Mission Statement

To pray, fast and peacefully witness for an end to intentional destruction of all innocent human lives, especially those most in need.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Full Text of Steve Karlen's Speech at Wisconsin's Second Annual Defend Life Rally

They thought we’d lose interest. They thought we’d forget. They thought we’d go away.

My friends, have you lost interest? Have you forgotten? Do you plan on going away?!

That’s right! And we won’t go away until UW Health and Meriter scrap their plans to perform abortions for good. They have tarnished their reputations, alienated staff, and driven away patients in hordes. But it’s not too late to make things right. To those with the power to reverse this terrible decision we say fix it now!

Fix it now and save yourselves the irreversible stigma of turning your healing facilities into death camps. If you act on these plans to kill at the Madison Surgery Center, no amount of public relations or outreach will ever be able to wash the stench of death from that building.

Friends, the struggle for life is a struggle we will win. History is on our side. We live in a great nation, but it’s a nation that’s no stranger to bitterly divisive debates over who should be considered a human being and who should be granted the rights associated with personhood. This is nothing new. Abortion is merely the latest in a long line of these controversies. But when all is said and done, never, ever, has history sided with those who seek to dehumanize a particular segment of society.

They were wrong when they said African Americans were property. They were wrong when they brutalized Native Americans on the Trail of Tears. They were wrong when they stuck Japanese Americans in internment camps. They were wrong when they denied immigrants from China, Southern Europe, Ireland, Eastern Europe and Latin America basic civil rights. And they’re as wrong today as they’ve ever been when UW Health and Meriter say that tearing a baby limb from limb is health care. They’re wrong!

It’s not just history that’s on our side. The future is on our side as well. But let me back up a moment. In my home, we often talk about the great admiration we have for those of you who have been working on this cause for a long time through some very dark days. I know that many of you have been striving to build a Culture of Life for 5, 10, 20, 30, or even 37 years. And you may not have ended abortion yet, but you fought to protect me and my generation—the survivors of Roe v. Wade. And you’ve paved the way for young people to become the most pro-life generation since the generation born during the Great Depression. Look around and see the fruits of your labor.

And so on behalf of all of us—the survivors—this is my message to all of you who have spent your lives laboring to keep the flame alive through lost court cases, lost elections, broken promises and broken hearts: Thank you! And help is on the way!

And it starts today. No longer will we be told to wait until it’s more politically expedient to end abortion. No longer will we wait for the right candidate to ascend to office. No longer will we wait for that fifth Supreme Court justice to overturn Roe v. Wade. THIS is the year we take our country back!

Now I’m not so naïve that I believe it will be easy. But the road before us is certainly no more difficult than that lay before the great British Statesman William Wilberforce when he set out on his one-man quest to end the slave trade. In fact, Wilberforce’s perseverance inspires me so much that I keep a quote of his framed on the wall of my living room where I can see it every single day. The quote reads, “Never! Never will we desist. Until we extinguish every trace of this bloody traffic, of which our posterity—looking back on these enlightened times—shall scare believe it has been suffered to exist so long a disgrace and dishonor to this country!”

With years of hard work and relentless faith, William Wilberforce ended the slave trade. And we here today can end abortion if we follow his example. So join us at the 40 Days for Life campaign wherever you’re from. Here in Madison, we’ll be starting a 40 day campaign on Ash Wednesday. And we desperately need your help. Please consider taking just one hour a week for six weeks and we can cover our shifts.

Friends, we know the victory is ours because it’s been won in Jesus Christ. So let us serve as servants of the Lord and go forth and change the world. Thank you. God bless you.

Viva Cristo Rey! Long live Christ the King!

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