Anti-Abortion Rally At MLK's Grave Held By Catholic Pro-Life Group (VIDEO)

CORRECTION: The pro-life Freedom Ride event was organized and led by a multi-denominational group of protestors and advocates--not just Catholics. Secondly, Martin Luther King's niece, Alveda King, was a co-creator and leader of the Freedom Rides. Ms King is the African-American Outreach Coordinator for Priests for Life, the group that organized the rally.

Watch this exclusive video from the Catholic protests at Planned Parenthood in Birmingham, AL, and the anti-abortion rally at Dr. Martin Luther King's tomb in Atlanta. Share your thoughts by commenting below!

WATCH:

Video by Hunter Stuart

ATLANTA -- A Catholic anti-abortion group used the site of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s grave on Saturday for a large rally to protest against legalized abortion.

The group, Priests for Life, gathered together with dozens of supporters early Saturday morning at a Planned Parenthood facility in Birmingham, AL. (Photo to left: Priests For Life outside a Birmingham Planned Parenthood)

"Martin Luther King, Jr. was an advocate for the oppressed, and no one is more oppressed than the 52 million unborn children who have been killed in the womb," said Denis Wilde, the Associate Director of Priests for Life, and an Augustinian priest. "The womb is the most dangerous place to live."

Other speakers at the rally quoted Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence. One priest stated, "The Supreme Court has been the cause of extreme violence in this country."

Several of the anti-abortion protestors carried signs proclaiming "Abortion is the #1 killer of Blacks in America."

After hours of speeches advocating against abortion, the group boarded a bus emblazoned with the words "Pro Life Freedom Ride" and drove to MLK's tomb in Atlanta, 150 miles away.

The "Pro Life Freedom Ride" was a reference to the Freedom Rides of the 1960's, when civil rights activists rode interstate buses in the South to advocate for racial equality.

When the "Pro Life Freedom Ride" bus reached Atlanta, there was a group of pro-choice protestors from the groups SisterSong, SPARK, and SisterLove waiting there to meet them. The pro-choice groups chanted "Trust black women!" and "Can't Re-Write History!" through a megaphone.

"No one has the right to co-opt the legacy of Dr. King," Heidi Williamson of SisterSong said. "We are all benefactors, especially black women."

"I've studied civil rights, and I never heard Fannie Lou Hamer or Dr. King or Ella Baker or anyone try to take our rights away from us," a pro-choice activist named Etget told me.

The anti-abortion Catholic group was stopped by security when it attempted to lay a wreath on Dr. King's tomb.

Comments

[beingthebest]

11:23 PM on 08/01/2010

If you don't believe in abortion, please, don't have one. But no one has the right to turn another person into an incubator. By actions like this you prove to me one thing. You don't really have faith that your God will be the judge of right or wrong, you feel you have the right to be the judge. Some faith ya have there.

[angrypatriot22]

05:47 PM on 08/01/2010

It's irritating that these people believe it is murder before the baby can even survive outside the womb. Until it can, it's nothing more than a parasite.

[artgurrl]

01:33 AM on 08/01/2010

Martin Luther King was Pro-Planned Parent Hood. Catholics are against any kind of planned Parenthood whatsoever. These Catholics priests need to go home and repent and get the child molesters out of their churches and cathedrals before I ever take them seriously as a religion.

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/reverend-martin-luther-king-jr-4728.htm

[Ron Adam]

05:20 PM on 08/01/2010

Like the priest would care if you take them seriously someone who believes it OK to kill a baby.

[beingthebest]

11:19 PM on 08/01/2010

Yes, but take seriously someone who thinks it is ok to molest a child, heck if they get caught, just move them elsewhere to molest other children.

Morals indeed.

[artgurrl]

02:41 PM on 08/03/2010

And yet, the Catholic church has been one of the most murderous organizations through their killing of millions of women throughout their history. I guess that's o.k with you too. BTW, abortion isn't about killing a baby. No baby has ever been aborted. It's physically impossible.

[TheWorldBlowsUpTommorow]

09:32 PM on 07/31/2010

Can we get these idiots AWAY frm MLK?

[AZreb]

09:36 AM on 08/01/2010

No - they will attempt to co-opt anything that stops people from talking about the sins of the priests.

[KennebunkportIndependent]

07:01 PM on 08/01/2010

Absolutely true. This is why they continue to fight gay marriage and gays in their church. 'Any diversion from perversion' is their mantra.

[FlGlades]

03:18 PM on 07/31/2010

Another interesting fact is Planned Parenthood founder Maragret Sanger broke from the organization over Abortion. Maragret Sanger consider Abortion to be Murder, She was horified over this step and felt Planned Parenthood had gone to far...............What a tribute when you leader leaves you over abortion.........................I wonder if Hillary will give her Sanger award back now, since Maragret was anti Planned Parenthood in the end.

[FlGlades]

02:25 PM on 07/31/2010

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.”

[Jezreel]

12:53 AM on 08/01/2010

And, Alveda is absolutely wrong on this issue. Dr. King never once voiced an opinion on the right of women to control their own bodies. And I am certain that if he were alive today, he would defend their right to do so whether he agreed or disagreed with the abortion.

He would also vigorously dispute the claims made by Alveda and others radicals that abortion is the number one cause of deaths among African Americans.

The facts simply do not support their assertions.

According to statistics from a study published in May of 2010, most abortions occur among White women.

"Thirty percent of abortions occur to non-Hispanic black women, 36% to non-Hispanic white women, 25% to Hispanic women and 9% to women of other races."

Sources: http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/US-Abortion-Patients.pdf

http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html

[Ron Adam]

11:03 AM on 08/01/2010

These number mean nothing their are 10 times more whites then blacks so it would be higher .

[artgurrl]

01:35 AM on 08/01/2010

I don't believe her.

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/reverend-martin-luther-king-jr-4728.htm

[Jezreel]

08:19 PM on 08/01/2010

Thanks, Art for providing this very important link that arms us with the historical facts necessary to refuting the awful lie being perpetuated by people who claim to be speaking in the Name of Lord even as they desecrate the legacy of one of our very special gifts to humanity, in the person of our precious Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Those demagogues who selected the site our beloved Dr. King's grave to be used as a spring board for launching a vicious attack against ALL Black women who, because of Dr. King's leadership, have worked extraordinarily hard throughout our history here in America including during slavery, Jim Crow and the Prison Industrial Complex Era, to foment peace while simultaneously doing our very best to keep the Black family together, deserved to be condemned.

If I could fan you again, I would.

[FlGlades]

08:45 AM on 07/31/2010

Oh that was per Martin Luther Kings family......DR King said no its not your body, its the babies body!

[Wrongwaywillis]

08:45 AM on 07/31/2010

Martin Luther King was pro life for a reason, because abortion is murder is why he felt as he did. And just one question, why would one of the single greatest crusaders for civil rights feel so strongly about abortion, could it have been because like racism, abortion is wrong?

[Jezreel]

12:57 AM on 08/01/2010

Dr. King never expressed an opinion on abortions. They were not legal during his life time. He was a champion of the right to participatory democracy and self-determination.

He would have objected to what those nut jobs are doing - protesting at his grave site while proclaiming to speak in his name.

That is simply wrong. Period.

[Ron Adam]

01:30 AM on 08/01/2010

Trying to save a babies life in not being a nut job, abortion is being a nut job.

[FlGlades]

04:54 PM on 08/01/2010

Actually Martin did give an opinion to a family member that its the baby's body and not your body- per his niece

[Higgs Boson]

05:13 AM on 07/31/2010

America is crazy

[elan4444]

01:08 AM on 07/31/2010

Please. Just mind your own business. That is all we are asking. Since this priest will never experience pregnancy, he has no right to comment. My body, my choice.

[Jezreel]

01:00 AM on 08/01/2010

I agree. I think that focusing on ending pedaphilia would be a far better use of their time and energy.

[Ron Adam]

01:28 AM on 08/01/2010

No abortion is killing more babies then pedophilia ever would.

[artgurrl]

01:24 AM on 08/01/2010

AMEN to that!

[peterack]

05:47 PM on 07/30/2010

I wish there was more debate in the video as the young man who complained that the "religious right" did not want abortions but did not want to do anything else to help the babies. This is simpy not true. I would not, by the way, put the Roman Catholic Church as the Religious Right either, but that speaker clearly does not know about the organizations and charities which the RC church does support to help people.

[Higgs Boson]

05:12 AM on 07/31/2010

MLK would not approve of you forcing your views on to others

[AntigoneRisen]

03:38 AM on 07/30/2010

For crying out loud. The way people - from this group to Glenn Beck - keep invoking Martin Luther King, Jr for everything, it will be a full blown religion and he the Messiah before long. All sorts of things he didn't advocate for will be attributed to him.

[been2there]

10:14 PM on 07/29/2010

The do have the right to choose the venue they believe will be most effective, and the rest of us have the right to ignore them very, very loudly.

[FdeBear]

05:17 PM on 07/29/2010

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/reverend-martin-luther-king-jr-4728.htm

[ramal]

12:41 PM on 07/29/2010

I can think of no better reason to promote being Pro-Choice than this headline from today's HuffPo:

French Woman Admits Suffocating 8 Of Her Newborns, Hiding Them In Garden

[Dr Phillip DeKooch]

12:51 PM on 07/29/2010

Why would that be? Abortion is legal in France since 1975. A psycho that kills her own kids is just a disturbed individual.

[Igor13]

08:26 PM on 07/29/2010

Fanned for a great, great screen name!