After Democrat State Rep. Brian Sims live-streamed himself harassing an elderly pro-life sidewalk counselor and teenage girls praying outside a Philadelphia-based Planned Parenthood abortion clinic over the weekend, popular pro-life advocates banded together to spread the word about a response rally outside the same clinic set for Friday.
They probably weren’t expecting over 1,000 people to show up for the last-minute rally. But that’s exactly what happened.
The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, one of the speaker’s at the successful gathering, said he was humbled by the turnout. “Pro aborts could never do what we did today. They’d never get such an energetic and overwhelming response and attendance on such short notice, or any notice. Just like they’ll never hold a march as big as the March For Life. The pro-abortion movement is a sad and lethargic thing,” the prominent pro-life voice posted to Twitter.
One of the highlights of the day was from “Unplanned” author Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood executive turned pro-life advocate. Speaking to the energetic crowd, Johnson emphasized that both the mother and the child must always be treated with dignity.
“It is time to refuse to ‘choose.’ We will not choose between one or the other. We will respect both women and their children, and their femininity, and their reproduction, and their fertility. And we will continue to do it until clinics like this no longer exist, and every women who walks into a physician’s office is actually treated with love and respect and care,” she told the audience, mostly comprised of women.
Another moving moment came when prayer broke out for the unborn. As noted by Nate Madden of The Blaze, the prayer outside the clinic comes just days after Rep. Sims live-streamed himself harassing teen girls for praying outside that very clinic.
Sims was addressed directly by Walsh at the rally, too: “We are sending a message to bullies like Brian Sims. We will not be intimidated, we will not be silenced. If you try to shut us up, we are only going to get louder. If you try to shame us, we are only going to stand taller,” he told the crowd.
Though Sims was invited to attend the rally, he did not show.
Another memorable moment of the day came from Ashley Garecht, the mother of two of the teenage girls Sims bullied and attempted to dox.
“I am so grateful because we are here today to witness the tangible fruit of incredible effort. And I know, I know, that there are people who have been doing this work for decades and they are not always given the gift of seeing the tangible fruit of their work,” said Garecht.
“God is moving in incredible ways and we’re just along for the ride; we are standing on the side of angels,” she added.
Garecht and her husband have helped raise over $118,000 for the Pro-Life Union of Greater Philadelphia since Monday.
The rally also challenged a false narrative too often perpetrated by the Left and their mainstream media allies: the pro-life position is not one held by “the patriarchy”:
The impressive gathering was made possible by the pro-life movement teaming together and by individuals getting out and putting their feet in motion for what they believe in.