Rose Day draws crowd to Capitol
Rose Day, the annual sanctity-of-life, antiabortion rally and outreach, draw the faithful from across the state to the State Capitol on Wednesday.
People presented their elected leaders with red roses to show their concern about sanctity-oflife issues. The roses symbolized the sanctity of the unborn, and by distributing the flowers to their legislators, Rose Day participants showed their legislators that anti-abortion legislation and legislation that promotes other sanctity-oflife issues is important to them.
The Most Rev. David Konderla, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulsa, led the opening prayer at the rally. Guest speakers included Gov. Mary Fallin and Alveda C. King, pastoral associate and director of Civil Rights for the Unborn, the African-American Outreach for Priests for Life, and niece of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Fallin thanked a bipartisan group of legislators for attending the rally as well as the members of the public who filled up the House and Senate chambers in anticipation of the special event.
She said she was married with a 3-year-old when she found out she was pregnant with her second child just as she was beginning her first campaign for public office in 1990. Fallin said someone told her the pregnancy would limit her success but she went on to win her first election to become state representative for District 85. In fact, she was 8 months pregnant on election night.
“For me, being pro-life is not just about signing a bill or running on that platform,” the governor told the crowd.
Fallin said flying in the face of the naysayer all those years ago, she went in to sign 20 “prolife bills to make us one of the most pro-life states in the nation.”
“God has a plan even though we don’t understand it all,” she said.
King told those gathered that her mother considered an aborting her in 1950 but the family pastor, the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr., known as “Daddy King” persuaded her against it. Alveda King said “Daddy King” was the father of her own dad, A.D. King and Martin Luther King Jr.
“He said ‘this baby is not a lump of flesh. This is my grandchild,’” Alveda King told the crowd.
She said she had several abortions as a young adult but repented after she became a born-again
Christian.
Alveda King urged those gathered to “keep going,” telling them to be encouraged about the anti-abortion movement in America.
“Good things are happening all over the country. How do we know that? Because the number of pregnancy centers outnumber the abortion clinics,” she said.
Meanwhile, before King and Fallin spoke, a Baptist leader was honored for his leadership in the anti-abortion movement in Oklahoma.
The Rev. Anthony Jordan, executive director-treasurer of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, was recognized for his commitment to promoting sanctity-of-life issues and for being instrumental in the increase in the Baptist convention’s crisis pregnancy centers across the state.
“It’s been a long battle but the battle is not yet over,” Jordan said, challenging the crowd.
“When they get ready to close the lid on my casket, I intend to be saying ‘save the babies.’