Interfaith pro-life service set for Jan. 16

By RENEE WEBB, Globe editor
January 6, 2004

Hundreds of people are expected to attend the annual Siouxland Interfaith Pro-Life Prayer Memorial, Jan. 16, to mourn 32 years of legalized abortion in the United States. The service is slated for 1:30 p.m. at Central Baptist Church in Sioux City.

Larry Walsh, a member of the spiritual committee at Queen of Peace, pointed out that this will be the 11th interfaith prayer service to mark the Jan. 22, 1973 anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade court decision that legalized abortion. Originally Queen of Peace, Siouxland Right to Life and the Knights of Columbus sponsored the service and after a few years more and more churches of various faiths became involved.

"This is a gathering of people of many faiths," he said. People of all religions are encouraged to attend the service, which focuses on prayers for an end to abortion.

In recent years the service has drawn between 700 and 1,000 people.

"We all bemoan the fact that there aren't enough people to support Social Security, but it's interesting to know that one out of four people that God created have been destroyed, cast away through abortion," said Walsh.

Each year, the memorial service features a keynote speaker. This year's speaker will be Congressman Steve King of the U.S. House of Representatives, serving the fifth district of Iowa.

"We asked Congressman King to help us understand how we can more directly influence the people in Washington and help us understand how that process works," said Walsh.

The congressman is a member of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and Subcomittee on the Constitution, which has jurisdiction over the life issue.

"My first term in Congress, I co-sponsored nine pieces of legislation to ensure the protection of God's innocent unborn children, including the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which pass by Congress and is effect in law today," said King. "I also co-sponsored the Partial Birth Abortion Act, which created a federal ban on the gruesome procedure of partial birth abortions."

Even when he held public office in the Iowa Senate, King noted that he worked for the pro-life cause.

"One of the two big reasons that I first ran for public office was to change the parental notification laws in Iowa so that parents were again responsible for their children," he said. "We passed pro-life legislation in each of the six years that I served in the Iowa Senate and in each of the two years that I've been in Congress. I have been co-sponsor of every major piece of pro-life legislation in my eight years in public office."

As the 109th Congress convenes, King said he is committed to try to end abortion. He co-sponsored the Life at Conception Act in his first term in Congress and will continue to work to reintroduce and pass that legislation that would overturn Roe v. Wade.

He looks forward to having Iowans join him in Washington on Jan. 24 for the National Right to Life March on the national mall.

"We will work together to show the American people and Congress, we must rid the nation of this debate and finally accept that life is the only choice. I'm grateful to be a practicing Catholic who believes profoundly in the foundation of the consistent ethic of the Catholic Church. That belief has sustained me in every activity of my life," said the congressman.

At the Jan. 16 service in Sioux City, Mount Zion Baptist Church and Pastor Floyd E. Brown will lead the music and Rev. Don Cork will serve as the master of ceremonies. Other clergy will also be involved in the service.

The service will include a presentation of 32 roses carried forth by people ranging from one to 32, representing the generations of people wiped out by abortion in the 32 years of legalized abortion.

"During the parade of roses, as each of the persons come down, we will be offering a reflection from our history, Scripture and the political origins of this nation - showing how we should be protecting life," noted Walsh.

Following the program, women of Central Baptist will host a coffee social.

At about 3:45 p.m. people are invited to join in a brief closing ceremony at the Circle of Life Memorial to the Unborn at Trinity Heights, 33rd and Floyd Blvd. Father Dan Wittrock will lead the short prayer service during which the 32 roses will be laid on the Tomb of the Unborn Child.

"They will be left out in the cold to wither and die, symbolizing the cold reality of abortion," said Walsh.

Central Baptist Church is located at 4001 Indian Hills Drive in Sioux City. Primary sponsors of this year's event are Queen of Peace, The Alpha Center and Siouxland Right to Life.