Members of Tucker County’s Right to Life Chapter recently attended the 37th Annual Pro-Life State Convention held at the Trinity Assembly of God in Fairmont, WV . Highlights of the convention included words from Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who shared that, at present, no final conclusion has been drawn from his public comment period regarding abortion clinics being regulated in West Virginia . However, his research has turned up the fact that abortions in West Virginia can be legally performed up to the moment of birth and that licensed doctors are not required to perform them.
Tucker County’s own Chapter president, Lacey Dent, presented on the dangerous rationing aspect of ObamaCare and the importance of having a WV “Will to Live,” versus a living will. She also gave a presentation educating on fetal development, with an emphasis on pain capability from the 20th week of pregnancy and onward.
Keynote speaker David Russell, D.V.M., related his own abortion experience, sharing that many of the same feelings and coping mechanisms that post-abortive women experience (hopelessness, drug and alcohol abuse, suicidal thoughts and suicide) are the same in men, with the addition of powerlessness and anger.
National Right to Life Political Director Karen Cross stressed the importance of voting pro-life. West Virginians’ for Life President, Dr. Wanda Franz, addressed the ill effects of 40 Years of Roe, some of which include the increased risk of premature births in subsequent pregnancies in women who have had abortions, and the overlooked cost of medical care in women who have had abortions. In the state-funded medical program in California (one of the few states to keep any kind of records), women who had abortions had a significantly higher death rate due to all causes over an 8-year period than women who had given birth.
Presentations also came from the personal testimonies of Rebekah Berg, who was raped but chose life for her child, and Lorrie Legursky, mother of NFL Buffalo Bills’ Guard Doug Legursky, who shared how as a pregnant 15-year-old, she was on the abortion table, but by a miracle, was told to leave and her daughter’s life was spared.
Informative and entertaining video clips in between presentations, door prize drawings at random, a silent auction, continental breakfast and a catered luncheon only added to a day of tears, a day of learning, a day of being reinvigorated to carry on the fight to restore a culture of life.
If you are interested in learning more about issues pertaining to the unborn, elderly and handicapped of our area, feel free to attend the Tucker County Right to Life meetings. They are held the last Monday of each month at 7p.m. in Burn’s Hall of St. John’s United Methodist Church. Everyone is welcome!