NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland Admonishes Local Collaboration With Randall Terry
An article appearing in The Maryland Gazette quotes NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland Executive Director Jenny Blasdell regarding the 40 Days for Life kickoff conference at Severn Christian Christian Church. Speakers include Norma McCorvey and Randall Terry. Read the article here or below. 'Roe' in abortion case kicks off campaign in Severn Norma McCorvey now works to ban abortions By MARC SHAPIRO, Staff Writer Published 08/26/09 Norma McCorvey sparked a landmark Supreme Court decision that states cannot restrict a woman's access to abortion. On Saturday morning she will join controversial abortion rights foe Randall Terry at a Severn church nearly 36 years after Roe v. Wade, to help kick off a 40-day anti-abortion campaign. "I realized that women were going to be able to go out and take the life of their children," McCorvey, who was identified as Jane Roe to protect her identity. "That was something that I was not proud of. That really toppled my world." McCorvey, who became an abortion opponent in the mid '90s, will be the featured speaker at the 40 Days for Life kickoff conference at Severn Christian Church. Campaign leaders are calling for 40 days of prayer, fasting, vigils outside abortion facilities and community outreach. Sites of the protest include clinics in Severna Park and Annapolis. Speakers include Terry, controversial founder of anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, and Del. Don Dwyer, R-Glen Burnie. "The goal of 40 Days for Life is to end abortion in local communities and across the country," said Michael Martelli, the Maryland campaign director. "We believe people are not going to end abortion - God will end abortion. Bypraying, that is one of the most effective things you can do." McCorvey, who was recently arrested for yelling during the first day of confirmation hearings of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, said she hopes the campaign will rally opponents. "I'm just tired of fighting this battle without any kind of results," she said. "We all have one common bond and that's to overturn Roe v. Wade." McCorvey was an abortion rights activist, but converted to Christianity in 1995 and shifted to anti-abortion activism. She claims lawyers Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, who filed the lawsuit that led to the Supreme Court, used her unfairly. "I said 'sure,' if it would help women I would do it," she said. "I didn't know what a Pandora's Box I was opening up." McCorvey has since been at the forefront of the national anti-abortion debate. "The people on the other side of the fence, I don't give them a whole lot of credence because a lot of them are like I was 15 years ago: in complete denial," she said. John Nugent, president of Planned Parenthood of Maryland, questioned the motivation and the tactics of those behind the campaign. He's seen people do what he calls "sidewalk counseling" where they approach someone as they are walking into the clinic. He has even invited the group to talk about reducing abortion with no success. "If they were interested in reducing abortions then they should be working with us to increase access to affordable birth control and comprehensive sex education rather than picketing," he said. "For them, birth control is as bad as an actual abortion. They don't want to come to the table at all to talk about preventing unwanted pregnancies." Dennis Donnelly, a member of Living Hope Church who is participating in 40 Days for Life, said the group does try to help post-abortive women, who, he said, deal with physical and mental trauma after the procedure. "That's the Christian way," he said. "We pray to end abortion, but women who decide to have an abortion, we still need to help them," he said. Jennifer Blasdell, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland, questioned the group's association with Terry, who called a Kansas obstetrician a mass murderer after he was killed in church this past May. "Randall Terry's hate speech after Dr. George Tiller was murdered in his church and his calls for violence on health-care reform are sickening and offensive," she said. "Any organization that invites Terry to serve as a guest speaker is directly associated with his calls for violence against abortion providers and their patients." Saturday's event starts at 10 a.m. at Severn Christian Church, 8132 New Cut Road. Free of charge, it runs until 1 p.m.
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