Operation Rescue in New York City
By Editorial Staff
Published June 1, 1988
NEW YORK, NY (FR) – Over 1,500 pro-life protesters from 22 different states travelled to New York City in early May of this year, successfully closing down three major medical centers during the day of the highly publicized “rescue.” About 1,300 of the protesters were arrested, including Catholic Bishop Austin Vaughn, 15 Catholic priests, four nuns, two rabbis, and Mark Bavaro, an All-Pro tight end for the New York Giants.
“This demonstrated the range of interfaith solidarity for unborn children,” said spokeswoman Julie Loesch.
The first center closed down was the Herbert Schwartz Clinic, the largest in Manhattan, where abortions are performed up to the second trimester. Queen Women’s Medical Office was closed down for one day along with the Women’s Choice Gynecology Service on Long Island.
Between 300 to 400 children are aborted everyday in New York, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a research arm of Planned Parenthood. Loesch said there were other clinics in the area that might have closed down due to the sit-in at the major centers; however, it was hard to determine how many since there have been conflicting reports. “Most clinics would rather close down then draw controversy to themselves,” she said.
Besides closed clinics, one woman decided not to have an abortion and sought aid from Operation Rescue. Loesch said they were pleased with the saved life, but they also want to have an impact on the political process.
“No matter who is elected (in the upcoming presidential race),” Loesch continued, “we’re concerned about what they plan on doing to support poor women. It’s not fair that poor women don’t have any other options offered to them by the federal government besides abortion.”
A New York radio station ran a 24-hour alert for pro-abortion groups on the rescue. However, only 60 pro-abortion demonstrators showed up to counter the rescue effort, according to sources. Pro-abortion leaders also called for a mass rally, but the same 50 to 60 people showed up. They waited 30 minutes for a larger crowd, which didn’t materialize.
Before the rescue, pro-abortion advocates also tried to ban the pro-lifers from coming within 15 feet of any medical center. The requested temporary restraining order was denied. Operation Rescue is currently challenging an injunction filed by abortion activists earlier during that week which penalized the organization $25,000 for sitting on the steps of a clinic. The fine would be earmarked for pro-abortion groups such as the National Organization for Women and Planned Parenthood.
One of the “rescuers” travelled from St. Louis for the week-long series of sit-ins. Tim Drestie, an auto mechanic, says he has been arrested between 35 to 40 times since he first became involved in the pro-life movement three years ago. “Initially, I saw the movie ‘Silent Scream,’ and it just tore up my heart. It changed my life and I started picketing a clinic.”
Since then, Drestie has participated in about 30 “rescues.” “After picketing, I became whole-heartedly involved in rescues. I’ve participated in rescue missions involving just two people.”
Operation Rescue projected 800 people participating, Loesch related, “and we are exultant over the response.” Randall Terry, executive director of the Operation Rescue, told the Washington Times, “The reason the pro-life movement has not been successful is because it has not created the social tension and upheaval necessary to produce political change.”
Responding to the “extremist” label, he pointed out, “The people sitting here today are moms, and dads, grandmas and grandpas, rabbis and priests. This is middle America.”
Other rescues are planned in conjunction with the Republican National Convention in New Orleans and the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta.
Forerunner - Home » The Forerunner Newspaper » Pro-life Articles
Your comments are welcome!
Dr. Francis Schaeffer - A Christian Manifesto (DVD)
That Swiss Hermit Strikes Again!
Dr. Schaeffer, who was one of the most influential Christian thinkers in the twentieth century, shows that secular humanism has displaced the Judeo-Christian consensus that once defined our nation’s moral boundaries. Law, education, and medicine have all been reshaped for the worse as a consequence. America’s dominant worldview changed, Schaeffer charges, when Christians weren’t looking.
Schaeffer lists two reasons for evangelical indifference: a false concept of spirituality and fear. He calls on believers to stand against the tyranny and moral chaos that come when humanism reigns-and warns that believers may, at some point, be forced to make the hard choice between obeying God or Caesar. A Christian Manifesto is a thought-provoking and bracing Christian analysis of American culture and the obligation Christians have to engage the culture with the claims of Christ.
$19.95 — ORDER NOW!
(We accept all major credit cards and PayPal.)Click here for more information
Amazing Grace: The History and Theology of Calvinism (DVD)
Download the Free Study Guide!
Just what is Calvinism?
Does this teaching make man a deterministic robot and God the author of sin? What about free will? If the church accepts Calvinism, won’t evangelism be stifled, perhaps even extinguished? How can we balance God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility? What are the differences between historic Calvinism and hyper-Calvinism? Why did men like Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Spurgeon, Whitefield, Edwards and a host of renowned Protestant evangelists embrace the teaching of predestination and election and deny free will theology?
This is the first video documentary that answers these and other related questions. Hosted by Eric Holmberg, this fascinating three-part, four-hour presentation is detailed enough so as to not gloss over the controversy. At the same time, it is broken up into ten “Sunday-school-sized” sections to make the rich content manageable and accessible for the average viewer.
Running Time: 257 minutes
$19.95 — ORDER NOW!
(We accept all major credit cards and PayPal.)Click here for more information
The Abortion Matrix: Defeating Child Sacrifice and the Culture of Death (DVD)
Download the free Study Guide!
Is there a connection between pagan religion and the abortion industry?
This powerful presentation traces the biblical roots of child sacrifice and then delves into the social, political and cultural fall-out that this sin against God and crime against humanity has produced in our beleaguered society.
Conceived as a sequel and update to the 1988 classic, The Massacre of Innocence, the new title, The Abortion Matrix, is entirely fitting. It not only references abortion’s specific target – the sacred matrix where human beings are formed in the womb in the very image of God, but it also implies the existence of a conspiracy, a matrix of seemingly disparate forces that are driving this holocaust.
The occult activity surrounding the abortion industry is exposed with numerous examples. But are these just aberrations, bizarre yet anomalous examples of abortionists who just happen to have ties to modern day witchcraft? Or is this representative of something deeper, more sinister and even endemic to the entire abortion movement?
As the allusion to the film of over a decade ago suggests, the viewer may learn that things are not always as they appear to be. The Abortion Matrix reveals the reality of child-killing and strikes the proper moral chord to move hearts to fulfill the biblical responsibility to rescue those unjustly sentenced to death and to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves (Proverbs 24:11,12; 31:8,9).
Speakers include: George Grant, Peter Hammond, RC Sproul Jr., Paul Jehle, Lou Engle, Rusty Thomas, Flip Benham, Janet Porter and many more.
Ten parts, over three hours of instruction!
Running Time: 195 minutes
$19.95 — ORDER NOW!
(We accept all major credit cards and PayPal.)Click here for more information
The Silent Scream (DVD) Eight Languages
“When the lives of the unborn are snuffed out, they often feel pain, pain that is long and agonizing.” – President Ronald Reagan to National Religious Broadcasters Convention, January 1981
Ronald Reagan became convinced of this as a result of watching The Silent Scream – a movie he considered so powerful and convicting that he screened it at the White House. More recently, it was by catching just a glimpse of what this film reveals that Planned Parenthood director and abortion advocate Abby Johnson turned and became a strong advocate for the pre-born.
The modern technology of real-time ultrasound now reveals the actual responses of a 12-week old fetus to being aborted. As the unborn child attempts to escape the abortionist’s suction curette, her motions can be seen to become desperately agitated and her heart rate doubles. Her mouth opens – as if to scream – but no sound can come out. Her scream doesn’t have to remain silent, however … not if you will become her voice. This newly re-mastered version features eight language tracks and two bonus videos.
“…a high technology “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” arousing public opinion just as Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 antislavery novel ignited the abolitionist movement.” – Sen. Gordon Humphrey, Time Magazine
Languages: English, Spanish, French, South Korean, Chinese, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese
Running Time: 28 minutes
$17.95 — ORDER NOW!
(We accept all major credit cards and PayPal.)Click here for more information
Massacre of Innocence (DVD)
Exposing The Occult Roots of Abortion
This presentation looks at the spiritual roots of abortion and exposes the myths surrounding child killing. Little known historical facts about abortion and how they relate to modern feminism are presented logically and accurately. Has been effective in converting many to a pro-life position.
Massacre of Innocence goes where no pro-life presentation has gone before in “tearing the lid off abortion” to reveal the spiritual realities we must battle if we will bring an end to this crime. The presentation is absorbing, fast-paced, informative and incredibly devastating to any attempt to justify abortion.
“… an extraordinary statement … a powerfully articulate presentation about what abortion really means, and why a great and moral nation like the United States must not allow the slaughter to continue.”
— Congressman Robert K. Dornan
Running time: 85 minutes
$19.95 — ORDER NOW!
(We accept all major credit cards and PayPal.)
I am looking for a job as a legal assistant/paralegal in the pro-life arena. I will have my Bachelors in legal studies in four weeks. Please let me know if this is somewhere where I can begin working. (I am pro-life).
Brenda
Posted by Brenda Horton on 10/12/2012 01:20 PM #