The liberal media routinely censor pro-life voices. But that doesn’t mean Americans can’t hear what they have to say.
We heard from pro-life leaders who refuse to let their case for the health of both mother and baby be stifled. They gathered to defend life in the midst of a key court case.
The U.S. Supreme Court, divided since the recent passing of Justice Antonin Scalia, heard oral arguments Wednesday in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. The case challenged the Texas Omnibus Abortion Bill or HB 2, which requires abortionists to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and mandates that those clinics adhere to the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers. But the excitement of the day wasn’t limited to inside the court.
Outside, hundreds of protesters from both sides chanted, yelled and delivered speeches outside the court in anticipation of the decision.
Abortion advocates screamed and waved their often obscene signs in the faces of pro-lifers as top pro-abortion leaders spoke. At the same time, dozens of pro-life groups also held a rally, organized by Students for Life of America (SFLA).
While the pro-life groups were outnumbered, they were more devoted to their cause, according to SFLA President Kristan Hawkins.
“They bus these people in,” she told MRC Culture of abortion supporters. “They pay them in. Our students are here on their own volition. They pay their own way ticket here.”
In regards to this case, Hawkins stressed in her speech that the abortion industry has turned from the “safe, legal and rare” mantra because it implied “there might be something wrong with abortion.”
“They can’t say it anymore,” Hawkins stressed, “Because right now what they’re actually arguing against is against safety precautions.”
Hawkins specifically called out Planned Parenthood.
“This is a special interest group, and they need to be defunded and they need to be held to the same accountability as women’s hair salons, women’s nail salons,” she urged. “No more Kermit Gosnells,” she said, referring to the abortionist convicted of murder.
As a speaker at the rally, Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) also spoke about the case to MRC Culture. Big abortion, he stressed, revolves around “profiting and trafficking off of baby parts and using women.”
“These are common sense health and safety regulations every American would agree with if they got past the big abortion lies about the industry,” he said about the Texas law.
“We care for women. We care for the baby,” he continued, “ And they care for one thing. Planned Parenthood cares one thing, and that’s making millions, perhaps billions of dollars off of committing abortions and harming women and their child.”
Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic director turned pro-life activist, also spoke with MRC Culture.
She also supported the “common sense regulations” that would “ensure that women are protected if they are going to go in to have an abortion.”
As a former Planned Parenthood employee, Johnson offered a detailed take on the “safe, legal and rare mantra”:
“Abortion is a product that the abortion industry is selling. And you know they’re not interested in keeping it rare because if they were they wouldn’t have these quotas. And they’re clearly not interested in keeping it safe because if they were they wouldn’t be fighting against this legislation.”
Johnson encouraged the pro-life movement to “continue to talk about [abortion] in a loving way and a compassionate way.”
“Because that’s what will bring about conversion, and conversion is what will bring about the paradigm shift in this culture from a culture of death to a culture of life…” she added.
“Because look, it’s not just about making abortion illegal, it’s about making abortion unthinkable,” she concluded. “And that will happen one heart, one mind, one conversion at a time.”
Priests for Life’s National Director Fr. Frank Pavone also attended the rally as a speaker.
“This is a very important case because it hinges on how much can the government protect women from an unscrupulous abortion industry and unscrupulous abortionists,” he told MRC Culture.
“If the abortion industry is whining and complaining as they are right now in this court that this law if upheld would close most of the clinics that’s not a negative reflection on the law; that’s a negative reflection on the abortion industry because it says that they are unwilling and unable to live up to basic medical standards,” he continued.
As CEO and President of Concerned Women for America, Penny Nance addressed the importance of the law for the health and safety of American women.
“I don’t believe in abortion,” she said. “But if there’s going to be abortion legal in the country the very least we can do is to protect their mothers from abortionists that are butchers and from dirty clinics and from clinics that don’t have the ability for them to get a gurney through the door to get them to the hospital.”
Nance also recommended turning to “alternative media,” talk radio, Fox News and the MRC to get the pro-life message out, instead of “NBC and the mainstream media, who won’t cover it.”
During the rally, House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) also made an appearance at the pro-life podium to “defend Texas.”
“Thank you first of all for all the young people who are here standing for life,” he said. "We do not want the Supreme Court to overturn a very common sense law that Texas has passed to protect women’s health, to up the standards, to make sure that we are being kind and compassionate, to protect the life of the mom and the baby.”
At the opposing podium abortion activists such as Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards and NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue spoke.
“Not only women are hurting but not a single woman in this country wants her daughter to have fewer rights than she does,” Richards demanded. “I will not allow that to happen.”
Likewise, Hogue insisted that abortion stood for freedom.
“When we have it in broad daylight we will win because most Americans believe in freedom,” she said. “We have already won.”
