Last Saturday's Walk for Life program in Lincoln, Nebraska was one of the most inspirational, encouraging and stimulating I've ever attended. And that's saying quite a bit -- I've been participating in them since 1983.Well organized, as always, by Nebraska Right to Life, the event has several parts beginning with a brief program on the west side of the Capitol building. There the assembled crowd gathers to hear a welcome from NRL leaders, listen to a few of our state's pro-life politicians, sing the national anthem together, and solemnly watch as pink and blue balloons are released to commemorate the preborn babies whose lives have been taken through surgical abortion since the Roe v Wade decision of 1973.
Then the crowd marches to the Student Union on the University of Nebraska campus where the post-march speaker addresses the crowd and where there are informational booths to visit before and after the talk. Saturday's tables included those set up by NRL, Vital Signs Ministries, Lincoln Right to Life, Nebraska Coalition for Ethical Research, the Bishops Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities, Lincoln Crisis Pregnancy Center, Gabriel's Corner Pregnancy Center, and Nebraska Lutherans for Life.
The Vital Signs booth was about as busy as anytime Claire and I could remember. Particularly interesting to our guests were the fetal models (no surprise there, they always are) but also the chastity bookmarks, the sheets of pro-life Scriptures, the slide show on Claire's laptop which reviews photos of our 27 years of pro-life activity, the statements about abortion from figures in Church history, and, of course, the books by Randy Alcorn we give away: Why Pro-Life? and Does the Birth-Control Pill Cause Abortions?As the special speaker this year, Nebraska Right to Life brought in Michael Clancy whose personal testimony of coming to faith in Jesus Christ was as exhilarating and profound as was his story of the world famous photographs he took of a baby boy (21-week old in utero) during fetal surgery. (The Lincoln Journal-Star did a surprisingly fair story on Clancy's talk but you can find out more about him and his impressive work at his website, MichaelClancy.com.)
(Shown at left are Bev Weis and Carol Coppi as they watch the ballons soar aloft.)Being in a large crowd of pro-life advocates (this year it was around 5,000) is always a delightful, energizing experience. But Claire and I were particularly pleased that marching with us this year were 11 people from Faith Bible Church, the little church in south Omaha where I've been preaching this last year. That represents almost 20% of our congregation! And 6 of those had never been to a Walk for Life before. (The next day, Marilee Reck and Allen Nelson gave brief presentations in the church service about the Walk and the meaning it had for them. Both were powerful testimonies, informative, exciting, persuasive. I'm pretty sure even more than 11 will be there next year!)
All in all, it was a stirring and very memorable morning.
(Here's a photo of veteran sidewalk counselor Matt Troutman who brought along his one-year old son, Luke, to the Walk. Matt also brought his brother Mike, the handsome fellow with the cap that you can barely see as he's holding one of our oldest and still most attractive banners, one made years and years ago by Rita Cox.)
Below I print in full the Capitol building talk given by Nebraska Right to Life Director, Julie Schmit-Albin on Saturday morning. It was exceptional.
Welcome pro-life Nebraskans! And thank God for the beautiful weather. We needed that break, didn’t we? On January 22nd, 500 Nebraskans marched as a group in Washington, D.C. in the 36th consecutive March for Life. Where are you young people who rode buses 20 hours to D.C. last week? Did you have a good time? [The response from the crowd indicated that they certainly did.]
Do you all remember last year during the campaign when then-candidate Barack Obama was quoted in front of a crowd of donors in San Francisco? And do you remember what he said of small town folks and people from rural communities and the Midwest…something about how we were all bitter and clinging to our guns and our religion? Well, I have to admit, I’m clinging to my religion these days! Do I have any fellow religion clingers out there? [Again, a roar of shouts and applause proved the crowd shared Julie's passion.] And there’s a lot of us! And we’ve been showing up in the thousands at pro-life marches all over the country this month. I guess we just didn’t get the memo from the mainstream media on election night that we were all “supposed to go crawl in a bunker and go away!”
Well, our new President has already embarked on his promise to “reduce the number of abortions.” But he has a strange way of going about it -- by opening overseas funding for Planned Parenthood and promising the abortion industry more of what they demanded of him! I’m waiting for the next shoe to fall, the expanded funding of embryonic stem cell research. And of course, our opponents are chomping at the bit to get the so-called Freedom of Choice Act through Congress and to the President.
So, that’s some of the bad news, we have a President who not only doesn’t share our pro-life values; but has promised our adversaries to help them out every step of the way. But you know, there is some good news. We may not have much clout in Congress and the White House right now, but we have to look on the bright side. Because in Nebraska, Ernie Chambers is no longer in our state legislature!
We have endured years of Senator Chambers’ filibusters against pro-life legislation. And over the years, despite Ernie, the legislature has managed to pass legislation, most recently last year the ban on public funding of embryo creation and destruction. But for years, Ernie was the reason we sometimes had to compromise to get anything passed. Now that Ernie’s gone, shouldn’t the sky be the limit? Isn’t it time to rock and roll on abortion legislation in the building behind us!
After 36 yeas and over 50 million babies' lives being snuffed out by abortionists, are we ready to ask the legislature to push the envelope on Roe v. Wade right here in Nebraska? Like we did with our partial-birth abortion law, which paved the way for the eventual victory at the Supreme Court? We can do it. We can start by passing a strong ultrasound bill like LB 675.
Nebraska Right to Life thanks Senator Tony Fulton of District 29 in Lincoln for introducing LB 675, a piece of National Right to Life model legislation which would give mothers in Nebraska’s abortion mills a real chance to see their living, unborn child on the ultrasound screen. LB 675 would make the abortionist, who is already doing an ultrasound, do the ultrasound at least an hour before a scheduled abortion and turn the screen towards the mother. LB 675 puts the burden of informed consent where it belongs…on the abortionist…not on the mother to have to ask to see what is on the screen.
And, you know what, the abortion industry in this state doesn’t like LB 675. And they don’t like LB 594 either, introduced by Senator Cap Dierks which Greg Schleppenbach will be speaking about down at the Union. Folks, when the abortion industry fights your pro-life legislation, you know it will have an adverse impact on them. In other words, if Planned Parenthood and Leroy Carhart don’t oppose our legislation, then we aren’t doing our job! Abortion law is all about pushing the envelope, finding new ground to dismantle Roe v. Wade.
The victory on partial birth abortion was built on the back of our state law in Nebraska. So now with Senator Chambers gone, we need to get back to being a leader in the nation. There are very few states that have a pro-life one-house majority in their legislature, a pro-life governor and a pro-life attorney general who can defend their laws, all at the same time. Well that’s what we have in Nebraska. We are Nebraska and we can do better. Thank you for being here.
