Pro-Life Groups Rise Up Against Abortion in U.S. Capital
by Bill Fancher and Jenni Parker
February 17, 2004
(AgapePress) - Among the many grassroots organizations and individuals participating in last month's Sanctity of Human Life activities and other recent pro-life events were a few "special interest" groups that are determined to make Washington, DC, and the rest of the country hear the cry of the unborn.Ever since the March for Life, held three weeks ago in the nation's capital, groups of pro-life young people have been demonstrating throughout the area with unabated zeal and dedication to the cause of the protect the lives of unborn children.
Eric Whittington of the American Life League's youth-oriented project Rock For Life says these newest recruits in the war against abortion are not letting winter's blasts slow them down at all. He says the pro-life movement is made up of some of "the most hard-core zealots that will go out and pray and rally and protest, no matter if it's 50 below or 150 degrees, because life is precious and we will do all that we can to protect life."
Rock for Life recently held a pro-life demonstration training seminar for youth, and 250 teens from across the nation participated. Whittington says the future of the pro-life movement appears to be in good hands. He says besides first-time recruits at the seminars, many there are repeat attendees, returning to be re-trained, inspired, and re-commissioned for the battle.
"We have people that have been here for the first time, second, or even third year. We get to fellowship, praise and worship together," Whittington says, "and we get to educate. The kids are learning stuff."
The Rock for Life spokesman says training seminar graduates return to their homes to mobilize other young people in the cause for the protection of the unborn and the education of the public about the evils of abortion. "They're totally excited about going back to their communities and using the knowledge to make a difference in their community," he says, "which is really what this [pro-life fight] is all about ... a grassroots, community-based movement."
Acknowledging the Abortion-Slavery Connection
Meanwhile, in light of the February celebration of Black History Month, leaders of Black Americans for Life (BAL) will be holding a press conference to highlight the tragic impact abortion has had on the African-American community, in which the abortion rate is three times higher than it is among white women in America.
A number of pro-life African American leaders have noted the relationship between the abortion crisis and the historic oppression of African Americans, whose freedom and very lives were compromised by an American legal system that for centuries refused to recognize their personhood. As a guest speaker at a BAL banquet some time ago, conservative statesman and former ambassador Alan Keyes took up this theme.
Keyes, a longtime champion of the pro-life movement, observed that so-called abortion rights "resurrect the principles of oppression and slavery that destroyed our ancestors" and that such "traffic in human life destroys the dignity of both the aborted child and the woman." He also reminded listeners that the republic of the United States "rests on the premise that life and freedom come from God." Keyes asserts that until America rejects the destructive logic behind abortion, every citizen's freedom remains at risk.
Black Americans for Life (BAL) is an outreach of National Right to Life. The Washington, DC, press conference is scheduled for Thursday, February 19, on the main sidewalk in front of the Supreme Court of the United States. Speakers will include BAL's director, Day Gardner, along with other pro-life women who are active in the African-American community.
