Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Niece Will Headline West Coast Pro-Life Walk 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 18, 2007
San Francisco, CA (LifeNews.com) — The niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will lead an estimated 20,000 people along San Francisco’s waterfront in the fourth annual West Coast Walk for Life. The event is a western equivalent to the national March for Life in Washington and it gives participants a chance to show how abortion hurts women.
King’s father was slain civil rights activist A.D. King, and their home in Birmingham, Alabama, was bombed during the civil rights struggles.
This year’s event takes place on Saturday, January 19 and Clenard Childress, another African-American pro-life leader and Gianna Jessen, who survived a failed saline solution abortion, will speak as well.
“If the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is to live, our babies must live. Our mothers must choose life,” Alveda King said in a statement provided to LifeNews.com. “The greatest injustice we face is the denial of the right to life. Without life, no other rights exist.”
King, a mother of six who works with Priests for Life, knows the pain and heartache women who have abortions feel because she has had two herself.
Childress has spoken at each Walk for Life since 2005 and he said the event "continues to be a galvanizing event for people of conscience who seek social justice for all of our citizens, born and unborn."
Jessen plans to share how her mother put her up for an abortion only to survive the procedure. She wants to encourage other women to not think that abortion is the only solution to an unplanned pregnancy.
“I was aborted and I didn’t die,” she said. “We need to get back to valuing human beings based on their intrinsic value rather than on whether or not they fit into our plans or whether or not they serve our purpose.”
Walk organizer Dolores Meehan says an informational fair will kick off the walk and feature tables and booths sponsored by pregnancy centers and groups that help women heal from the medical and mental health problems abortion causes.
Last year the Walk drew more than 20,000 participants, predominantly from the Bay Area, but with substantial groups from throughout California and the western states.
Related web sites:
West Coast Walk for Life – https://www.walkforlifewc.com
