we think would work best.

And we’re certainly in an all-hands-on-deck situation.

Rachel’s talk at RI conference.

Christine Yao Pelliccioni

Sometimes things don’t go as expected. I had brought toys, books, and snacks to occupy my nearly two-year-old for the hour I was speaking. I had brought my father-in-law along to chase her around, and her stroller so they could go outside. But none of this would do- in this big crowd of new people (we had not stayed at the conference for long on Saturday since her brother had gotten an ear infection, but that’s another story), she needed Mama to hold her. Which I did throughout most of my portion of the talk, until she decided she was bored and wanted to jump out of my arms. She stood at my feet for a while, fascinated by the microphone. When she started trying to grab the microphone, I signaled to my father-in-law it really was time to get little miss outside. She did not go happily, but she went.

I don’t know if those attending my talk could see me cringe as my toddler wailed. Thankfully, executive director of Rehumanize (and mom of 6) Lauren Pope was able to console my Maggie. I am so grateful that I was speaking to such an authentically pro-life crowd, where no one batted an eye at my little one causing quite the ruckus. I am so grateful Lauren went out of her way to help a fellow mom and pro-life advocate in the most genuine way. I hope someday I can return the favor and continue building a wonderful culture of life.