By Samantha Kamman, Abortion Columnist
On May 4, 2019, Focus on the Family hosted a historical pro-life event in Times Square. The event #AliveFromNewYork, was meant to celebrate the dignity of unborn human life by featuring a live 4D ultrasound of a baby in the womb. The child was Abby Johnson’s, the subject of the movie Unplanned, and between 10,000-20,000 people gathered in Times Square to hear her baby’s heartbeat.
The broadcaster of the event, Kevin McCullough, recalled how supporters of Planned Parenthood attempted to disrupt the pro-life gathering. McCullough recalled how the protesters showed up with obscene signs, flipping off pro-lifers as they chanted, “pro-life is a lie because all they want is women to die!” But then a silence fell over the crowd. As Johnson lay on an examination table in a medical unit behind the stage, “a quiet fell across the multiple blocks that was so deafening you could literally have heard a pin drop.”
In the middle of the country’s busiest intersection, a crowd watched in awe as they looked upon Johnson’s beautiful baby on the giant screens set up in Times Square. Despite attempts to quell the event from companies refusing to lease space to Focus on the Family, the group brought their own digital screens to celebrate the miracle of life.
The event included prominent speakers such as Alveda King, Civil Rights activist and niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who discussed her own abortion experience to the crowd, noting how she had once “believed very much the same as those who angrily shouted back at her.” After sharing the sound of her baby’s heartbeat with the people in Times Square, Johnson also appeared on stage to announce that “life is winning.”
Speaking on the image of her unborn child, Johnson said:
“This is a baby…this is a human being with a heartbeat, with its own DNA that is separate from my body. And this baby deserves to live.”
