BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS) Invoking the memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement, anti-abortion clergy members and their supporters on Saturday (July 24) embarked on a “Pro-Life Freedom Ride” but were turned away from King’s tomb in Atlanta.
The group, organized by New York-based Priests For Life, held a prayer vigil at a Planned Parenthood clinic before making the three-hour drive to Atlanta, where they had planned to hold a service at King’s tomb.
King’s niece, Alveda King, directs African-American outreach for Priests for Life, and said she has “no doubt that if they were alive, my uncle Martin and my father A.D. would be with us on these Freedom Rides for the unborn.”
The Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, told a kick-off rally here that the group plans to fight for “equal protection for our youngest brothers and sisters.”
The anti-abortion movement, Pavone said, is a natural extension of the civil rights crusade King championed until his death in 1968 as they seek “nonviolence against the unborn.”
Pavone said they reach out to women contemplating abortion or who have had an abortion. “We are a movement that reaches out to those who are oppressed. Come to us, we will help you,” Pavone said.
“It’s not a matter of freedom of choice. It’s a matter of people who feel they have no freedom and no choice.”
When the bus-led caravan of about 50 cars arrived in Atlanta on Saturday, they were turned away from King’s tomb, organizers said, and instead prayed outside the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King preached.