Last week I was treated to an unplanned "pray in" on my birthday as thousands of pro-lifers descended on Washington, D.C., for the March for Life on Jan. 22, 2015, the anniversary of the court ruling of Roe v. Wade, which made it possible for millions of babies to be killed at the altar of “choice.”
Every year the march is followed up by women and men of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign giving testimonies of regretted abortions on the Supreme Court steps. This year there was even a former abortionist, Dr. Anthony Levatino, who regrets
performing abortions.
As I was sitting in front of the Supreme Court that day, my 64th birthday no less, the back and forth challenges between the pro-abortion protesters on one side and the pro-life marchers on the other side began to heat up.
I began thinking of my uncle’s words, “We must learn to live together as brothers [and sisters] or perish as fools," and I began to pray. As I prayed, I became grieved in my heart, and seemed to be lead by the spirit of God to walk between the two groups and then lie down in the street with a sanctity of life sign and pray.
As I walked toward the young people, I watched pro-abortion protesters with their white pants splotched with red paint "blood” between their legs; some waving coat hangers and hurling profanity into the air, my heart ached and I felt moved to pray for them.
I also prayed for my pro-life brothers and sisters who rallied to answer the pro-abortion voices. I thought about God's love and how people, not knowing and understanding John 3:16, are perishing for lack of the knowledge of the love of God.
Somehow, the image of Dr. Billy Graham and my Uncle Martin Luther King preaching and praying together against racism and segregation in the 1950s fits in here. I'm praying that the racist roots of Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood will be broken.
However, I digress. The pro-abortion protesters were shouting for "reproductive rights" not seeming to understand that they were promoting death as a solution.
Somehow, I just wanted to take them in my arms and lovingly explain to them, “Don’t you understand that every human person has the same right as you and me, the right to life? And that choice that you are fighting for is the choice to kill a tiny human person? And mothers and dads and everybody suffers from such choices?"
There was no room for my voice, there was so much shouting. So, I lay down on the ground and I quietly prayed for God to help us love each other and stop the killing.
Someone shouted, "get off of our property." I thought about sitting up and explaining that we all had the constitutional right to be there; but I just kept on praying, "Oh Jesus!"
Then, a young man looked down at me and shouted obscenities directed at me, wondering who I was. Someone else responded that I was Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He ran away into the crowd.
As the pro-life marchers began to gather for the "silent no more" rally, it was time to join #healingtheshockwavesofabortion, so we walked over to the stage and gave testimony of regretted abortions before the crowd. The voices of the pro-abortion protesters began to fade. Some were being arrested for acting out.
My "pray in" demonstration was unplanned; stirred by a heart of contrition and compassion. Yet, I will keep praying, whether standing, sitting, kneeling or from the ground, every year that the Lord permits me to and I will continue to pray for all humanity, not just until the day that we abolish abortion in America and around the world; but until God's love breaks through the stony hearts and his glory is revealed.
Dr. Alveda C. King grew up in the civil rights movement led by her uncle, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She is a pastoral associate and director of African-American outreach for Priests for Life and Gospel of Life Ministries. Her family home in Birmingham, Ala., was bombed, as was her father’s church office in Louisville, Ky. Alveda herself was jailed during the open housing movement. Read more reports from Dr. Alveda C. King — Click Here Now.