Maggie DeWitte’s speech at Pulse Life Advocate’s Christmas Gala

A round of applause for Pulse Life Advocates and 50 years of Education & Advocacy! Watching this video [below], makes me so incredibly proud to be apart of this organization. What a legacy.

And now I would like you all to raise your glasses for a toast:  A toast to answered prayers, a toast to years and years of challenging work by this organization and many others across the country. A toast in celebration of the end of Roe v. Wade!!  Goodbye Roe … we will NOT miss you!

My name is Maggie DeWitte, and I am the Executive Director of Pulse Life Advocates. A sincere thank you for being here tonight.

Yes, we do have a lot to celebrate tonight. Many thought they would never see this day. It has been a long-fought battle and it is absolutely right and just that we celebrate the end of abortion law on a national level.

There’s still work to do

But I would not be doing my job if I didn’t give you the reality of where we are today in this assault against life.

The reality is, we still have abortion in our state. When Roe v. Wade was overturned this summer via the Dobbs case, abortion law returned to the individual states to determine how best to regulate, or in some states, completely eliminate abortion from their state. We still have work to do.

Many have heard me talk about a ‘fundamental right’ to abortion in our Iowa Constitution when unelected judges legislated from the bench and created law in 2018.

A mini Roe decision

Well, a week prior to the falling of the Roe decision, we had a mini-Roe decision in Iowa via the PP v Reynolds case. They declared that a 24-hour waiting period before having an abortion IS constitutional AND they corrected the 2018 decision and ruled that there is NO fundamental right to abortion in our constitution! What a victory that was!

As much as I would love to tell you that meant we outlawed abortion, it did not. But it does allow us to now go forward this next legislative session and pass laws to restrict and eventually eliminate abortion in our state… and you can bet that is exactly what we are going to do!

Our pro-life governor in action …

Additionally, our pro-life Governor Reynolds filed a motion to vacate the injunction against our heartbeat law that was passed in 2018 and the hearing took place last month. Possibly by this summer, we could have a ruling that would allow us to enforce our heartbeat law in Iowa.  

But we are NOT stopping with the heartbeat law, we are going to keep fighting until all babies are protected from the moment of conception and this next legislative session, we are going to introduce a life at conception bill!

While great strides are taking place in Iowa, we still have a federal government and a president that are doing everything in their power to codify Roe and make abortion rights a protection under the law. 

The last line of defense against Big Abortion

That is why groups like Pulse Life Advocates are so vital right now. We are the last line of defense against the endless attempts to destroy life. We are now seeing state and county attorneys across the country stating they will not enforce abortion law; we have city councils like the Des Moines city council, introducing proposals to not enforce abortion law in the city. 

We need to be there to defend life. And it is not just in the legislative arena. Our educational efforts are going to be needed now more than ever.

Abortion has been and continues to be an extremely divisive issue. And 50 years of abortion law, won’t suddenly change that divide. Changing hearts and minds are going to be needed in a new way that we have never seen before. 

Fear

I think the reason we saw so much anger and violence after the Roe decision is because people are fearful. They have bought the lie that abortion must be a part of our society. That women need abortion to fulfill their dreams and goals. That women can only get ahead and be equal to men if they have the right to kill their young. This brain washing is going to take time to undo. And it doesn’t help when we have the mainstream media and Hollywood elites lauding abortion every chance they get. One such actress recently calling abortion another word for mercy.

What’s next …

So, where do we go from here? Some have said to me after Roe fell, “the real work now begins…” well I take a little offense to that, because I have been working pretty darn hard these last 20 years in the pro-life movement!

But what is right about that statement is that there is work to be done, as I have repeated several times tonight, it is just a new kind of work. 

We need to help the Pregnancy Resource Centers and organizations helping women in need as more women seek out help. Pulse is helping in a tangible way in that regard. Less than two months ago, we were offered a new office space by a generous donor, Jim Sinclair. For those who came to our open house last month, you can see it is a beautiful space to do the work of creating a culture of life. Because the space was more than what we needed, we offered to have a group, called Mary’s Helping Hands join us in our space. We have some representatives from that organization here with us tonight- let’s give them a round of applause! They are boots on the ground helping provide material goods to women and families in need. It is a great partnership, and I can’t wait to see what is in store for us in the years to come. 

We also need to invest in the future of the pro-life movement – the next generation- especially those on college campus. Pulse decided to put our money where our mouth is, and we are financially helping one such young woman. Serena Hilton has been educated by Pulse throughout high school, into college at Iowa State to now being a FOCUS minister on a campus in Michigan. I have invited Serena to come and share what she is doing and the impact it is having.

Thank you, Serena!

[Serena Hilton talks]

Pulse Life Advocates is an Iowa pro-life leader

Pulse has been the leader in pro-life education. Our three newest projects are an addition to the webinar on The Holy Family we produced last year; we are relaunching it again this Advent and this time with a study guide that you can do within your family or small group setting.

Our second project is a video called, “How to Raise Pro-life Children,” where we have called upon families to give you all practical tips on how to raise your children to be pro-life.

And lastly, we are launching a prayer apostolate in which we will give you weekly updates on things that you can pray for us. We need your constant prayer in this spiritual battle. 

But we also need your support. There is so much we want to do; it literally keeps me up at night — thinking of all the ways we can spread the message of life. I humbly ask for your help and sincerely thank you for your continued prayers. God Bless!

[We need your financial support more than ever. Support our projects. Donate now. Thank-you!]