Iowa March for Life 2024

This past Saturday I took part in the second annual March for Life rally for the first time. I came to the event to stand and support the abortion abolitionists of EndAbortionNow.com. I love this group and think they are doing the best job (or at least trying to) to actially end abortion. I have been to anti-abortion events in the past at the capitol, and enjoyed them, and have been very informative helping me share the gospel in the fight of saving the unborn.

But this past event, I had a much different point of view, and I wonder if we are just fighting ourselves. I feel as though my eyes were open to what is really happening, and that all of what I witnessed on Saturday was nothing short of a dog and pony show. Because I wonder if any one of the groups in the poster on the right actually want abortion and the murder of children in the womb to end.

The rally inside the rotunda

The rally inside the rotunda of the Iowa State Capitol was uplifting and moving. We listened as leaders of the Pro-Life movement in the state of Iowa spoke on the evils of abortion, and how we needed to band together to end abortion. With cheers and clapping, holding signs from Catholic groups as well as Protestants coming together to fight abortion. But it seemed like a lot of talk, but no action.

Among politicians, the only one that was present was Attorney General, Brenna Bird, who gave a very good speech. Governor Reynolds was not able to make it, Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg was not present either, nor any other “Pro-Life” politician. It was disturbing. Where was Representative Steven Holt and State Senator Brad Zaun, who’s on the Human Trafficking Interm Study Committee? You think abortion is linked to human trafficking? I understand Senator Jack Whitver’s inability to be there fighting cancer with a brain tumor, but what about all the rest of these Pro-Life Republicans? We heard nothing from them.

But there was one group that was not given a voice to speak in the rally — End Abortion Now, the group that I was with at the rally. I can’t say if that was intentional, being that I was told we were told about the rally only a few days prior, but it doesn’t help their case either.

Another thing I didn’t see while I was in the rotunda, or outside during the march — pro-choice protestors. We all thought it was odd that there was no opposition to the march or the speeches inside the capitol. Why?

The march outside

After a few hours we all went outside to march around the Iowa State Capitol on the streets. We went out the doors, lined up, and took our banners, our signs, and our silent voice to the streets. We got to Grand Avenue, and then made a right. A right. You may be wondering why I emphasized that. It’s because making a right took us around the unpopulated areas of the State Capitol; making a left would land us in the East Village among the LBGTQ community towards downtown Des Moines. Why did we walk around the block with several hundred people only to be seen by no one? No onlookers, no crowds, and no news crews (at least what I witnessed). What is the point in all of this? Aren’t we protesting abortion laws to save human lives? Yet, the LBGTQ community earlier this month can rally tens of thousands of people, and over 40 churches, to parade down the street in the name of pride, sodomy, godless behavior, and other sins? What are we doing? Are we even trying, or are we just playing church?

Good conversations

While I was in the rotunda, I did manage to have some really good conversations; one of which was with Shelly Pitts, board member of Iowa Right to Life. I gave her and her husband, Gary, a card with a link to The Fatal Flaw Movie from End Abortion Now.

Curious about our booth, she asked what the movie was about. “Well,” I said, “the movie is about the hypocrisy of the Pro-Life Movement. In a nutshell, the movement actually has been stopping good quality laws that would give equal protection of the law for baby inside the womb as it does for a baby outside the womb. If we as Christians believe we are made in the image of God, and life begins at conception, then we should hold mothers and those who coerce a woman to abort her child as if she were to strangle her one-year-old child.” She agreed that this should be the case, but conception laws do not pass, and it would be difficult to get anything done; also agreeing that we should all work together to achieve an end to abortion. I agreed with her, but allowing a mother to kill her child with impunity, malice, and forethought without any repercussions for even 6 weeks pre-heartbeat, is still murder and is still allowing abortion to continue. There were times that she teared up, talking about all the good that has happened during the heartbeat bill; But I continued, “…even one child allowed to die is still one too many. If bills were written that criminalized willful mothers that killed their child with malice and forethought, abortion would end tomorrow. But the Pro-life establishment wants to protect these mothers, calling them victims instead of the murderers they are.”

Are we serious about protecting children?

Bottom line, from what I witnessed at this rally, we are not serious about ending abortion in this state or the nation. We are not serious at all. Like we “play church,” we play about protecting the most vulnerable.

Are we more serious about protecting unborn children from being murdered; or are we more concerned with protecting mothers who willfully, with malice and forethought, kill their child either by going to an abortion mill like Planned Parenthood, or popping a pill in the privacy of her own home?

Are we serious about upholding life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for the child inside the womb as much as the one outside the womb?

Are we serious about the gospel and the seriousness of sin, or are we depriving the mother of the gospel by saying that if she has never committed a sin by murdering her child? If we do, then the blood of Jesus Christ is no help to her. The only way the gospel applies is if we confess our sin, repent, and put our faith in Christ as our blood atonement. A woman who doesn’t believe she did anything wrong and broke no law because of a government that told her she is a victim. Victims do not need repentance — sinners do. Treating mothers who murder their children as victims will not receive the gospel. It’s not only a matter of life and death for the child, but the mother as well. An eternal — life or death.