Pro-life advocates hope to end abortion completely in Kentucky now that just one abortion clinic remains in the state.
Last week, Operation Save America held a large pro-life conference in Louisville where they stood and ministered to people daily outside EMW Women’s Clinic, the last abortion facility in the state.
Pro-life advocates and sidewalk counselors are effective in helping women choose life for their unborn babies. Last week, pro-lifers with Operation Save America prayed and sang outside the facility in peaceful and loving outreach to women and unborn babies. Their witness may have been a last line of hope for women and unborn babies before they walked into the Louisville abortion facility.
However, a judge set up a temporary buffer zone blocking leaders of the pro-life group from coming within 15 feet of the abortion facility after several were arrested for blocking the entrance in May.
The move, however, may have misjudged the nature of OSA’s rally. Sitting in the back of their nightly gatherings at Evangel World Prayer Center last week, it was hard not to notice the numerical preponderance of families with young children—a five-year-old playing with her father’s big beard, a boy, about seven, climbing his little brother’s stroller, a mother in the back nursing her infant child.
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Suffice it to say, no attempt was made last week to block entrance to EMW. But other means were used—and are continuing to be used—to make Kentucky the first abortion-free state.
During the May protest, Rusty Thomas, the national director of Operation Save America, said they knew they might be arrested, but they took the chance because they wanted to save babies’ lives from abortion through interposition.
“Now interposition takes place when one stands in the gap between the oppressor and the intended victim. And by standing in the gap, rescues the victim from the oppressor’s hand,” Thomas said.
This week, the group won a victory against the buffer zone. Christian Net reports the federal government withdrew its motion to permanently create a buffer zone to block pro-lifers.
According to the report:
Representatives for the abortion facility testified that the buffer zone was necessary because abortion opponents are violent. However, the case began to fall apart when it became clear that there was no evidence of violence—or the threat of it—at the facility, and that the claim could not be supported.
According to Heuser, EMW Women’s Clinic director Anne Ahola admitted that Rusty Thomas, the national leader of Operation Save America, who had been among the 11 arrested in May for sitting in front of the doors, even went inside the facility and “shared love of Jesus, and she came out of the secure area of the clinic to talk face to face with him and they exchanged a hug.”
Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin also has been dedicated to protecting unborn babies and moms from abortion. He cracked down on abortion facilities that were operating outside of the law. Earlier this year, EMW’s sister abortion facility in Lexington shut down after Bevin’s administration caught it masquerading as a doctor’s office.
State investigators also said they found numerous health and safety violations at the abortion clinic, including a “significant quantity” of expired medication, medical equipment covered in dust, dirt and grime; and improper sanitation. It also did not have emergency agreements with a local hospital and ambulance service, as required by law, according to the state’s lawsuit.
In February 2016, Bevin’s administration also sued a new Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Louisville after catching it performing 23 abortions without a license, LifeNews reported. Planned Parenthood’s lawyer contended that former pro-abortion Gov. Steve Beshear’s administration gave the abortion facility the OK to do abortions without a license, and wanted the lawsuit to be dismissed.
“This administration will have no tolerance for the type of brazen disregard that Planned Parenthood has shown for both the safety of women and the rule of law,” Bevin said at the time. “We will hold Planned Parenthood accountable for knowingly endangering their patients by providing illegal abortions at a facility that was not properly licensed nor prepared to handle an emergency.”
As fewer women have abortions, fewer abortionists find the practice lucrative and more pro-lifers share the truth about unborn babies, there is continued hope that Kentucky could become a state free from the oppression of abortion.
