(KLTV) – TYLER TX — More than 100 people held an pro-life rally in Tyler Sunday, as part of the national “Respect Life Day.”
The rally aims to raise awareness to the most vulnerable populations, namely the elderly and unborn.
For organizers, the rally also sends another message: fighting to keep Texas values in the midst of what they say will be a battle for the state’s future.
“It doesn’t mean that you hate women,” said Associate Pastor of the Chapel of Saints Peter and Paul Justin Braun. “It doesn’t mean that you hate anybody. It means that you’re standing up for basic foundational right, that inalienable right we all share as human beings to life itself.”
Braun said their goal is “pure and simple visibility.”
Other organizers said getting their message out is even more important now that Wendy Davis, who gained national attention in a pro-choice filibuster, is making a bid for Texas’ top office.
“It’s going to be a fight,” said Voice of the Unborns’ Suzanne Laine. “It’s a fight to remain a state that is pro-life and that fights for the life of the unborn.”
Laine organized the trip back in July that took hundreds of East Texans down to Austin to support the measure.
“We were able to fill all of those buses,” she said. “There’s a lot of people in Smith County that believe in this, that will come out in the middle of the day on a beautiful day, on a Sunday.”
“When you see so many people from Tyler and East Texas that travel to Austin, on the very day the bill was voted on in the house, that were there filling the halls of the Capitol and making their voices heard, that’s why I’m here,” said State Representative Matt Schaefer. “That’s why all these people were on the loop speaking for life.”
The group said Sunday was another opportunity for their voices to be heard.
“There is such an influx of money that’s coming in from California and New York that wants to shape our political future,” Laine said. “It’s important for us to stand up for our Texas values.”
“Respect Life Sunday” is held every year by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops on the first Sunday of October. The event kicks of a month of pro-life education in the church.
Sunday, October 6, 2013 – 10:04pm
By: Mitch Goulding
