Right to Life of Indianapolis president Marc Tuttle remembered for pro-life legacy
By Natalie Hoefer
When COVID restrictions prevented the Indiana March for Life and rally from taking place in its usual way on Jan. 22, 2021, Marc Tuttle was undeterred.
“We decided to quickly pivot,” said the president of Right to Life of Indianapolis (RTLI), the organization responsible for the annual march and following rally. The “march” became a caravan, and the rally was moved to a larger outdoor space.
“We must hold this event every year,” he stressed at the rally. “It’s important to take a day like today to remember and mourn the 62 million lives [at that time] that were lost to abortion.”
That urgency and passion for protecting the unborn and their mothers defined the life of Tuttle, who died unexpectedly of a heart attack on June 2 at the age of 53.
Tuttle was born on April 1, 1973, just nine weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion—bringing about the pro-life cause that became his devoted mission.
Tuttle spent his entire career working for pro-life organizations, including Life Dynamics in Texas, Pro-Life Wisconsin in Wisconsin, and 18 years as president of RTLI.
Raised as a Methodist, Tuttle grew up in a military family. He lived in several states and in Germany, earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Indiana University in Bloomington and a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Dallas.
During college, involvement with IU Students for Life led to three calls for Tuttle: the call to the pro-life cause; the call to be a husband and father when he met Dzintra Brugman, whom he married in 1995; and the call to Catholicism for the couple through their involvement with the pro-life community.
Friends and colleagues recall the accomplishments and values that defined Tuttle’s life.
‘We were thrilled to find him’
When Tuttle was hired as RTLI’s president in July 2008, “we were thrilled to find him,” says the organization’s board chairman Thomas Hirschauer. “He was very passionate and committed to the pro-life movement. … This wasn’t simply a job for him by any stretch—this was his life’s work.”
He credits Tuttle with three particular accomplishments for RTLI and the pro-life cause: expanding ways to educate the public; reaching out “not just to Catholics but to other faith leaders to bring the life cause to people in the pews”; and for increasing youth involvement in the pro-life movement.
Through Tuttle’s leadership, says Hirschauer, RTLI joined with the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and the Diocese of Lafayette to create the Indiana March for Life in 2018. With the exception of 2021, the march ends at the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis for a rally where legislators and pro-life leaders address the participants. As emcee, Tuttle would speak as well.
“There was always so much fire in Marc’s voice when he spoke about protecting the babies and supporting the moms in need,” says Linda Kile, former executive director and president of the pro-life Great Lakes Gabriel Project. “It was easy to see that what he was doing was more than a job—it was his investment in the future generations of Indiana.”
Tuttle was instrumental on the legislative side as well. The RTLI board presented Tuttle with a special Defender of Life Award in October 2022 for those efforts.
“Marc fought tirelessly leading up to and following [the Supreme Court’s] decision overturning Roe v. Wade” in a way “that significantly contributed to the success [of] Indiana pro-life laws,” Hirschauer is quoted as saying in an Oct. 14, 2022, Criterion article. “Now, his efforts will literally help save the lives of thousands of babies.”
RTLI ‘will go on in his memory’
Working beside Tuttle in that cause was Mary Dougherty. As his colleague at RTLI for 18 years, she says he spoke often of his family.
“He was so proud of his daughters,” Dougherty says of Larisa Boulet, Bridget, Aija, Ieva and Jacinta Tuttle. “He and Dzintra did such a wonderful job raising them—that comes from living your faith.”
Tuttle was a fifth-grade catechist at his family’s home parish, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Carmel, Ind., in the Lafayette Diocese.
“I looked up to Marc because he was just so passionate about his faith,” says Leighton Drake, who heads children’s and junior high faith formation at the parish. “He was one of those guys who was very academic in knowledge but had such a sincere love for the Lord and the Church.”
Tuttle also shared the faith through “The Catholic Cave” podcast he co-hosted with Tim O’Donnell for five years. O’Donnell says Tuttle was “a brave man” who “kept going in adversity. ...
“I think he knew that he was on Christ’s team. He had that kind of inner strength and calm and confidence of knowing he was answering God’s call to save and protect these [unborn] lives. That gave him the strength not just to persevere but to thrive in the hard battles he faced.”
Informed by and steeped in the Catholic faith, Tuttle gave his all for three decades to promote a culture of life.
“Very few people in this world have the zeal, passion and desire to protect and educate people about the value of human life that Marc had,” says Kile.
“His legacy is in the life of every woman who chose to seek help instead of abortion and in the lives of each child born as a result of all his work.”
That work will continue through Right to Life of Indianapolis, says Hirschauer.
“In regard to the organization and the movement, the last thing Marc would ever want is that his passing stopped us from doing what he wanted us to do,” he says.
“He was the stalwart of the organization for 18 years, and he’s going to leave a big hole. But the organization will go on, and it will go on in his memory.”
(Donations to Right to Life of Indianapolis in memory of Marc Tuttle can be made at rtlindy.org, or write a check made out to “Right to Life of Indianapolis” and mail it to Right to Life of Indianapolis, Inc., 1060 E. 86th Street, Suite 61B, Indianapolis, IN 46240.) †