By PEGGY MOEN
ST. PAUL — Maybe a shade anticlimactic after the infamous leak in May, and almost apocalyptic with the surrounding pro-abort radicals, Pro-Life Action Ministries’ post-Roe rally in St. Paul blazed a clear path for the pro-life future.
Brian Gibson, executive director of PLAM, addressed the crowd from the stage and reminded them that they were all standing on the plaza of the Warren E. Burger Federal Building. Burger was chief justice of the Supreme Court when Roe was handed down.
“We’re standing here today because that decision of 1973 is gone.”
The pro-life crowd shouted “Praise God! Praise God!”
Gibson called on pro-lifers to always give the glory to God.
When we ask for something big from God, he added, “You know what He expects of us? To work our tails off.”
“We thank you, Heavenly Father . . . Every life matters.”
An impromptu trio sang hymns throughout the rally, with lyrics like “shine, Jesus, shine” raising the spirits of the defenders of the unborn.
Even if the June 24 ruling striking down Roe v. Wade was expected, pro-lifers still felt shocked to be celebrating Roe’s demise. Two longtime pro-lifers expressed their emotions to The Wanderer.
Sharon said she has “just always been pro-life. . . . I never thought I’d see it [the end of Roe] in my lifetime, but Roe has fallen. I just believe in life from conception to natural death.”
Margot described herself as “just stunned and it feels surreal . . . having prayed for it for so long.” She added that “the real work is just beginning,” which turned out to be the rally’s theme.
The need for hard work is particularly true in Minnesota, set to become a “destination” state for abortion. The 1995 Doe v. Gomez decision unfortunately guaranteed that.
As Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life explains on its website (www.mccl.org):
“Doe v. Gomez established a new state constitutional ‘right’ to abortion on demand. This right would remain protected by the state constitution even if Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision legalizing abortion in the United States, were to be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“But Doe v. Gomez also obligates the state — and thus, taxpayers — to pay for abortions for low-income women who receive state assistance, something not required by the U.S. Supreme Court.”
In his presentation, Gibson noted that as of June 24, for example, abortion ended in Wisconsin. Pro-life states ring Minnesota. These include, along with Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, according to a report in the Star Tribune, said on June 25: “As long as we occupy this office, access to abortion services and reproductive care will be safe, legal, accessible and as affordable as we can make it.” He spoke at a state capitol news conference. Minnesota’s two U.S. senators, other DFL politicians, and prominent pro-aborts were also there.
“Time to roll up our sleeves,” as Gibson said at the rally.
Various speakers proposed ways to get to work under these new challenges. One pro-lifer carried a “Trump MAGA” flag. Many presenters pointed to the need to assist women in crisis pregnancies.
One of those speakers was Archbishop Bernard Hebda of the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese, who announced:
“I pledge that our Catholic churches will be a sanctuary to women in crisis pregnancies” as we are at “this new starting point.”
The archbishop also took note of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Walking with Moms in Need program, designed to give aid to pregnant women.
He said to the crowd: “Thank you for your beautiful witness, thank you for your presence here today.”
Other leaders of the Minnesota Catholic Conference spoke at the rally, including Maggee Becker, MCC project manager, who said: “It is our duty to protect the unborn and the most vulnerable among us” and the MCC will support legislation toward that end.
Renee Carlson, general counsel for True North Legal, declared that this is “a great day in U.S. history — the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade.” After half a century, women and children can begin to receive the help they need, she said, adding: “Abortion is not the great rescuer.”
Matt Murphy of Students for Life spoke, emphasizing the need for pregnancy care centers and explaining how they can save lives.
Pro-Life Action Ministries is an interfaith organization. Fred Thoni, healing ministry director for North Heights Lutheran, Roseville, Minn., addressed the rally and prayed “empower us with your truth.”
Rev. Denise Walker of Everlasting Life Ministries declared to the crowd, “This is a good, Good Friday.”
Several participants noted that June 24 is the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Edging the pro-life rally were a number of pro-aborts, including a young man who used a bullhorn to disrupt the proceedings. He also chanted — incongruously — “My body, my choice!”
Another man wore a cardboard sign that said “F. . . women’s health,” apparently repeating the tired pro-abort claim that pro-lifers don’t care about the well-being of women. Much of the above report gives evidence to the contrary.
A woman getting into a car at the curb shouted “Boo!” at the rally and made an obscene gesture. Other cars driving by honked in a friendly manner at the pro-lifers.
A young woman had “my body” painted on one leg and “my choice” painted on the other.
Two gentlemen in the crowd tried to reason with her, one of them handing her one of the rally’s posters with a baby declaring, “I am human.”
She took the poster, ripped it up, and threw the pieces at the feet of her benefactor.
Overall, the pro-aborts were outnumbered and outclassed.
The “my body, my choice” routine brings C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters to mind. Screwtape, the senior devil, is schooling his nephew Wormwood in the art of tempting humans to sin. At one point, Screwtape reflects:
“The sense of ownership in general is always to be encouraged. The humans are always putting up claims to ownership which sound equally funny in Heaven and in Hell, and we must keep them doing so. Much of the modern resistance to chastity comes from men’s belief that they ‘own’ their bodies — those vast and perilous estates, pulsating with the energy that made the worlds, in which they find themselves without their consent and from which they are ejected at the pleasure of another.”
C.S. Lewis was more prophetic than anyone ever imagined.
And, surveying the June 24 pro-life throng — dominated by young families with babies and blessed with the presence of religious brothers — it’s obvious that the pro-aborts never had a prayer.
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