Good Afternoon!
It’s an honor to be here with you at our state’s capitol. Your witness to preserving life is a witness that will not go unnoticed by God, especially HERE, as you stand in front of the state capitol where the super-majority of Illinois Democrats have no regard for Life.
We stand in front of the statue of Abraham Lincoln, a man uniquely prepared by God to have the courage and wisdom to take up the righteous cause of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery.
“My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”
― Abraham Lincoln
And that’s why we are here today.
Let’s face it; it is far easier to be pro-life in Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, and Tennessee and to know that behind Lincoln’s statute in the Capitol, the majority that rules in Illinois now cares not about the innocent life of the answer to any problem.
They are led by the biggest pro-abortion Governor in the United States. Gov. Pritzker has made it his signature issue. He even created a separate organization, Think Big America, whose signature Big Idea for America is to support radical abortion laws across the country.
He didn’t fund an organization that would alleviate poverty, improve education, build housing, or any other worthwhile endeavor that a man of his means could do. No, instead, he has invested his millions into promoting abortion. It’s pitiful.
What’s worse, he has forced us, Illinois residents and taxpayers, to be a party to it. His budget just last year included $10 million for an abortion hotline, millions in abortion clinic security grants, and millions more in Medicaid reimbursement of abortions.
His policies have led to Illinois becoming a destination for those seeking abortion and abortionists seeking profit. Since he has taken office, Illinois has seen the opening of abortion clinics in Flossmoor, Rockford, Waukegan, Carbondale, and the mega-Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Fairview Heights, as well as numerous others.
Six months Following the overturning of the Roe decision in 2022, the Fairview Heights abortion clinic saw a 300% increase in abortions.
The Democrats celebrated, Pritzker added more fuel to the fire, and more abortionists opened up shop. One of them is a man named Keith Reisinger-Kindle. He is a self-identified Queer abortionist who told the Chicago Tribune in a profile piece that he opened up his Equity Clinic in Champaign after Ohio limited abortion to the first 6-weeks. He was one of many abortionists who saw opportunity in Illinois. His clinic is located near the University of Illinois. He is also, despite his credentials and the fact that he teaches others how to perform an abortion, allegedly a negligent doctor, according to a lawsuit filed on Friday.
A mother of four from Indianapolis traveled to Champaign to have an abortion on her baby, which was 22 weeks and 6 days, at Equity Clinic. Following the procedure, the mother was in pain, and Reisinger-Kindle told her to take some Tylenol and a laxative.
Things got worse for the mother, and she went to her local hospital, where she underwent emergency surgery. According to her surgeon, half the baby was left inside the mother, and her uterus was perforated. He commented, “This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen at surgery, and I’ve been doing this for over 30 years.”
At Reisinger-Kindle, according to the Chicago Tribune article, 95% of Equity’s patients are from out of state — mainly from Indiana, Ohio, and Missouri.
There are very likely more stories like this. When you entice people with easy money, much of it from taxpayers and lax regulations, you attract the worst people in the business – and that’s what it is – a big business that we have been forced to subsidize.
So we are here today to witness to women in vulnerable situations and to let them know that there are other options—that they can choose life.
On that note, I want to address another glaring misconception that has arisen in the abortion debate. One that played out prominently in Texas a couple of years ago with the mother who received a diagnosis at the 20-week ultrasound that her baby would not survive after birth. I wrote about just that situation in 2019 and the Chicago Tribune published my article. Here it is.
My husband and I faced a similar situation with our fifth son, Mark Anthony Ives. At the 20-week ultrasound, we found out that our son had a diaphragmatic hernia. Essentially, the diaphragm splits the abdomen in half, with vital organs like the liver, kidneys, and stomach below and the heart and lungs above. If the diaphragm is incomplete, the organs below invade the space where the lungs should develop. Few, if any, babies survive this deformity, especially if caused by a genetic abnormality.
First, we asked if there was a surgical remedy to correct the deformity. Surgeons on both coasts had done some experimental in-utero surgeries but with little success, and no surgeon would take patients whose abnormality resulted from a genetic cause. Unfortunately, we soon learned that Mark’s abnormality was genetically based and, therefore, a certain death sentence at birth.
At that point, our high-risk pregnancy doctor strongly suggested we abort the baby. In our conversation, the doctor spoke as if that were the obvious, most reasonable option. The thought of aborting Mark entered my mind for a few brief moments. How convenient, no one needs to think about this anymore, no increased medical expenses, no carrying the baby for 20 more weeks, no painful choice on how to respond to cheerful comments about my impending birth. The problem would just go away, and I could get back to caring for our other four boys.
But those moments passed quickly. I knew the decision to end Mark’s life was neither mine nor my husband’s to make. And thankfully, my pro-life doctor knew this too. Dr. Michael Hussey took me aside and said we are going to see this baby through to his natural end.
For the next four months, I cried every day with a kind of grief I had never experienced. Our baby boy was alive inside me, kicking and rolling, and on the day we would welcome Mark to the world, he would die in my arms. I was not only grief-stricken, I was also scared. I was terrified to face the death of my own child.
But I never blamed God, and I never asked why Mark or why me. I understood more acutely than ever before the inescapable truth that suffering is part of this life, and it does not discriminate. What matters most in those dark and often lonely moments of fear and grief is how we respond to what sometimes feels like an unendurable burden.
Three weeks before I delivered, my son’s second-grade teacher, a wise and compassionate nun who knew that we were walking “through the valley of the shadow of death,” asked when I would have the baby. When I told her, she replied, “Good, then the healing can begin.” She was right.
Mark was born on April 28, 2002. He died 45 minutes after birth. After his birth, my doctor baptized him, and nurses lovingly took baby pictures, dressed him, gave him a teddy bear, took footprints, and treated him with the dignity he deserved as a human being created in the image and likeness of God. He was just over 3 pounds and had a nose like my father’s. The healing did begin for our family, but I don’t believe it would have been complete had we chosen to take his life prematurely.
Our decision is not unique. Every day, mothers and fathers receive equally tragic diagnoses and make the same decision. A just, merciful, and compassionate society does not kill those who are imperfect or those whose medical condition is inimical to life. Not even the laudable goal of ending suffering grants to one person the right to kill another.
A just, merciful, and compassionate society cares for those who suffer, including pre-born babies with serious and even fatal conditions and family members who lose their beloved babies on the day they first meet. And caring for very sick babies like our son Mark does not entail killing them.
Thank you again for being here and being a witness for Life and for sending a message of hope to those in vulnerable situations and with no idea how they will make it to the next day. We need to help them. Please donate to pro-life pregnancy centers and give hope to those who choose Life.
