Abortion Advocates Expected to Protest Weekend Pro-Life Freedom Rides
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 22, 2010
Birmingham, AL (LifeNews.com) — The organizers of this weekend’s pro-life Freedom Rides say they have heard abortion advocates will turn out to protest. The freedom rides involve top pro-life Catholic and African-American leaders recreating the historic civil rights rides, this time for the rights of unborn children.
The rides begin in Birmingham, Alabama and conclude in Atlanta, Georgia.
Fr. Frank Pavone, the national director of Priests for Life, told LifeNews.com on Wednesday that pro-abortion groups in the Atlanta area are protesting the Freedom Rides, which will arrive in Atlanta on Saturday to pray at the tomb of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“These groups accuse us of lying and distorting historical facts,” Pavone said. “But the Freedom Rides intend to show the nation the truth about abortion."
Pavone challenged abortion advocates to, for example, defend the reality of a partial-birth abortions.
"Abortionist Martin Haskell has said under oath, describing the abortion procedure, ‘The skull is brought out in fragments rather than as a unified piece.’ Do these pro-abortion fanatics really expect us to believe that Martin Luther King Jr. would want that kind of violence legally protected?” he asked.
Dr. Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King, Jr., also responded to the news of potential protests of the historic event.
“I have no doubt that if they were alive, my uncle Martin and my father A.D. would be with us on these Freedom Rides for the unborn," she said.
The pro-abortion groups have sought to deny the pro-life groups the use of the King Center, and plan to have their own counter-demonstration, Pavone said.
The Freedom Riders of 1961 made history as they took their lives in their hands to protest the injustice of segregation. They took their action to test a Supreme Court ruling that struck down segregation laws.
Now, pro-life advocates say they ride to protest the Roe v. Wade ruling issued by the same Supreme Court that allowed the destruction of another class of human beings.
While the Freedom Riders sought to change the culture of racism in the United States, King says she and her colleagues seek to transform the culture of death into the culture of life.
“My Uncle Martin had a dream that Protestants and Catholics and Gentiles and Jews would join together and sing the age old spiritual ‘Free at Last,’” she told LifeNews.com. "We urge all people of good will to join us as we link the Civil Rights Movement of the 20th Century to the heart cry for life in the 21st Century.”
National and local pro-life leaders will gather in Birmingham, Alabama for a major concert and rally. A prayer vigil will take place outside an area abortion center and then those traveling with the riders will get in the bus for the ride to Atlanta.
Some of the people involved in this historic event include: Dean Nelson, Rev. Clennard Childress, Rev. Sam Mosteller, Rev. Stephen Broden, Day Gardner, Fr. Denis Wilde, Fr. Peter West, Jim Pinto and Christian recording artist Darrian Summerville.
Related web sites:
Pro-Life Freedom Rides – https://www.prolifefreedomrides.com
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