Kansans for Life host ‘Rally for Life’ at State Capitol
Kansans for Life host ‘Rally for Life’ at State Capitol
Article/Abortion - 9 minute read
Kansans for Life held their biggest rally of the year as part of their work to amplify prolife values in Kansas. The all-day event took place on Tuesday, January 23, 2023, starting at 8:30 a.m. where attendees could register in the Kansas State Capitol Visitors’ Center. There, they could meet their elected officials, find out when legislature would be in action, visit pro-life booths, and take a tour of the capitol.
Morning workshops were also held between 9 and 10 a.m. at the Capitol Visitors’ Center with topics including ‘Lobbying with your Legislator 101’ and ‘The Dangers of the Chemical Abortion Pill’.
At 10:30 a.m. mass was held at Topeka Performing Arts Center (TPAC) and a non-denominational prayer and worship service was held in the Visitor Center.
This all led to the moment where hundreds gathered outside TPAC to hear a short speech from Public Policy Specialist for Kansas Catholic Conference Lucrecia Nold.
“Much has happened since we gathered here a year ago,” Nold said. “Last year at this time, Roe v. Wade was still intact. Then, months later, we had the joy of witnessing Roe fall…. A few weeks after celebrating a miraculous win for life, tragedy struck Kansas. The August election left many of us heartbroken with the failure of ‘Value Them Both’. Though the election did not turn out how we wanted, God obviously has bigger and better plans. As we all know, it is only in the darkness that Christ’s light shines best.”
Nold also said that their new motto for the year is, “We will not abandon the moms and the babies. They need us now more than ever.”
A march from TPAC to the south steps of the capitol building began after Nold’s speech.
“The most important thing is to let our community and our government know how important life is,” said pro-life marcher and member of Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod Melissa Galchutt. “From the womb unto the grave. We want [our legislators] to know it means a lot to us and it means a lot to a lot of people that we uphold the values of life—especially for those who can’t speak for themselves.”
Cheyenne Vandeventer, who started voteprolifeks.com in an effort to inform Kansans on which judges were prolife in the 2022 election, took to marching with her family while carrying a sign that said, “Protect the weak. Defend the innocent. Be pro-life.”
“I want to be here so I can stand up for pre-born babies because they are the most vulnerable and innocent in our society,” Vandeventer said. “And they’re endangered in Kansas because abortion is still legal here in Kansas, and abortion is a terrible, gruesome act that kills pre-born babies. So, I wanted to come here to show Kansas and our Kansas legislature that we want each and every pre-born baby to be protected under the law in Kansas and for abortion to become illegal and unthinkable.”
Vandeventer, who is 18 years old, also wants to encourage other young people to stand up and understand that abortion is the “greatest injustice of our time.” She also encourages young people to get educated on the subject and watch live-action abortions at abortionprocedures.com to fully understand the horrors of the procedure.
At the stairs on the south side of the capitol building, Director of Communications for Kansans for Life Danielle Underwood started the ‘Rally for Life’ with a brief speech, noting successes and setback of the pro-life movement in Kansas over the many decades of marches and rallies.
“Our unelected Kansas Supreme Court has polluted the legal environment so that it is incredibly difficult to stop the dismemberment, the poisoning, or otherwise discarding of a pre-born child.” Underwood said. “And those who push for unlimited abortion, along with their political and media allies claim that the results of our August election somehow signaled that Kansans are just fine with abortions up to the moment of birth and paid for with our tax dollars. That’s not true. Pro-life laws are still critically important and so is changing hearts and minds. We have so much work to do to restore a culture of life, and each one of us—each one of you—has an important role to play.”
Pastor of Topeka Reformed Presbyterian Church Brad Johnston then gave a prayer, which was followed by Knights of Columbus State Deputy Michael Grothoff who led the Pledge of Allegiance before Pastor Roger Randel of Family of God Church sang the Star-Spangled Banner.
Pro-life legislators and statewide elected officials stood on the steps of the capitol in support of the rally including Attorney General Kris Kobach, State Treasurer Steven Johnson, Senators (in order of district) Beverly Gossage (R-9), Mike Thompson (R-10), Kellie Warren (R-11), Caryn Tyson (R-12), Tim Shallenberger (R-13), Michael Fagg (R-14), Virgil Peck, Jr. (R-15), Senate President Ty Masterson (R-16), Kristen O’Shea (R-18), Rick Kloos (R-19), Dan Kerschen (R-26), Mike Petersen (R-28), Carolyn McGinn (R-31), Larry Alley (R-32), Alicia Straub (R-33), Molly Baumgardner (R-37), and Rick Billinger (R-40), House Representatives (in order of district) Carrie Barth (R-5), Dan Goddard (R-7), Chris Croft (R-8), Fred Gardner (R-9), Ron Bryce (R-11), Duane Droge (R-13), Mike Thompson (R-33), David Buehler (R-40), Pat Proctor (R-41), Kenny Titus (R-51), Rebecca Schmoe (R-59), Francis Awerkamp (R-61), John Eplee (R-63), Lewis Bloom (R-64), Nathan Butler (R-68), Scott Hill (R-70), Steven Howe (R-71), Les Mason (R-73), Will Carpenter (R-75), Eric Smith (R-76), Robyn Essex (R-78), Webster Roth (R-79), Bill Rhiley (R-80), Blake Carpenter (R-81), Leah Howell (R-82), Patrick Penn (R-85), Susan Estes (R-87), Sandy Pickert (R-88), Emil Bergquist (R-91), Brian Bergkamp (R-93), Tom Kessler (R-96), Cyndi Howerton (R-98), Susan Humphries (R-99), Speaker of the House Dan Hawkins (R-100), Paul Waggoner (R-104), Lisa Moser (R-106), Ken Rahjes (R-110), Barbara Wasinger (R-111), Michael Murphy (R-114), Gary White (R-115), Kyle Hoffman (R-116), and Jason Goetz (R-119). Some Senators and Representatives were unable to be there. Representative Susan Estes also stood to represent her husband, U.S. Congressman Ron Estes.
Executive director of Advice and Aid Ruth Tisdale spoke, providing information and hope for expecting mothers. She pointed out that there are 53 pregnancy health organizations in Kansas alone, offering services at no charge including pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, STD/STI testing and treatment, information on other options, education during and after pregnancy, after abortion healing services, the abortion pill reversal, maternity homes, assistance with baby supplies, referrals to community agencies, fatherhood programs, and more.
“While the abortion industry communicated to women things like, ‘well, you’re not able to fulfill your dreams if you choose to be a mother,’ or ‘life will go back to normal if you choose abortion,’ pregnancy centers began to sprout up all over the United States to serve women,” Tisdale said in her speech. “So that no woman feels alone, coerced, or so hopeless that she needs to end her child’s life through abortion. We know that women are indeed strong enough to keep going, even when it is hard…. There are those who are threatened by our work and have targeted some centers with violence. We’ve heard phrases like, ‘if abortion is not safe, neither are you.’ Such statements are themselves, acts of domestic terrorism. But women don’t need the violence of protest, or the violence of abortion. Women need love, understanding, and grace.”
Tisdale introduced one mother and her baby girl to the crowd, stating that they are the reasons Advice and Aid exists, and the reason the attendees walk for life.
Speaker of the House Dan Hawkins and Senate President Ty Masterson then spoke a few words in support of the pro-life movement.
“There is no other rally that happens during the year that’s more important than this,” Speaker Hawkins said. “And it truly warms my heart, on a cold day like today, to see so many people out, from the banners ‘let’s cherish life’, promoting a culture of life. That’s what our members have been doing here in the State House for the last few years. And we haven’t stopped. We’ve just started, and we will continue to fight.”
Board certified family physician Dr. Scott Stringfield, who has served 22 years as board chair and medical director at Choices Medical Clinic, a pregnancy resource center located next to the largest abortion provider in Wichita, spoke next.
“The ‘Value Them Both’ vote went surprisingly the way most in the pro-life movement didn’t expect,” Dr. Stringfield said. “…I forgot that we really pushed this movement forward one heart at a time, one soul at a time…. I’m reminded of Psalm 127 that says, ‘Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain to build it. Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchmen wake in vain.’ Even if laws are passed to protect the unborn and their mother, we shouldn’t allow that to extinguish our motivation and our love to serve those in need because they’re situation won’t go away.”
Dr. Stringfield used a variety of metaphors to drive points across to motivate and encourage the attendees to move forward in their work and to create change.
The final speaker of the day was Melissa Ohden, survivor of a failed saline infusion abortion and the Founder of the Abortion Survivors Network.
Ohden said that what happened in Kansas is not the end, but the beginning of all of us being united and “charting a new path to remind people that we never abandon hope” nor women and their children.
Ohden said in her speech,
“I’m alive today because people never abandoned me. When people hear the words ‘abortion survivor’ I know sometimes they don’t even know what that means. It means that babies survive abortions. We survived before Roe v. Wade, many of us survived it during Roe v. Wade, no matter how the abortion industry tried and perfected ending our lives. And babies are still surviving abortions today, even after Roe has fallen. The short version of my story is that I survived a saline abortion that was forced upon my college-aged mother. Over a five-day period, I was poisoned and scalded to what was intended to be my death. And the final step of that abortion procedure I was meant to be expelled from the womb as a dead baby. A successful abortion. And doesn’t that tell us something about abortion when it’s meant to end in the death of another human being? This is the reality of abortion that no one can ever turn away from. In the final step of that abortion procedure, instead of being delivered dead, I was accidentally, but on purpose in my opinion, was born alive.”
The rally ended after Ohden’s speech and those that wanted to eat could donate to receive a sack lunch. Workshops at the Capitol Visitors’ Center were also offered at 2:30 p.m. where people could hear from a panel with various Kansas Pregnancy Resource Center Directors and a further testimony/presentation by Ohden called, ‘I survived an abortion’.
You can follow Kansans for life on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and find them at kfl.org.