By DEXTER DUGGAN
PHOENIX — As thousands of pro-life marchers headed west from downtown Phoenix, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, the chief prosecutor of the county where Phoenix is located, already had arrived at the park by the state capitol for the 2018 Arizona for Life rally when The Wanderer walked up to him.
Among many marchers carrying posters here on January 20, one young woman wearing a pro-life feminist tee-shirt had a sign saying, “When our liberation costs innocent lives, it’s merely oppression redistributed.”
This was one of many pro-life commemorations around January 22 across the nation regarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s divisive invention of a national mandate for permissive abortion on that date in 1973. An Arizona for Life spokeswoman said 4,500 people participated here.
Montgomery, a Republican, was among various elected GOP members at Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza to stop by as evidence of their support for the pro-life cause, a cause that prospers more when government officials cooperate with pro-lifers rather than fighting them, as is usually the case in states like California where pro-death Democrats dominate the system.
Arizona had just been rated as the most pro-life state in the nation in the annual assessment by the national legal-activist organization Americans United for Life, based in Arlington, Va.
The Maricopa County Republican Party tweeted, “Great seeing so many of our elected officials, Republican leaders,” and county precinct committeemen at the rally.
Although Montgomery wasn’t on the speakers’ list for the January 20 rally, his response to The Wanderer’s request for a comment added to sentiments to be expressed from the lectern that day.
“In the 45 years since the U.S. Supreme Court sanctioned generational genocide, 60 million Americans have lost their lives,” Montgomery said. “To put that in context, that’s 25,000 Pearl Harbors, 20,000 9/11’s, and that’s 10 Holocausts. There is no telling the beauty and talent the rest of us have been denied as a result.”
Asked for his reaction to President Trump’s address from the Rose Garden the previous day to the national March for Life in Washington, D.C., Montgomery said the president “taking time to support the cause of life means a lot.”
When The Wanderer brought up the possibility that people just go home after pro-life rallies end, Montgomery said that’s really not the case.
“Look at all the efforts in all 50 states in the 45 years since to protect women and children…at the mercy of greed by the abortion industry,” he said. “Those who love life have been active. And never discount the power of prayer. We come from a place of love and not a place of hate.”
The day’s speakers included Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, Phoenix Catholic Bishop Thomas Olmsted, Canadian inspirational speaker and pro-life apologist Stephanie Gray, and Pam Tebow, the mother who declined to abort the “miracle baby” who grew up to be sports star Tim Tebow.
Elisa Medina, director of Tucson’s Hands of Hope pregnancy center, emceed the rally program.
People need to remember that “women in crisis pregnancies are scared” and need help, Medina said, giving the example of a baby born the day of the rally whose mother had wanted an abortion in August, but changed her mind through pro-life assistance.
Rev. Warren Stewart Jr., pastor of Remnant South Phoenix Church, told the rally that his father, also a pastor, “was arrested many years ago for protesting at an abortion clinic, and that changed the trajectory of my life. . . .
“We declare that choosing life is not political but biblical,” Stewart said.
Speaking in the cadences of the black church, Stewart said “we can declare that life in the womb is not just tissue,” and that pro-life isn’t Democrats and Republicans, rich and poor, or people of different colors. Instead, “We are the human race” and the children of God.
“May we be unified…and the Devil terrified,” he said.
Ducey, the GOP Arizona governor, was introduced as having signed 14 significant pro-life bills into law since taking office in January 2015. He noted the “fantastic news” of Arizona being rated the number one pro-life state.
Expressing pleasure at seeing this crowd, including “so many young people,” Ducey pointed to the Declaration of Independence’s affirmation of inalienable rights, including first of all the right to life.
He spoke of the need to provide loving homes for children to be adopted, and he noted that state legislators aren’t the only ones to advance the right to life.
Other important work “is being done away from the capitol. It’s being done by you,” Ducey told the audience.
John Paul II
Olmsted, the Phoenix bishop, was introduced as someone whose life as a priest was directly affected by the January 1973 legalization of massive abortion because “the shock of that decision (was) so close to the onset of his priesthood” when he was ordained that summer.
The bishop recalled for the crowd that, a few years after Ordination, he was called to Rome and went on to serve at the Vatican under the Pope who was to become St. John Paul II.
When the future saint visited Washington, D.C., in 1979, Olmsted said, he declared, “We will stand up and proclaim that no one ever has the right to destroy unborn human life.”
People shouldn’t look at the present time as a reason to be discouraged, Olmsted said, but to know that God chose them to be here now. “He’s the One who has created us for this time and place.”
Canadian speaker Gray advised pro-lifers to show understanding of people in difficult situations regarding pregnancy, but to remind them that killing a born child isn’t permitted if the mother has hard circumstances, and that the unborn baby has human rights, too.
She offered the example of rape as “a horrible injustice,” but the innocent child resulting from rape doesn’t deserve the death penalty. These mothers “have been traumatized, and abortion is not going to take that trauma away,” she said, adding that pro-lifers should express their sorrow over this suffering.
Emcee Medina, listing ways that people can take action, said some people will say, “I can only pray.” Reminding them that prayer has its own power, she said, “I want you to take that word ‘only’ out.”
Rally media contact Rachel LeBeau told The Wanderer regarding the gathering’s turnout, “I think our generation, the millennials and younger, are being more vocal about being pro-life,” and have an understanding of the harm to women from abortion. Social media also encourages their participation, she said.
Still, this is a day of terrorism worries in public places. Not only were Arizona state troopers on hand — perhaps to be expected with the governor and other state officials present — but also military personnel wearing camouflage gear after arriving in trucks painted in camouflage shades.
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