By Schuyler Mack
Dr. Alveda King spoke in the ballroom of the Hughes-Trigg Student Center Tuesday evening to a crowd of around 150 people. Dr. King is an inspirational leader and charismatic speaker.
Opening the evening was a fifteen-person gospel ensemble called The Voices of Inspiration Gospel Choir. As Dr. King pointed out in her opening address, “They had soul!”
The evening was hosted by SMU Mustangs for Life, an on campus pro-life organization. Vice President of the Mustangs for Life, Camille McCarthy introduced Dr. King. She stated her many accomplishments including being a best selling author.
The speaker was raised in a Baptist family; her father was a preacher at a local church. From a young age King was taught acceptance from her father. She stated while referencing her fathers teachings, “We are all human beings and are designed to love one another.”
In 1983 King became a self proclaimed ‘born again’ after having a secret abortion. After which she began to share her testimony, and rode with the pro-life freedom riders. She went on to show two video clippings about eugenics and the harms of abortion.
Dr. King carries on her uncle’s mission to raise awareness that the abortion industry is discriminatory in trying to control minority groups. After the videos she opened the stage to a question and answer segment.
A young lady close to the stage asked Dr. King “What kind of harm does abortion cause women?” To that King responded, abortion could cause mental and physical damage such as certain cancers.
Another woman asked, “What do you think will out rule abortion once and for all?” King replied cleverly by saying we need to make abortion something so unthinkable, and offer wonderful health care options. The lecture was a cohesive address about how abortion and the pro-life movement is a civil rights movement.
SMU Mustangs for Life chair Collette Marchesseault commented, “King is trying to show this isn’t a fanatical group trying to fight against women, but a group fighting for the right to life of an individual.”
