For immediate release:  January 26, 2012

For more information:  Barth E. Bracy, Executive Director

Office: (401) 521-1860 / Mobile: (401) 225-8646

Occupiers Declare War on Pro-Life Movement

Providence, R.I.-Thursday, January 26, witnessed a chilling assault on civil speech in Rhode Island. Members of Occupy Providence, joined by members of Occupy Wall Street, marched to the Rhode Island State House from their camp in Burnside Park to disrupt the 39th Annual Pro-Life State House Rally organized by the Rhode Island State Right to Life Committee.

Roughly two-dozen Occupiers fanned out amongst the crowd of more than 150 pro-lifers -- joined by more than a dozen pro-life legislators -- who had gathered to commemorate the 54 million unborn babies who have lost their lives to legal abortion since 1973.

Once all their members had cleared through the security checkpoint, the Occupiers began jostling pro-life attendees, crowding the podium, holding up signs in the faces or over the heads of the scheduled pro-life speakers, heckling, and chanting.

The Occupiers prevented Rhode Island Right to Life Executive Director Barth E. Bracy from delivering the bulk of his keynote address, and would not even allow the Rev. Fr. Bernard Healey, executive director of the Rhode Island Catholic Conference, to lead a closing prayer.

According to Bracy, "The Occupiers claim to represent the 99%. Apparently they have missed the news that over half of Americans consider themselves pro-life. Like many people, I haven't yet been able to figure out exactly what the Occupiers stand for. Their actions today indicate that they stand for abortion and oppose the pro-life movement. Rather than follow the example of legitimate reform leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel, Aung San Suu Kyi, or of the 1986 People Power Movement of the Philippines, the Occupiers have adopted the thug-tactics of Benito Mussolini's Black Shirts."

It is a sobering reality that approximately 23% of Rhode Island pregnancies end in abortion. The Occupiers would do well to reflect on the fact that, like us, they are each part of the 77%, that is, those who have been spared the abortionist's knife. Even as we deplore the behavior of the hoodlums who disrupted our peaceful assembly, the Rhode Island State Right to Life Committee invites them to join us in putting an end to the slaughter.

About Rhode Island Right to Life: Rhode Island Right to Life was founded in 1970 with the mission to advocate for a state, nation and world in which the innocent lives of the unborn, the disabled, the elderly and the ill are valued by the citizenry and protected by civil law. RI Right to Life lobbies for legislation that advances the cause of the sanctity of human life at both the state and federal levels. RI Right to Life is the state affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee.

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P.O. Box 28285, Providence, RI 02908

(401) 521-1860 * Fax (401) 521-1876

www.rirtl.org