2020 March For Life & Rally For Life - San Antonio, Texas

As we come to the end of our January March for Life month, we are reminded as to ‘Why We March’. Roe v Wade was decided on January 22, 1973 when the US Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States should protect a pregnant woman’s right to choose to have an abortion. 

After the Roe v Wade decision Nellie Gray, a Texas activist, who is considered the founder of the March for Life in Washington D.C. begun that March in 1974.  Her legacy continues to this day.  The 47th annual March for Life was held on Friday, January 24, 2020 with the guest speaker being the President of the United States, Donald Trump.  It was a historic event as a president has never been a speaker at the event. President Trump is considered to be the most prolife president in history.   

President Trump’s speech at the March for Life
EXCERPT:
THE PRESIDENT: 
It is my profound honor to be the first President in history to attend the March for Life.  We’re here for a very simple reason: to defend the right of every child, born and unborn, to fulfill their God-given potential. 

For 47 years, Americans of all backgrounds have traveled from across the country to stand for life.  And today, as President of the United States, I am truly proud to stand with you. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-...

Marches for Life are now initiated throughout the United States in January of each year. Texas has several marches to mark the tragic anniversary of the Roe v Wade decision.  Everyone should attend at least one march in D.C, as it is the most inspiring. Hundreds of thousands of participants, young and old, gather in the Washington Mall, march to the U.S. Supreme Court.  It is an awesome display of unity to advocate for the abolishment of abortion.  Everyone should consider participating in a March for Life in their city or state. The people in the marches are the voices for the unborn. 

Texas has a March for Life in Austin, Texas and this year it was an eventful experience as the attendance reached 5,000 participants. I was unable to attend that event this year, but I did participate in the San Antonio March for Life and Rally for Life, sponsored by the San Antonio Family Association, SAFA. 

The rally was held in the heart of downtown San Antonio on Saturday, January 18, in front of the historic San Fernando Cathedral bordered by the Bexar County Court House and the San Antonio City Council Chambers. The march started at the cathedral then proceeded to the Alamo and back, a route of a little over a mile. This march was one of the most exhilarating I have attended.  Participating in a march is when you feel the love and unity of hundreds or thousands of people all desiring to terminate the evil practice of abortion.  

The key speaker was Dr. Pat Castle, founder of Life Runners.  Guest speakers were U.S. Congressman Chip Roy, CD21 and Texas Senator Peter Flores SD19.  Also addressing the crowd were SBOE Pl 5 Ken Mercer, Melissa Beckett, NEISD parent and Tere Haring, Executive Director of Allied Women’s Center.  Pastors present to lead the prayers were Pastors Will Davis, Wayside Bible Church and Charles Flowers, Faith Outreach Center. All the speakers had a message to ‘remember to be the voice for the unborn’.   

Dr. Pat Castle was the very enthusiastic key speaker from Omaha, Nebraska. He explained that the Life Runners are part of over 14,000 team mates in over 2,500 cities in the world comprising 39 nations and is in all 50 states and that the ages range from .1 to 101. 

He let the audience know that he loved the location the rally was held at, “I mean how appropriate it is, how America is this that we are standing in front of the cathedral and we have government buildings on each side of the cathedral. That’s America!  I mean my goodness, our two most cherished freedoms, and our first most cherished freedom is our freedom of religion.”  He told the crowd that there has been more martyrs to our faith in the last 100 years than in the previous 1,900 years combined. He included martyrs from Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt, Rwanda, the Sudan and the Coptic Christians that were beheaded along the Mediterranean coast.  He told the audience, “So think about that boldness of faith.”

Dr. Castle gave out some statistics by comparing 9-11 and combat causalities to the unborn lives lost since 1973, the 62 million since Roe v Wade. This total averages out over the last 47 years to 1.2 million abortions per year.  There’s been a total of 1.5 million combat causalities in the history of America.  Some years of abortion 1990, as U.S. Congressman Chip Roy referenced, 1990-1991 was the peak of abortion with 1.6 million abortions. So there’s been years we lost more American lives to abortion than all combat causalities in the history of our country.  An average of 3,300 abortions per day over 47 years. ”Do I need to remind us how many lives we lost on September 11?”  He asked. “We lose the amount of lives in the womb every day in America on average 3000 per day since 1973.”  He continued, “The good news is the trend is down.  We are about half of that peak.  About 850,000 abortions per year that is the pace.  Down to 2,500 per day.”  

He spoke about his hometown, Omaha, the abortionist in their midst and overturning Roe v Wade.  “So the town I’m from we host the most notorious abortionist in the world.  His name is LeRoy Carhart.  He’s aborted over 75,000 children. And my wife and I and my kids and the Life Runners in Omaha, that’s where we stand each week in front of that abortion facility. The time between LeRoy Carhart and Texas is as follows: The last two major Supreme Court decisions involved the state of Texas and the state of Nebraska. The Nebraska one was in 2007 when the Supreme Court overturned their 2003 decision on partial birth abortion and in 2007 they said, no, we aren’t doing that anymore. So, is there already a precedence of overturning really wrong Supreme Court decisions?  Yes, of course there is.  Of course Roe is going to be overturned.  Because it is wrong, it is not just.” 

One of the issues that I was so glad Dr. Castle addressed was the name ‘clinic’ associated with abortions.  “Nobody is getting well in an abortion clinic.   Clinics are to get well, clinics are for health. I commanded an Air Force clinic that was my last job. There is nothing clinic about an abortion clinic. As a matter of fact let’s all make a pack right now today, let’s no longer ever call them abortion clinics. Let’s call them abortion facilities. They are NOT clinics!”   

He went further than I’ve ever heard a prolife speaker go. He spoke about the doctors that perform abortions. “I visited the Greek Island of Kos when I was stationed in Turkey.  And the Island of Kos is where the first medical clinic was established in the history of the world by a guy by the name of Hippocrates.  And you have heard of the Hippocrates Oath, first do no harm, that’s exactly right.  And we know that abortion doctors are not doctors because that is a direct violation of their oath of doctors of first ‘let’s do no harm’.”  He emphasized, “So in short, abortion clinics are NOT clinics.”

When attending a Prolife Rally where there are speakers, the speakers must be able to communicate their profound wish that abortion can be terminated or eradicated.  Dr. Castle did just that!  It happened towards the end of his speech.  He wanted the audience to know, ‘How did we get to this point’?  This is where the people in the audience start to think….. Dr. Castle said, “We arrived here with a bunch of lies that are summed up very well in a recent billboard campaign in Cleveland in 2015.  A billboard campaign in our country.  These are billboards around the city of Cleveland.  ABORTION IS SAFER THAN CHILD BIRTH; ABORTION IS TAKE A CHANCE; ABORTION IS GENDER EQUALITY; ABORTION IS LIFE SAVING; ABORTION IS NORMAL; ABORTION IS LIBERTY; ABORTION IS A BLESSING; ABORTION IS HEALTHCARE; ABORTION IS SACRED; ABORTION IS A RIGHT; ABORTION IS A FAMILY VALUE; ABORTION IS NECESSARY; ABORTION IS GOOD MEDICINE; ABORTION IS A PARENTING DECISION; ABORTION IS HOPE; “

He told the crowd, “ABORTION IS A LIE.”  The current lie from Planned Parenthood is, “ABORTION IS NORMAL.”  We all have to remember that abortion is not normal.  Dr. Castle gave some encouraging statistics.  “We are going to remember that in 1991 there was over 2,500 facilities in America.  And today there are under 700.  We are going to remember that in 1991 that there were less than 700 pregnancy resource centers in America.  Today there’s over 3,500 pregnancy resource centers in America.  We have them surrounded in love and support.”

His speech was an inspiration to all prolifers because there was hope in his words and he is able to charge the prolife movement to action. He explained exactly what we are fighting and how we can win.

U.S. Congressman Chip Roy, CD21 spoke about the demographic problem in our country.  He said that we don’t have a demographic problem but a cultural problem in the USA.  He let us know that the United Nations in their 2013 report had only nine countries in the world with a higher rate of abortion than the United States. 
 

He spoke strongly and fervently about Planned Parenthood masquerading as a women’s health organization that begs for half a billion taxpayer dollars while they use $45 million on their political candidates so that they can get another half a billion dollars. These candidates then peddle their death of the unborn in the name of women’s health.  He reminded the crowd to not let PP fool them since we have now seen through the videos what exactly goes on inside PP facilities. Congressman Roy said, “We should not have taxpayer dollars going to fund that dreaded organization.” 

He gave a synopsis of what is happening in Congress concerning the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.  It presently has 191 co-sponsors including 189 Republicans. They have tried to bring the bill to the floor 80 times, only to have Speaker Nancy Pelosi deny a vote on this bill and the bill to Defund PP.  Congressman Roy said, “On the simple idea that life begins at conception even the most basic standard of decency should allow us the infant born alive during a failed abortion should be saved.” 

He spoke about the efforts President Trump is doing for the prolife movement. “President Trump,” he said, “has appointed almost 200 strong conservatives as constitutional judges. He is making important rule changes.  The president recently forced PP to forfeit $60 million in federal funding for refusing to comply with the regulation issued by the Department of Health and Human Services that will prohibit family planning clinics that receive funding under Title X from providing privately funded abortions.”
 

He thanked the people in attendance, “Because of you, of your work we now have leaders in Washington, D.C. fighting for life."

The Life Hero Award was presented to Sue and Steve Gasper for their life time work in the prolife movement.   Knights of Columbus Ace Wings were presented to Jack Finger, long-time prolife warrior who has gone to jail for the cause of life; Cindi Serna, Prolife counselor and sidewalk advocate; John Haring, former legal counsel for many prolifers who were put in jail and Bill Harris for being a prolife advocate by supporting his wife, Sonja Harris.  She has been a prolife photographer for the last eleven years, photographing local, state and national prolife events. 

Pictured L to R Vocalist Del Gallivan, SAFA Michael Knuffke, Pastor Will Davis, Texas Senator Peter Flores, SBOE Ken Mercer, Melissa Beckett, Pastor Charles Flowers, SAFA Patrick Von Dohlen and Bishop John Yanta in the front.   

I will end this article with something that Dr. Castle said to everyone present.  ”Life and abortion is God or no God.  Abortion is the crown jewel of Satan. Satan wants nothing more than abortion, why?  Because it affords him to steal the greatest gift from God, our very lives.  Amen, Amen.”

Let’s keep this in mind, abortion is not normal and ‘abortion doctors’ are not doctors. They are abortionists with a license to kill, (Roe v Wade).  We cannot give up on the unborn and just born. We must continue to be their voice by standing in front of a Planned Parenthood facility, participating in a March for Life or Life Chain, and attending fundraisers for the pregnancy centers in your community. We must encourage everyone to pray to stop this horrific holocaust of the unborn. 
THE RED REPORT©
RED SONJA
Fight, NEVER GIVE UP!