FORT WAYNE – The National Weather Service in northern Indiana says northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio are likely to see more record-breaking heat on Monday.FORT WAYNE – Before they marched through the streets of downtown Fort Wayne holding signs and placards, more than 1,000 abortion-rights opponents who filed into a downtown auditorium were given a clear message:
Be aggressive and don’t back down.
The assembly was part of Saturday’s 38th annual Rally and March for Life, sponsored by Allen County Right to Life. Several speakers – including Indiana Treasurer and U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, U.S. Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-3rd, and Republican 2nd District congressional hopeful Jackie Walorski – took the stage or appeared by video link.
Adam Mildred, a member of the Allen County Right to Life board and a deputy prosecutor, read a message from Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry, who officially proclaimed Saturday as a day to recognize the sanctity of life.
That set the tone for the keynote speaker, Peter Heck, a public school teacher, opinion columnist and radio host. He spoke at the USF Performing Arts Center, formerly known as Scottish Rite Center.
Heck, from Kokomo, urged those in attendance to be more aggressive in voicing their beliefs and called those who support abortion “modern-day slave owners.”
Nobody, Heck said, should ever even consider sitting at the bargaining table with someone who doesn’t see abortion as wrong or who refuses to take a stand on it.
Refusing to take a stand on the issue is nothing short of cowardice, Heck said.
An example of such cowardice, he said, was displayed by President Obama in 2008 when he called a question about when a child is entitled to human rights as being “above my pay grade.”
Obama later told national media that he regretted that answer, calling it too flippant while maintaining his abortion-rights stance.
Heck also used imagery of the Holocaust, telling the audience that a new holocaust is happening in front of them, and that they must decide whether they will fight or do nothing.
“Today we end our complacency,” Heck said. “Today we stop being passive.”
Heck also told the audience not to frame their arguments theoretically.
They shouldn’t worry about the potential of losing the next Albert Einstein or Johan Sebastian Bach or the person who will cure cancer due to abortion, he said.
Instead, the argument should be focused strictly on losing life itself, he said.
“Life is not valuable for what it does for us. Life is valuable for what it is – a being created in the image of its creator,” Heck said.
Reached by phone, Chrystal Struben, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Indiana, gave the agency’s response to Saturday’s Rally and March for Life.
Planned Parenthood “respects everyone’s right to gather and share their opinions,” Struben said.
The agency believes the best way to avoid unwanted pregnancies and the need for abortions is to provide access to birth control and education, Struben said.
She said Planned Parenthood is first and foremost a provider of preventive health care services that help detect cancers and prevent and treat sexually transmitted diseases.
Jim Chapman of The Journal Gazette contributed to this story.
