By Hunter Hines
Christian Action League
May 10, 2019
RALEIGH – Tuesday, a pro-life rally and prayer vigil was held in the Bicentennial Mall in front of the state Legislative Building in Raleigh. Hosted by nine pro-life organizations, the “Stand for Life” rally was held in support of HB 359, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivor Protection Act, legislation Governor Roy Cooper vetoed in April.
The rally featured high profile personalities who represent the cause for life from across the spectrum. The approximate 500 people who heard these powerful speakers were at times blown away by what they heard and demonstrated their enthusiasm with considerable applause and cheers.
Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League, said he was honored to be named among such speakers and defenders of life.
“I only wish that in such an incredible moment, everyone could have experienced it. The words spoken at the rally, I believe, are recorded in the annals of heaven to review there in glory to God,” said Rev. Creech.
Here are quotes which capture the essence of each speaker’s remarks:
“There is no law in North Carolina that imposes a positive duty of care on abortion doctors and nurses to provide life-saving medical treatment…In an abortion clinic everyone is there for the same reason – to kill the baby no matter what. House Bill 359 makes it unambiguous that these babies [babies born-alive from a failed abortion] are human, even if they are accidentally born and killing them is murder.”
Tami Fitzgerald, President, North Carolina Values Coalition
“Abortion is the only medical procedure that is considered a success when a patient dies. Think about that! Think about that! I know that we can debate abortion all the time, and some sides of it, I ummm…can’t see how they can think that way, but this bill was different. And I am going to tell you that I was shocked at the debate…I was shocked that there was opposition. I really thought that this is a bridge that none of my colleagues would be willing to cross-over. They’re gonna all stick with me on this. The Governor will never veto this bill. I was so wrong. But I really believed that…”
NC State Senator, Joyce Kraweic (R-Davie), primary sponsor and champion for the Born-Alive legislation.
“I can’t wait for the day to come when we don’t have to do this anymore, when we don’t have to have any more rallies for life. Two thousand years ago, Christians fought to end infanticide. It was a standard practice back then and it was because of Christianity that practice went away and we added the idea of human dignity to babies. Here we have seen in Western Civilization, as of late, when we are literally living in a post-Christian culture in Western Civilization that we see this issue of human dignity before us again…We see it on social media, the way that people talk to one another, the way that people flame one another, the way that people hate one another, the lack of human dignity in conversations…the lack of human dignity in politics, the lack of human dignity in just about every aspect of life. So there should really be no surprise that there is a lack of human dignity about unborn babies or even about babies that are born laying on a table…We are going to look back on this time in American history and say this was the worst atrocity we have ever committed in America.”
North Carolina Lieutenant. Gov. Dan Forest
“The Governor says it’s doesn’t happen in North Carolina [reference to Governor’s claim that there are no born-alive children from failed abortions]. Let me tell you, it has happened in North Carolina. I was thirty-years-old. I went back to school. My husband was a thirty-year Marine. So we were at Camp Lejeune. I was working, doing my practicals at the hospital at Onslow Memorial. I had gone through Coastal Carolina Community College to get a degree in medical lab technology. On one of my breaks, I went in to visit with the pathologist and as I walked into the pathology lab I saw these little buckets. I thought they were little pigs. They were pink. I would have never thought of a human being in a bucket. ‘I said what are those little pigs doing here, doctor?” He said, ‘Look again, Pat.’ I looked again. They were perfectly formed little babies. Their skin was extra pink because they had been burned in saline [a method of abortion in the late 70s]…These were perfectly formed babies, late term abortions…Nurses even told us stories about when babies didn’t die, they were turned upside down in the saline to drown them…It happened in North Carolina.”
North Carolina State Representative Pat McElraft (R-Carteret)
“For those who think that this gathering is only about politics, about political parties, about elections, then you do not understand the purpose of this gathering. This gathering is about the heart and the soul of our great state. It is about protecting the purest of us. And the purest of us are the unborn or the ‘just born’ – those who have been here a second or two, whether they were wanted, unwanted, these are North Carolinians. And we believe that these North Carolinians should be protected by law.”
Bishop Patrick Wooden, founder of the Upper Room Church of God in Christ, Raleigh, NC
“When I heard about these bills, when I heard about legislators – some that have stood up for me and my rights and my twin [Claire survived a botched abortion procedure but her twin did not survive], I was so incredibly grateful for that. For some who say that this does not exist and that this isn’t a problem and that we should worry about something more important, I am here today because I wanted to show you and show your Governor and people across the country that I do exist. And my name is Claire Culwell. If this is a story about women’s rights, then what were mine?…But this isn’t just about me. I do have a name. I do have a story. I did survive an abortion. My birth mother and every other woman in the state of North Carolina, every other man, every other family, every other generation to come deserves better than what abortion has to offer.”
Claire Culwell, Abortion Survivor
“We have someone in the Governor’s mansion who is a coward. History will not look favorably on Governor Cooper’s veto of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivor’s Protection Act. Instead of ensuring protection under the law for these defenseless children, he succumbed to the pro-abortion extremists’ pressure and he vetoed the bill. He was wrong to say that there was no need for the law when North Carolina has no law requiring the reporting or the neglect or the killing of newborns following an abortion. He was wrong not to allow the bill to become law to make sure that these laws are in place to protect these newborns. He was wrong in his estimation of how the people of this state will view his veto of the born- alive…”
Barbara Holt, President of North Carolina Right to Life
“There are 78 pregnancy centers across the great state of North Carolina. Do not tell me that y’all do not have anywhere to go to get help because you do. There are 78 great pregnancy centers across the state of North Carolina…There are beautiful, beautiful servants of Jesus Christ doing God’s work every single day across this state.”
Tonya Baker Nelson, Executive Director, Hand of Hope Pregnancy Center, Raleigh, NC
“We live in some very tough times. And you know times are crazy, I mean really crazy, I’m talking about very crazy, when it’s okay to kill a baby on their birthday. What a world we live, what a mess we have, when it’s alright to kill a baby on the baby’s birthday. The baby is born and you still want to find a reason to let it die. There is no such person as a radical abortionist. An abortionist and those that support them, like Planned Parenthood and some of the other bad groups out there, want to be able to kill babies in the womb and babies outside the womb…The abolitionists did not work to regulate lynching. They fought to abolish it…Imagine if the Klan was lynching a black man and the rope broke. So they grab him and beat him to death. This is what can and is happening in abortion clinics right now. It’s womb lynching. But even though the rope broke they still want to kill the baby.”
Dr. Johnny Hunter, National Director of the Life Education Abortion Resource Network
“I started thinking about how the abortion pill works and how I could combat it. Simply speaking the abortion pill blocks progesterone, which is required to maintain a healthy pregnancy. It tricks the progesterone receptor by connecting to it but not activating it. It is like a key that fits into a lock but does not turn the lock. So it makes sense that if we flooded the mother’s system with extra progesterone, extra good keys, we could out-compete the abortion pill, activate the receptor, and reverse the effect of RU46, saving the baby…Progesterone treatment has been proven safe in preventing miscarriages in women with progesterone deficiencies. Developing babies exposed to progesterone have not shown any more than normal risks for birth defects…Our network has grown to over 400 providers that can assist with reversals by way of a hotline that is now managed by ‘Heartbeat International,’ reaching 62 countries in over 2,500 pregnancy centers. Now state legislators, including North Carolina, are implementing laws that require clinics to inform women who undergo an abortion that they may be able to reverse the abortion if they change their minds…We have recently published a new study in the issues of ‘Law and Medicine,’ that show the results of over 700 women who attempted reversals. Those women who followed the protocol of injections or pills had a 67% success rate of baby survival, as opposed to 23% if nothing is done. Today… over 500 babies, healthy babies, in 14 different countries and 48 states have been born after abortion reversal.”
Dr. Matthew Harrison, the doctor who designed the abortion reversal pill protocol which has saved 500 babies nationwide.
As you have heard, this bill [Born-Alive Abortion Survivor’s Protection Act] is
just plain wrong. First, he [Governor Cooper] says laws already protect newborn
babies and this bill is ‘an unnecessary interference between doctors and their
patients.’ The problem with this is if the abortionist does not see the unborn
child, and in this case the newborn child as their patient, to the abortionist
that baby is simply the product of a failed medical procedure. Senate Bill 359 would say that any healthcare
practitioner who is present when a child is born-alive following a failed
abortion attempt must provide medical care to that child. It’s that simple.
Secondly, the Governor’s veto message says that, ‘This needless legislation
would criminalize doctors and other healthcare providers for a practice that
simply does not exist.’ Well Governor, if the practice simply does not exist,
then how would it criminalize anything? It absolutely will not.”
John Rustin, President of the North Carolina Family Policy Council
“Among the many parables that Jesus told that stands out is the one [The Good Samaritan] about an unfortunate traveler ambushed by thieves and left for dead. Jesus said that a priest saw the nearly dead, wounded man, sprawled across the highway, but passed him by without helping. Later, Jesus said, a Levite, which might be described as a lower-level form of the priesthood in Bible times, also saw the helpless man, but passed by without offering any assistance… We must always be ready to act to assist or save the most vulnerable among us. I can think of no person more vulnerable in our own day than the infant near death but alive, bruised and wounded, ambushed by the abortionist’s knife and forceps, and helplessly sprawled across a stainless steel table as the result of a botched abortion. Who will help?… Certainly, it should be the priest. Certainly, it should be the pastor. Yet, there is a craven silence from too many pulpits – too little engagement from the clergy – too few authoritative religious voices to speak for the voiceless. Pastors should be preaching about abortion. They and their lay-leaders should be organizing to bring their moral influence to bear on the issue politically. But too many are just passing by, offering, at least in principle, some of the same old tired and unacceptable excuses for their lack of involvement, that the priest and the Levite probably did for not helping when they should have. In fact, we see some clergy who support abortion. Our age is such a wicked one that today it is the mother and the abortionist who see the child as the thief, and while the child is ambushed in the womb or left to die on the table, the priest and the Levite, many of our religious leaders are not simply passing by but applauding. This is one of the greatest shames on the church in all the history of Christendom.”
Rev. Mark Creech, Executive Director of the Christian Action League of North Carolina
“It was reported yesterday that our Governor, Governor Roy Cooper, was recovering from back surgery. I never knew he had a spine in the first place…Show me a person that tells me that babies shouldn’t be spared after surviving a botched abortion, and I’ll show you a person who has no backbone, no heart, an agenda that does not support, ‘We the people.’”
John Amanchukwu, Raleigh City Ambassador for ‘Love Life’