Today it begins, our sixth annual “Twitcast” joining pro-life bloggers from near and far, who all had the good sense once again, to come in out of the cold during the annual March For Life, for this year's ProLifeCon, the “premiere conference for the online prolife community” hosted once again by the Family Research Council in Washington DC. During the event, this video clip provided a live feed of the proceedings. With its conclusion, you are now invited to view the pre-recording thereof. You can learn more at the FRC website, follow the magic hashtag on Twitter: #prolifecon, or follow yours truly at: twitter.com/manwithblackhat.
Below is the transcript of the Twitter feed sent out this morning. Items may be edited slightly for correction, especially when we had to look up some of the big words.
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We're ready to rock for this year's #prolifecon! We start in less than 10 minutes. Stay tuned …
8:23am
Welcome to #prolifecon! Our first speaker is Arina Grossu, Director, Center for Human Dignity, Family Research Council.8:31am
"Boy, do we have a star-studded lineup today!" #prolifecon
8:31am
"When we started ten years ago, Twitter didn't exist, and Facebook and YouTube were both one year old." #prolifecon
8:32am
"We now have pro-life majorities on both the House and the Senate." #prolifecon
8:33am
"We also have more pro-life women in Congress, despite claims of a 'war on women.'" #prolifecon
8:34am
"We find that the 18 to 29 year age group is the most pro-life of all age groups in the USA today." #prolifecon
8:35am
"Technology is on our side, including ultrasound. It's hard to say, 'That's not a baby.'" #prolifecon
8:36am
obamacareabortion.com #prolifecon
8:37am
"And so, we have technology and the truth on our side." #prolifecon
8:38am
Star Parker, President, Center for Urban Renewal and Education. #prolifecon
8:39am
"Prior to my conversion, I believed in the lies of the left. Then I realized there was something wrong with taking a life of a child." #prolifecon
8:40am
"I was in a little dark hole, but Christ found me." #prolifecon
8:41am
"In addition to running CURE, I write a nationally syndicated column." #prolifecon
8:43am
blackcommunitynews.com #prolifecon
8:43am
"We want the black community to know that God is with them, and has a plan for them." #prolifecon
8:45am
"We want the govt out of the welfare state, out of people's lives." #prolifecon
8:45am
"We want penalties in the Born Alive Infant Protection Act." #prolifecon
8:47am
Parker tells horrible stories of #Gosnell destroying babies out of the womb as they struggled for life. #prolifecon
8:50am
"My time is up. We must stop this holocaust!" #prolifecon
8:50am
Maria Cahill, Miss Delaware 2011. #prolifecon
8:51am
"During competition for Miss America, I was told to remain silence on my views." #prolifecon
8:52am
"I was praying to God, asking for a sign, to go to the March For Life as Miss Delaware. My being here is that sign." #prolifecon
8:53am
"There are people of all ages in the pro-life movement on social media." #prolifecon
8:55am
"Illuminate the truth. Illuminate the hope for today. Many believe we cannot eliminate abortion, but we eliminated slavery." #prolifecon
9:08am
Jenna Gassew & Dan Haley, Prayers for Shane. #prolifecon9:10am
"Our area of concern is a birth defect known as anencephaly. We carried him, knowing that he would not make it." #prolifecon
9:12am
anencephaly.info #prolifecon
9:14am
"We created a bucket list of things to do with Shane in the time he had left. We created a Facebook page 'Prayers For Shane.'" #prolifecon
9:15am
"We met parents all over the country who had children with this condition." #prolifecon
9:16am
A video from a smartphone was shown of Shane's birth, and what was said to be the first and only time he cried. #prolifecon
9:18am
"We cannot imagine not being able to hold and meet our child." #prolifecon
9:19am
"Nine out of ten children born with this condition are aborted." #prolifecon
9:20am
(Former) Senator Rick Santorum, Patriot Voices. #prolifecon
9:21am
"Karen and I have a little girl called Bella with Trisomy 18, and we wrote a book about her." #prolifecon
9:26am
"The truth may not win, maybe not initially, but it will always have its voice heard." #prolifecon
9:27am
"Before Bella, we thought we had the perfect family. That's not the way it works." #prolifecon
9:29am
Speaking to recent adverse decisions in the House: "You want to craft a bill that can actually pass. Yes, it's unfortunate." #prolifecon
9:32am
(The reference here is to a bill that would have banned abortions after twenty weeks into term. According to Brian Burch of CatholicVote: House Republicans decided at the last minute to postpone the vote. They say they need to work out some of the language in the bill. They want more time to resolve differences over reporting requirements for victims of rape. But the fact is, they should have worked out these problems weeks, even months ago. Americans did not elect the GOP to control both houses of Congress for mishaps like this." Another bill, the No Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Act, was expected to be passed by the House later today, and sent over to the Senate.)
Josh Duggar, Executive Director, Family Research Council Action, live via video feed at the National Mall. #prolifecon
9:35am
Senator Lindsey Graham, (R-South Carolina). #prolifecon
9:37am
"Happy New Year. Let it be said that this will be an important year for discussion and debate, which is important for America." #prolifecon
9:38am
"I welcome the opportunity to have a debate about the future of America in 2015." #prolifecon
9:39am
"All of us as human beings come into the world the same way. At 20 weeks, there are 6 countries that allow abortion on demand." #prolifecon
9:40am
"We're having a debate in 2015, about a decision made in 1973, with all the medical advances since then." #prolifecon
9:41am
"At 20 weeks, a doctor is required to use anesthesia to operate on the unborn child, since the child would feel pain." #prolifecon
9:42am
"If the word extreme is going to be used, aborting a child at 20 weeks is extreme. We have some soul searching to do." #prolifecon
9:45am
"I've always made exceptions for the health of the mother, rape, and incest. Some disagree, including the Pope." #prolifecon
9:46am
"Is America now in the right spot on this issue?" #prolifecon
9:47am
"I want to debate Sen Blumenthal's bill, that would ban state protections for the unborn. We're gonna have this debate." #prolifecon
9:48am
"If a Republican is pro-choice, we'll talk about something else. A pro-life Democrat will get the heck beat out of him." #prolifecon
9:50am
INTERMISSION #prolifecon
9:52am
Aaaaaaaand … we're back! #prolifecon
10:07am
Ann McElhinney, documentary film director & producer, Ann and Phelim Media LLC. #prolifecon 10:07am
Coming to us via Skype. #prolifecon
10:08am
"Kickstarter wouldn't allow us to use words like 'murder' so we went to …" indiegogo.com/projects/gosnell-movie #gosnell #prolifecon
10:10am
"We want to make #Gosnell a household name, as the greatest mass murderer in American history." #prolifecon
10:12am
facebook.com/gosnellmovie #prolifecon
10:13am
"One baby treated by #Gosnell was actually born alive. That testimony was applauded by the jury at his trial." #prolifecon
10:16am
Susan Gallucci, Maternity Home & Programs Director, The Northwest Center. #prolifecon
10:17am
A story is told of a young girl in a family way, who was forced out of her mother's home because she wouldn't have an abortion. #prolifecon
10:19am
After the child was born, the girl's mother became a proud grandmother, and the healing began after that. #prolifecon
10:20am
"She may have had nowhere else to go with her pregnancy, but she found the Northwest Center." #prolifecon
10:22am
Chelsea Patterson, Social Media Activist & Adoption Advocate. #prolifecon
10:25am
Chelsea is a blogger on the Patheos evangelical channel. #prolifecon
10:25am
"Why are you pro-life? Wouldn't it be easier if you were not?" #prolifecon
10:26am
A story was told of communist-era Romania, under a regime that encouraged large families. There were many abandoned children. #prolifecon
10:28am
"I grew up in a home where adoption is the norm, and being pro-life is the norm." #prolifecon
10:29am
"I am pro-life because I am a Christian because God is pro-life, and because it saved my life in Romania." #prolifecon
10:30am
"In New York City today, more black babies are aborted than are born alive. What of the mother, the brother, who lose them?" #prolifecon
10:32am
Returning now to the National Mall with Josh Duggar, Executive Director, Family Research Council Action. Quite the crowd by now. #prolifecon
10:35am
Interviewing two women who were conceived from rape, about the hard choices that are made. #prolifecon
10:36am
In spite of a bad web stream, "don't be afraid to use digital media." #prolifecon
10:38am
Charmaine Yoest, President & CEO of Americans United for Life, author of the book entitled "The Mother in the Middle." #prolifecon
10:39am
Ms Yoest appears via pre-recorded video, describing federal subsidies for abortion, 70% of Planned Parenthood's budget. #prolifecon
10:40am
"Planned Parenthood is Abortion, Inc." #prolifecon
10:40am
Ms Youst now appears live at the podium. #prolifecon
10:42am
A message for those who were discouraged by the current political climate, and of last night's State of the Union address. #prolifecon
10:43am
"You may be discouraged but our long term strategy is winning. While 'they' worry about millennials, we march with them." #prolifecon
10:45am
"Abortion clinics are closing because they fail to meet the most basic health and medical requirements. They cry foul." #prolifecon
10:46am
"From the time of the last national election, our role in social media has grown tremendously by now." #prolifecon
10:48am
"Get that information out there. You have the tools. PP has cut cancer screening in half, but their abortions are on the rise." #prolifecon
10:49am
"Social media is the perfect place to get stories out there. Numbers do not necessarily change hearts." #prolifecon
10:50am
"Abortion kills a baby and damages the mother, and we need to get that story out there, and destroy the myths about us." #prolifecon
10:51am
Roland Warren, President and CEO, CareNet. #prolifecon
10:52am
"Men need to be affirming and supportive to make the right decisions and choose life. The church is an instrument to that end." #prolifecon
10:54am
"I'm more about the social than the media. I'm more about the content than the container." #prolifecon
10:56am
"We have to be about the content. It's not only about saving the baby, but about raising the child." #prolifecon
10:57am
"85% of women having babies are unmarried. What does that say to us?" #prolifecon
10:58am
"The church cannot outsource saving the child and the family to the crisis pregnancy centers." #prolifecon
11:00am
"Christ had abundant life, and promises abundant life to us all." #prolifecon
11:00am
Tony Perkins, President, Family Research Council. #prolifecon
11:00am
Talking about "the devil in the details." #prolifecon
11:03am
"America is one of a handful of nations that allows abortion through the entire nine months of pregnancy." #prolifecon
11:04am
"We must work to take American taxpayers out of the abortion funding business." #prolifecon
11:05am
IMAGE: Jill Stanek receives the Digital Pro Life Pioneer Award from FRC President Tony Perkins. "I am honored to present an award to a pioneer in online pro-life activism, Jill Stanek." #prolifecon
11:06am
"Stanek witnessed unborn babies aborted and left to die in the hospital. She went public, and lost her job over it." #prolifecon
11:07am
Jill Stanek, JillStanek.com & StanekReport.com: "I am honored that FRC would give me this award as a pioneer." #prolifecon
11:09am
"Our online movement is one reason why the polls are trending in favor of being pro-life, especially since 2009." #prolifecon
11:11am
"On behalf of the little baby that I held, I accept this award." #prolifecon
11:12am
obamacareabortion.com #prolifecon
11:13am
Senator James Lankford (R-Oklahoma). #prolifecon
11:13am
"It all comes back to one thing: is this a child or not?" #prolifecon
11:16am
"In high school, I saw a chicken in an egg, and a child in the womb, and I could see that they were the same." #prolifecon
11:18am
"Encourage the next generation of volunteers to step in." #prolifecon
11:19am
"Walk along beside them. Help in that journey, that process." #prolifecon
11:20am
Chris Matthews to Lankford: "You're a very articulate spokesperson for your point of view." #prolifecon
11:22am
(Lankford later adds that it was over a year before Matthews invited him back on the show.)
Lankford tells the story of Hobby Lobby, of being forced to violate their convictions by providing insurance for abortion. #prolifecon
11:24am
"Keep pushing, keep telling stories. We need the help." #prolifecon
11:26am
Ms Grossu: "Pray that the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Bill will pass. We are going to fight for those children." #prolifecon
11:31am
And with that, the annual #prolifecon comes to an end. Now it's on to the #marchforlife2015! Aaaaaaaand … we're out!!!
11:32am
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Afterwords, this writer spoke to Dan Haley, the father of little Shane, about the many young parents who experience similar challenges with infants born with birth defects. A young lady recognized yours truly from the Solemn Christmas Midnight Mass at St John the Beloved, in the usual role of Master of Ceremonies. And there was also an opportunity to speak with blogger Chelsea Patterson, who admitted to actually having read man with black hat. That was a high point in itself, and not just because she's really, REALLY cute! But she is, though, don't you think?
Or don't you?
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