Anti-Roe rally touches on Terri Schiavo case
Posted on Monday, January 23, 2006
Although a crowd of abortion opponents gathered Sunday in Little Rock to mark the 33 rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the keynote speaker focused on a different right-to-life argument.
“My sister did not want to die,” said Suzanne Vitadamo, sister of Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman who died last year after her feeding tube was removed. “Our society has shifted to a quality of life mentality and has lost sight of the value and sacredness of all human life. We are now deciding as a society whether it is OK or not OK to kill those suffering with disabilities.” A relentless rain likely caused the crowd gathered for the 28 th annual March for Life to be smaller than last year’s 5, 000-person march, said Rose Mimms, executive director of Arkansas Right to Life.
Still, hundreds participated in the march, which ended at the state Capitol.
“It was one for the books,” Mimms said. Although the crowd was smaller than usual, “I knew that the rain would not stop the good pro-life people from turning out.” The march drew residents from throughout the state and politicians such as gubernatorial hopeful Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, state Sen. Jim Holt, R-Springdale, Sen. Bobby Glover, D-Carlisle, and Rep. Doug Matayo, R-Springdale.
Along the march route on Capitol Avenue, a small group of National Organization for Women representatives — who support abortion rights — formed a counter-rally.
Gov. Mike Huckabee, who normally attends the march, had a conflict and couldn’t attend, organizers said. But in his weekly column, released to newspapers statewide, Huckabee said that more than 142, 000 abortions have been performed in Arkansas since abortion was legalized in the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
Last year, the state passed a bill requiring doctors to inform a woman seeking an abortion that a fetus can feel pain after 20 weeks. Lawmakers also approved a measure that requires parental consent before a minor can obtain an abortion.
“It was amazing to me that minors were required to get parental consent before getting ears pierced or a tattoo, but they were allowed to have this major surgical procedure without their parents having any say whatsoever,” Huckabee wrote in his column.
The governor called for Arkansans to “recommit to helping women who find themselves in unplanned pregnancies, and let’s love them, no matter what decision they make. But let us also pray that we see the day when this procedure is in fact rare.” Both abortion opponents and abortion-rights advocates should be able to “find a middle ground” on the issue, said Marvin Schwartz, vice president of community affairs for Planned Parenthood of Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma.
“We want to reduce unintended pregnancies,” Schwartz said. “We want to keep people safe and healthy. The way to do that is through prevention and not prohibition.” Arkansas has two abortion providers, one in Little Rock and one in Fayetteville, he said.
Schwartz said that an increased emphasis on abstinenceonly education — rather than courses that also teach about contraception — is troublesome for Planned Parenthood officials.
“The issue of abortion is less important than the issue of prevention,” he said.
The Terri Schiavo case is appropriate to discuss on the Roe v. Wade anniversary because it too is a right-to-life issue, Mimms said.
“Our issues are abortion, infanticide and assisted suicide,” she said. “We go from the moment of conception to the very end of life.” Many details surrounding her sister’s life and death have been misconstrued, Vitadamo said, adding that Schiavo did not suffer from bulimia and did not have a heart attack. But Schiavo’s death, although painful, taught Vitadamo important life lessons, she said.
“She taught me to appreciate every day on this earth,” Vitadamo said. “She taught me where there is life, there is hope.”
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