30,000 expected for sixth Walk for Life West Coast

San Francisco, Calif., Jan 8, 2010 / 01:53 am

More than 30,000 pro-life activists are expected for the Sixth Annual Walk for Life West Coast on Jan. 23 in San Francisco. Undercover student investigator Lila Rose, former Planned Parenthood clinic director Abby Johnson, and 40 Days for Life director David Bereit will be among its speakers.

The Walk for Life begins with a rally at 11 a.m. at Justin Herman Plaza. The Walk begins at noon and proceeds along San Francisco’s waterfront.

Eva Muntean, co-chair of the Walk for Life West Coast, explained the motivation for the event.

"Abortion is wicked and hurts children, women and men -- our speakers this year directly address the huge financial and political clout of Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider and recipient of $350 million in tax dollars annually,” she said in a Jan. 6 press release.

Muntean explained that Johnson had walked away from her position at a Bryan/College Station, Texas Planned Parenthood abortion clinic because an abortion doctor asked her to hold the ultrasound probe and she witnessed a baby die in an abortion.

Rally speaker Lila Rose, a UCLA student, has made undercover videos of Planned Parenthood staffers apparently colluding in covering up statutory rape by not complying with mandatory reporting laws.

David Bereit’s 40 Days for Life campaign of national prayer, fasting and advocacy outside abortion clinics has witnessed the closing of five targeted abortion facilities. At least 26 clinic workers reportedly walked away from their jobs following local campaigns.

40 Days for Life claimed 200,000 participants in 50 U.S. states and three countries.

Bereit will receive the Walk’s Gianna Molla Award, named for a canonized Italian Catholic pediatrician who refused to abort her unborn baby when doctors said it was necessary to save her life. Molla died soon after giving birth to her daughter.

Rev. Clenard Childress, director of the group LEARN and BlackGenocide.org, a regular speaker at the Walk since its inauguration in 2005, will also speak at the rally.

Other speakers include Georgette Froney of Silent No More and San Diego-based evangelical pastor Jim Garlow.

The Walk for Life West Coast website is at http://walkforlifewc.com