President George W. Bush Shares Pro-Life Talk at Indiana Pregnancy Center Event
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 16, 2010
Indianapolis, IN (LifeNews.com) — Former President George W. Bush was the highlight of the evening for more than 4,000 people in Indianapolis last night as he shared a pro-life talk with people supporting the Life Centers, a network of pregnancy centers in the Indianapolis area. Bush was hailed by the Christian group for his lengthy pro-life record during his 8 years in office.
Bush spoke about his Christian faith and his passion for protecting unborn children from abortion.
He spoke for 30 minutes and answered questions for another 30 minutes.
While cameras were not allowed in the Conseco Fieldhouse, the large event center housing his speech, thousands of pro-life advocates filed inside while just a dozen pro-abortion protestors appeared outside the event center to oppose his appearance.
Julie Rupprecht of Life Centers told WTHR that Bush has a compassionate view of the abortion issue, by wanting to help women who need support and may feel abortion is their only option.
"He wants to encourage us to continue doing what we’re doing and helping those girls in our city who really need to seek our services and don’t have places to go," she said.
Edna Fisher was one of the pro-life advocates on hand and excited to see the pro-life president.
“I have not seen a president live in my whole life,” she told the Indianapolis Star. “This is exciting for me.”
“What a great opportunity to see our president speak,” added Susan Miston, 54, of Indianapolis. “I’m a Christian. I’m a pro-lifer. I miss our president and I wanted to come here to see what he had to say.”
Life Centers President Brian Boone added before the event, "We are honored that President Bush would put us on his schedule and come to the crossroads of America to our small ministry to celebrate life issues with us. He’s going to share about his life since leaving the White House. He’s going to speak about his passion for celebrating life."
"He’s going to talk about his presidential record on life issues. He’s going to speak about what life matters to him. He’s going to demonstrate from his record and his own personal life story that every life matters," he added.
On announcing the invitation to Bush in January, Boone said he had crafted a strong pro-life record.
“We are honored to welcome President George W. Bush, whose strong record on life issues demonstrates his belief that every life matters,” he told LifeNews.com then. “We are grateful that President George W. Bush will inspire our community to create a culture of life at the crossroads of America and to show compassion to women in unplanned pregnancies."
Boone credited Bush with compiling a stellar pro-life record and pointed out that he signed the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, Unborn Victims of Violence Act and Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.
"Bush’s pro-life policies over eight years included the appointment of two pro-life Supreme Court Justices, an executive order barring federal funds to be used for abortion-related projects abroad, and a rule protecting federally funded health employees from taking part in abortion-related activities or other practices that conflicted with their religious views," he said.
Bush joined a special musical guest, Grammy Award-winning artist Sandi Patty, at the pregnancy center fundraiser.
The proceeds from the event will benefit Life Centers, a nonprofit Christian ministry that is one of more than 2,500 pregnancy centers across the country that provide abortion alternatives.
Life Centers helps women in unplanned pregnancies by providing free services including pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, confidential peer counseling, 24-hour help line calls, post-abortion and maternity support at its eight pregnancy resource centers across Central Indiana.
The announcement of the speaking event followed the Catholic business group Legatus giving Bush the prestigious Cardinal John J. O’Connor Pro-Life Award at its February event.
The group noted that, in one of his last acts as president, before pro-abortion Barack Obama took over the White House, Bush declared Jan. 18, 2009, as “National Sanctity of Human Life Day."
In that proclamation, Bush said “the most basic duty of government is to protect the life of the innocent.”
Last October, a Canadian pro-life group gave Bush the first pro-life award he has received since leaving office. The Saskatchewan Pro-Life Association presented the president with the award while he was in town to give an address. https://www.lifenews.com/int1368.html
The group said in a statement that it "had the distinct privilege to present a humble word of thanks to President George W. Bush for his very public determination to protect the unborn while he served two terms as President of the United States."
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