53rd Walk for Life Highlights Pro-Life Progress, Future Legislation amid 5 degree temps

It was around 5°F on the Capitol steps when close to a thousand people gathered on the north side for the 53rd Annual Walk for Life. Numerous pro-life legislators spoke on the Capitol steps on Saturday morning, but they kept their comments brief due to the cold.

“I did some research on the way down from Norfolk. At five degrees, frostbite sets in after 30 minutes,” said Mike Flood. “The political rhetoric these days can be toxic. … We need this. We need your support. We need to go to bed at night knowing that you are out there. And you’re not about tearing people down, you’re about lifting babies and people up.”

The keynote speaker for both days was Nick Freitas, a Green Beret and former member of the Virginia House of Delegates (2016–2026). He was impressed with the number of Nebraska families with multiple children whom he met over the weekend.

“In Virginia, we spent a lot of time trying to make pro-life voters through discussion and argumentation,” Freitas said. “In Nebraska, you skip all of that and just literally make more pro-life voters. If you’ve got five kids in Nebraska, you’re apparently a slacker. I’m starting to think that the greatest thing for the pro-life movement is long winters.”

Pro-Life Legislative Progress

The event spanned two days, with a Gala on Friday evening followed by the rally and further remarks at the Cornhusker Marriott on Saturday. Friday’s Gala was a sold-out event, with close to 600 guests filling the ballroom at the Cornhusker Marriott to capacity. Last year’s Gala, which featured actor Jim Cavizel, was held at the Embassy Suites in La Vista to accommodate a larger crowd, and Nebraska Right to Life director Sandy Danek told me that they may have to consider holding the event at a similarly large venue next year to accommodate more guests.

On Friday evening, emcee Rev. Timothy Danek held a Q&A with State Senator Rick Holdcroft (District 46) on pro-life legislation he has before the legislature.

These include expanding access to “baby boxes” at fire stations for anonymous infant surrender (LB214), incorporating the science of human embryonic and fetal development in the womb into K-12 science curricula (LB213), and new regulations on physicians providing abortion-inducing drugs (LB512). These include requiring a doctor to administer a sonogram or ultrasound to check for an ectopic pregnancy, as well as providing a follow-up visit.

“A lot of times after you’ve had the miscarriage with pills, you think it’s over with, but that baby continues to develop in the fallopian tubes and rupture,” Holdcroft said. “That bill doesn’t change the 12-week abortion limit, but it does require these abortion facilities to treat these women a little bit better than they do with a sonogram and a follow-up.”

The Nebraska legislature will have over 500 bills to consider in this short session, with a little over 100 of those being designated “priority bills.” Holdcroft plans to make LB512 his priority bill for the session, and while he does not expect Democrats to support even modest regulations on abortion procedures in Nebraska, it was written in such a way to make it difficult to object to.

Countering the Narratives

After Saturday’s rally, guests gathered at the Cornhusker Marriott to engage with local pro-life organizations and hear from a handful of speakers. One was Sarah Louise Peterson, the Nebraska Program Leader for Sidewalk Advocates for Life. She shared some numbers with guests after the rally at the Cornhusker Marriott.

Since its inception in 2014, Sidewalk Advocates for Life has helped save 25,000 unborn children from abortion, roughly the size of Fremont. She also shared specific details about the abortion clinic in Bellevue formerly run by Leroy Carhart.

“For about the last seven months, every month one or two weeks a month they’re closed. Their business has gone way down,” Peterson said. “They had three abortionists coming rotating to commit the abortions at the Bellevue facility. One of those has quit.”

Nick Freitas spoke about the importance of engaging in good-faith arguments against abortion with people who disagree.

“The moment you present evidence which destroys their argument, well, now you’re just mean—you’re a bigot, you’re a racist, you’re a sexist, you’re a threat to democracy, you’re a Nazi. How are you supposed to argue with that?” Freitas said. “Simply by asking questions … And even if they’re mad at other people who are watching, the madder they get, the calmer I get, the better the points I make, the more I’m convincing people on the other side. And that’s a worthwhile conversation.”

In a post-Roe world, the whole conversation about abortion has changed, particularly with inflammatory rhetoric about coat hangers and back alleys if the 1973 Supreme Court decision were overturned.

“The further we get away from Roe v. Wade and the fear-mongering that went on with that the more we’ll be able to advance pro-life bills,” Holdcroft said. “Because the threats that we heard about women not being able to get health care and dying in alleys, that’s all dying off because it’s not happening.”