Rally For Life

On Sunday Rob and I had the privilege of attending a pro-life rally in downtown Bloomington. Apparently this is an annual event on the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade that a lot of people from around the community come out to and support, including our church.

I've participated in several pro-life rallies in my life. In high school I would go to Washington DC every January with my friend's church and march down the mall and up Capitol Hill with literally hundreds of thousands of people. In college when I studied for a semester at Focus on the Family Institute in Colorado Springs our whole class participated in a two day demonstration on one of the campuses of the University of Colorado complete with 18 foot high banners portraying the effects of abortion on the unborn. Needless to say on one of the most liberal college campuses in America that did not go over very well. Also needless to say that was an intense two days for me. I talked in my diary about how it was so challenging for me to be there, but good.

But this day was different. This day was in our community. Our home. This was much more that going to an event and leaving again.

I felt a lot of emotions when Rob and I pulled up to the courthouse Sunday afternoon for the rally. What would this be like I wondered? We know what kind of town Bloomington is - would people drive by and yell and throw things at us? But the main question I had to ask myself was, am I willing to be bold for life and stand out in the open for something I believe in? Yes. Rob and I prayed and up when we went to the courthouse. A lot of our friends were there too so that was fun. And yes, people did drive by and yell (as our one friend said, "ok, cue the village idiot - yelling out your car window while driving - not so smart.") and there was a lot of honking (which you never can be quite sure if it's a "friendly" honk or an "angry" honk.)

The itself rally was pretty short -- a pastor spoke, there were prayers and the woman who runs the crisis pregnancy center spoke. The hardest part for me was hearing that 2 out of 5 conceptions in the county we live in, Monroe County, end in abortions. 2 out of 5. The highest rate in the entire state of Indiana.

Heartbreaking.

I hate hearing statistics like 50 million children, new lives, precious lives, have been aborted in America since Roe vs. Wade. And that's an estimate. I hate hearing friends of ours who recently adopted a baby from Africa say to people who ask them why they adopted a baby from Africa instead of America, "Africa doesn't kill their children like people in America do making domestic adoptions almost impossible."

But this is the reality we live in. Abortion is reality for many, many people, people we see everyday that we do not know and even those we do.

The very least I could do was march through the streets of Bloomington in the pouring rain standing up for life and saying all life, even if it is only a few cells, "a blob of tissue" is worth it. I invite you, I even exhort you, to join me and stand up for life.