By PEGGY MOEN
ST. PAUL — Weighted with a heavy snowfall and the Vikings’ crushing NFC loss, Minnesota pro-lifers nonetheless rallied impressively January 22 at the state capitol. They came to defend what makes weather forecasting and football playing possible: being born.
Elaine Hertel, an MCCL volunteer, told The Wanderer, that “it’s amazing” so many turned out during a blizzard.
Diane Springer of Grove City, Minn., said she ventured out because “I just want to protect life, defend life. . . . Today is my birthday.”
From a distance, the bundled-up pro-lifers looked like fleeing refugees as they trudged up the snowy capitol steps. But inside the capitol rotunda, the pro-lifers, arrayed on all three levels, looked like part of a ballroom scene from a classic movie.
Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life has never canceled one of its rallies because of winter weather, but this is the third time they’ve had to move the rally indoors.
In his talk inside the rotunda, Leo LaLonde, MCCL’s president, proclaimed himself “awed at the size of the crowds.”
He pointed out that “states passed more pro-life legislation during the Obama administration than at any other time in history.”
Because of “people like you who travel in snowy weather,” the pro-life movement has won these gains, he said, urging his listeners to pray “for the dawn of a new era.”
These pro-lifers were buoyed by forward strides under the Trump administration: Fr. Paul Kubista of St. Jude of the Lake, Mahtomedi, told The Wanderer he thinks President Trump “knows how important life is” and that its defense will help us “flourish as a society.” And, he said, “I think there’s a movement among the young,” who have seen “how precious life is.” Fr. Kubista gave the invocation for the event, affirming that “every human life…deserves our utmost respect and attention.”
While the talks expressed renewed hope for the overturn of Roe v. Wade, the focus of the MCCL rally was on passing pro-life legislation in Minnesota.
Top on MCCL’s legislative agenda is a bill to allow women to see their ultrasound when and if it is performed.
House Speaker Kurt Daudt, a Republican, told the crowd that abortion clinics perform ultrasounds, but women generally are not allowed to see them.
Carla Stream, a member of Silent No More, spoke in support of the legislation.
“Many women choose life after viewing the ultrasound,” she said. “Abortionists know this and do not show them. Why? Because it is bad for business.”
Stream explained: “I know this because 27 years ago I had an abortion I did not want. I was ten weeks along and was never shown the ultrasound of my baby. I never got to hear that little heartbeat. I know I would have rejected abortion had I been allowed to see my child.”
She added: “Before my abortion, I was shown a video of a bunch of red circles. We were told it was ‘just a clump of cells.’ I was ten weeks along but the girls watching the video with me could have been nine or eleven or twelve weeks along. We all watched the same video. We all believed the same lies.”
“After years of difficulty, I sought forgiveness in Christ,” said Stream. Now, “I have four children that are raising my husband and me.”
And, since she began telling her story publicly in 2008, “four babies that I know of are alive today because their mothers heard my story and chose life.”
“My deepest pain has become my greatest passion,” Stream concluded.
Along with Speaker Daudt — who also noted the other MCCL legislative proposals, prohibiting taxpayer funding of abortion and requiring inspection and licensing of abortion facilities — Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka addressed the pro-lifers.
Gazelka, a Republican, recalled the work of William Wilberforce (1759-1833), an English abolitionist. Wilberforce and his anti-slavery allies “kept pushing, they kept pushing. Know how long it took? Forty-six years — we’re at forty-five.”
Minnesota Lt. Gov. and Senate President Michelle Fischbach appeared to encourage everyone to support MCCL’s pro-life agenda. “I will continue my commitment to make Minnesota safer for unborn children and for every single person who lives here,” she said.
Minnesota pro-life members of Congress — Jason Lewis, Erik Paulsen, Tom Emmer, and Collin Peterson — sent greetings to the assembled pro-lifers.
Cong. Lewis wrote: “Much has been accomplished this past year, but there is still much work to be done. We must continue to stand and fight for the most vulnerable in our society.”
Other state elected officials were present at the rotunda rally.
Within the pro-life throng were members of the Franciscan Brothers of Peace. Brother Conrad told The Wanderer that he came to show that “life — the importance of every person made in God’s image, from preborn children to the medically vulnerable and aged and everyone in between — is worth standing up for and marching for.”
With Brother Conrad was John, a postulant, who came to uphold the “sanctity of life — that all would know they’re created to love and be loved.”
As everyone left the rotunda to go out into the accelerating blizzard, a photographer at the foot of the steps called out, “Hold them up! Those of you with signs, hold them up!”
The signs read: “Let Women See Their Ultrasounds,” “I Regret My Abortion,” and “Protect Life.”
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