Several prolife groups held a joint press conference yesterday at the Iowa Statehouse in response to the logjam that has occurred in the Iowa House over prolife legislation. Groups represented include: Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition, Iowans for Life, Iowa Catholic Conference, Council Bluffs Interfaith Coalition to Keep Carhart Out, Concerned Women for America – Iowa, and Iowa Right to Life.
You can watch the video of the press conference below:
Below is a trasnscript of Jenifer Bowen’s comments. Jenifer Bowen is the Executive Director of Iowa Right to Life who organized the press conference.
LeRoy Carhart is a man who has for decades aggressively, relentlessly pursued the physical destruction of the most vulnerable of our society—our unborn, children who have never taken their first birth.
In 1997, Mr. Carhart found himself in court. His testimony was required because it was discovered that the University of Nebraska Medical Center was conducting experiments using brain tissue from children he had aborted. He stated in his testimony that there were times he did not remove the fetus, the little one, intact. He acknowledged that as he brought the babies partially out, they were still alive, that their hearts were still beating. THIS IS INFANTACIDE. I will not belabor the gruesomeness of his words—they are available if you would like them in more detail.
2007 found LeRoy Carhart in a federal jury trial. Under oath, his clinic workers testified that he was performing SIX abortions every 30 minutes. 12 an hour. In just a 4 hour work day, that’s 48 abortions A DAY! In just 4 hours a day, 4 days a week, 144 children lose their lives. Of those, approximately 10-20 a week are late-term abortions.
Also, under oath his workers testified that he grossed anywhere from $600,000 to 3-4 million dollars a year, and that’s just the money from abortions.
And he has set his sights on Iowa. On our precious daughters, sisters, nieces, granddaughters and friends. And on the lives of their future children. When he made the announcement in November—he indicated he wanted to move into Maryland, Indiana and Iowa. He opened up shop in December in Maryland, took over an existing facility in Indiana. Nothing is keeping him from moving into our state, if we do not pass a bill banning late-term abortion. Period.
As I have stated on every available occasion, we are in support of all pro-life legislation that has been introduced this session. All of it. This includes the life at conception bill. You have never nor will ever hear me say anything other than how important it is to have the conversation of when life begins. There is not one individual standing beside me here today and countless more who couldn’t make it today that is not in this for any other result than TO SEE ABORTION END. We are ALL in this to lose our jobs.
This is not an ethereal conversation about who is more pro-life, who is more righteous, who is more right. This is not about who is to blame. This is about responsibility. Just as we rush in, taking responsibility for the lives in ruin, with tens of thousands of text messages, donating to those in desperate need in far-off Japan, it is our responsibility, our obligation, our duty to rescue those who will be scheduled to die at the hands of one like LeRoy Carhart or other abortionists. It is our responsibility to block LeRoy Carhart at the border. We have an opportunity with the late-term abortion ban to offer a stop-gap emergency measure to stop him even before he begins.
I stand here today side-by-side with these organizations, these strong leaders. Yet we do not stand here alone. Also with us today are the TEN THOUSAND people that have signed our Iowa Right to Life petitions just since this past fall. Concerned Iowans—Iowans who want their Legislature to STOP THE PRO-DEATH agenda that pervades our cities, schools, our state.
We are asking you today to contact your legislators in the next few days. Call them. Email them. Visit with them. Let them know you want better for Iowa. Let them know you support them supporting pro-life legislation.
And to the Legislature we ask that you support the pro-life legislation put forth. We ask that you protect Iowa from further becoming a safe-haven state for late-term abortion. The lives of our future children literally hang in the balance—and MUST be saved from the destruction that they face if we simply do nothing.
Thank you.