Joe addresses the crowd at the Summer of Mercy 2.0
Twenty years ago, pro-life activists from across America met in Wichita, Kansas for the “Summer of Mercy.” A protest of late term abortionist George Tiller was the incentive for holding this gathering in Wichita, with pickets, marches, prayer vigils and rescues. Planned as a seven day event, it turned into seven weeks and spurred the growth of pro-life activism nationwide.
To commemorate the 1991 Summer of Mercy, and reinvigorate the movement, pro-lifers gathered in Germantown, Maryland the first week of August for “Summer of Mercy 2.0.” This time it was centered on late term abortionist LeRoy Carhart.
Carhart left his abortion center in Omaha, Nebraska, hoping to replace Tiller in Wichita, but Tiller’s family said no. He then tried to work in Indiana, but a law was quickly passed to prohibit abortions after 20 weeks. Finally, he found a small clinic in Germantown, Maryland where there is no restriction on performing late term abortions.
To show solidarity with the activists, I joined the “Summer of Mercy 2.0” on August 1 and 2 to pray with hundreds of pro-lifers and talk about the growing success of the movement, and to emphasize the need to renew our own dedication to the cause of saving unborn children from abortion.
Carhart’s abortion facility was closed the entire week that Summer of Mercy 2.0 events were planned, and as a result, organizers felt compelled to extend the prayer and public witness outside the facility into the following week. Twenty years after the first Summer of Mercy, pro-life activism is going strong.
