“United for Life” Rally In Minnesota Draws Large, Diverse Crowd

By PEGGY MOEN

ST. PAUL — “Aslan is on the move” and “spring is coming,” announced Dr. Joe Rigney, president of Bethlehem College & Seminary, located around and at the Downtown Campus of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis. Dr. Rigney addressed the United for Life participants in the Minnesota capitol rotunda on February 28. He was referring to the lion in C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, in which four children enter the magical land of Narnia and rescue it from the diabolical White Witch and her endless winter and help return it to Aslan, the Christ-like lion hero. As the four siblings — Peter, Susan, Lucy, and Edmund — travel through Narnia, the ice gradually begins to melt.
But some Minnesotans might like to think that spring is also coming in a literal sense, as most rally participants had to walk along icy sidewalks and-or drive through slippery streets in order to reach the indoor rally!
Dr. Rigney is also an associate professor of theology and literature at his college, as evidenced by his quoting not only from C.S. Lewis but also from G.K. Chesterton, who said: “The one perfectly divine thing, the one glimpse of God’s Paradise given on Earth, is to fight a losing battle — and not lose it.” And from Solzhenitsyn: “Let the light come into the world.”
Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul-Minneapolis was the first to address the crowd in the capitol rotunda, saying:
“It is a blessing to be with so many of you who have gathered here today to remind our elected officials that the movement to welcome every child in life and protect them in law is not deterred by the recent passage of the PRO [Protect Reproductive Options] Act, but is in fact energized to strengthen the pro-life witness here in Minnesota. We will not stop standing up for the most vulnerable in our communities, particularly the unborn child in the womb!
“I greet you with a word of peace — because peace is what we seek. It will be hard to live in a peaceful society without peace in the womb. The state-sanctioned killing of the innocent unborn cannot continue.
“May your witness today be bold and prophetic, so that we may build peace in the womb, peace in our homes, and peace in society. God bless you!”
Three other Minnesota Catholic bishops also appeared at the rally: Bishop Chad Zielinski of New Ulm, Bishop John LeVoir, retired bishop of New Ulm, and Bishop Daniel Felton of Duluth.
If various pro-life Minnesota groups joined the rally to fight for life — Pro-Life Action Ministries, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the Minnesota Family Council, and the University of St. Thomas Pro-Life Center — so did leaders of various denominations.
Along with Dr. Rigney, also present was Dr. Lucas Woodford, who has been the president of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, the Minnesota South District, since 2018.
Following the welcoming rally, the pro-lifers dispersed to meet with their respective legislators and try to persuade them to vote pro-life.
The United for Life rally took place after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed into law a bill to enshrine abortion-up-to-birth, with more pro-abortion bills coming. The Protect Reproductive Options (PRO) Act, H.F. 1/S.F. 1, signed by Walz enshrines in Minnesota law a right to abort any baby for any reason at any time up to birth. It denies protection even to unborn babies who are developed enough to feel excruciating pain. It also denies parents the right to know when their minor daughter is taken to undergo an abortion. The House passed the PRO Act on January 19, and the Senate followed on January 28. Gov. Walz signed the bill into law on January 31.
Lawmakers are also pushing five other pro-abortion bills, according to Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life:
H.F. 91/S.F. 70 would go even further than the PRO Act by repealing Minnesota’s law that protects newborns who survive abortion from being left to die. This bill could go to the House and Senate floor for final votes soon.
H.F. 289/S.F. 336 would gut Minnesota’s Positive Alternatives program, potentially directing funds away from pregnancy care centers and toward other groups, including ones that promote abortion.
H.F. 1170 would increase medical assistance reimbursement rates solely for abortion and abortion-related services.
H.F. 366/S.F. 165 blocks the governor from extraditing to other states any crime connected with “reproductive health services,” which include abortion. This could make Minnesota a haven for abortionists to escape justice after they perform illegal abortions elsewhere.
H.F. 174/S.F. 662 directs students to Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses for information and referral, and away from pro-life pregnancy care centers.
Mary Davis, a longtime pro-lifer from Senate District 45, which includes some western Minneapolis suburbs, told The Wanderer about her experiences with battling against pro-abortion state legislation. Sen. Kelly Morrison (DFL) represents Davis’ district and she and Sen. Jennifer McEwen (DFL-Duluth) were chief authors of the PRO Act.
Mrs. Davis asserted that pro-abort legislators “gaslight us” by claiming that nobody actually performs late-term abortions.
She said that “my goal this year is to come here as often as I can” to promote the right to life, referring to the state capitol. “Anxiety and confusion” are part of the spiritual battle, she said, and “when you feel that dread, you need to come.”
She noted that she has often demonstrated at Planned Parenthood’s St. Paul-Vandalia facility.
Many pro-lifers at the rally said that “this isn’t the Minnesota I once knew,” as the state has been known for relatively high religious participation and for family values. It is hard to square that with allowing late-term abortions. About 600 participated in the February 28 event, however, which has to offer some hope.
Perhaps C.S. Lewis can also offer an explanation on why abortion has become more widespread and more brutal.
In his Mere Christianity, Lewis comments:
“The worldly man treats certain people kindly because he ‘likes’ them: the Christian, trying to treat everyone kindly, finds himself liking more and more people as he goes on — including people he could not even have imagined himself liking at the beginning.
“This same spiritual law works terribly in the opposite direction. The Germans, perhaps, at first ill-treated the Jews because they hated them: afterwards they hated them much more because they had ill-treated them. The more cruel you are, the more you will hate; and the more you hate, the more cruel you will become — and so on in a vicious circle forever.”
Dr. Bernard Nathanson’s 1984 The Silent Scream demonstrated that the unborn feel pain. Those involved in promoting or performing abortions could easily be caught up in the dynamic C.S. Lewis describes.