While Dems Complain, Pro-Lifers Make Real Effort To Aid Migrant Children
While stopping at a Texas respite center Saturday, 19 Democratic congressmen refused to aid pro-life volunteers unloading a semitrailer filled with supplies donated to support the facility’s massive population of destitute migrant children.
The Catholic Charities Humanitarian Respite Center was one of many stops for the congressmen on a lengthy visit to the southern border. Following a visit from Vice President Mike Pence one day earlier, it was something of an opportunity for Democrats to juxtapose themselves with Republicans — selflessly taking photographs with the children, handing out toys and holding a news conference.
The spectacle had, however, created challenges for another group visiting the facility: pro-life charity campaign Bottles2TheBorder.
Arriving Saturday morning with more than $120,000 in monetary donations and physical supplies — everything from diapers to baby formula to water — the volunteers found the road to the facility was closed due to the lawmakers’ arrival and news conference.
Frustrating but understandable, according to Abby Johnson, former Planned Parenthood director and founder of pro-life ministry And Then There Were None. That was, until the volunteers entered the facility.
“It got all the more frustrating when we walked in and saw they were holding this press conference, pandering to these people, and using them for political gain or just absurd photo-ops,” Johnson said. “They were getting these kids together, handing them these cheap toys and here you’ve got CNN, all these major outlets, there covering it.”
Invited to partner for the charitable effort by Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa, friend and founder of pro-life feminist organization New Wave Feminists, Johnson and ATTWN had run several Amazon registries for the donation of supplies.
A group of pro-life women are bringing water, baby bottles, and other supplies to asylum seekers at the border. @DestinyHDLR, founder of the pro-life organization New Wave Feminists, tells @EWTNews Nightly about the “Bottles at the Border” campaign: https://t.co/i4Sy5EOkFT pic.twitter.com/P61RJw4aYX
— EWTN News Nightly with Lauren Ashburn (@EWTNNewsNightly) July 9, 2019
The first registry sold out in a matter of two days. Before long, a semi-trailer and driver were donated and, only having enough supplies to fill half of the truck, Johnson set her organization to collecting more. In total, $65,000 worth of supplies was donated and an additional $75,000 in monetary donations was collected, according to Herndon-De La Rosa.
The fact that it had all arrived on the same day numerous Democrats supportive to the migrants’ cause were on location seemed like a sign.
Johnson was determined to make the most of the moment and proposed the volunteers request help from the Democrats and their staffers.
If they were there to help those destitute children and families, why not invite them to “put feet to the ground and do something for these immigrants?”
“They simply rolled their eyes at me, smirked and waved me off,” Johnson said. “They completely ignored us. Completely ignored our request for them to come and help us.”
The large political group, which included House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, Health Committee Chairman Anna Eshoo and other prominent House Democrats, had told Johnson they were on a tight schedule.
“Of course, that didn’t stop them from taking another 20 minutes to talk with the press,” Johnson said.
Johnson also wrote in a Fox News op-ed detailing the incident, that one representative, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, even “smugly” told the volunteers he would “send someone” as he passed their truck.
That help never came.
“It was poetic to see,” Herndon-De La Rosa said. “Here people are trying to do actual work, and we’re being shuffled away for a photo-op.”
“Wouldn’t that be a great photo-op for them to help us unload the truck? Take off your nice jackets, roll up your sleeves and get out there with us,” she continued. “These politicians are doing a lot of talking and a lot of picture taking, and we’re not seeing a lot of action. In fact, sometimes they are even getting in the way of actual action.”
Both Herndon-De La Rosa and Johnson were resolute, however, in saying that the crux of their story was not in the partisan underpinnings.
“The beauty of the Bottles2TheBorder campaign is that this is not political,” Herndon-De La Rosa said.
“My group actually has a ton of pro-life Democrats in it. So, we’re focusing on bridging that gap when it comes to politics — putting people over politics.”
Instead, Herndon-De La Rosa said the focus should remain on the work, on emphasizing this was not the first time pro-life Christians had come together to make a difference for those in need, while politicians quarreled and pandered in Washington.
In fact, Bottles2TheBorder alone had already made similar trips, all but putting to bed the “woefully inaccurate narrative” that pro-life Americans become uncaring after children leave the womb.
“If you look at the people who are at the border right now, it’s Catholic Charities. And I say that as somebody who’s agnostic,” Herndon-De La Rosa told The Western Journal. “It’s charities. It’s nuns. It’s pro-life people who are going there and supporting migrants right now.”
“If they knew anything at all about the pro-life movement, they’d know that we are the only movement that is truly caring for children after they are born,” Johnson said to The Western Journal. “The pro-life movement — this is what we’re about. It’s about helping moms and their babies. And that doesn’t just mean babies in the womb. That’s babies that have already been born.”
The Western Journal has reached out to the offices of all 19 House Democrats named by Johnson but has not yet received a response. We will update this article if and when we do.
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