Pro-Lifers Arrested For Praying Outside Boehner’s Office

March 25, 2015 - 12:40 PM

By Brittany M. Hughes

(CNSNews.com) -- Capitol Hill police arrested seven pro-life protestors while they were praying outside the office of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Wednesday, including prominent pro-life activist and former nurse Jill Stanek.

The activists were protesting the Republican-controlled House’s failure to vote on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would have banned abortions after 20 weeks of gestation.

The House Republican leadership shelved the bill less than 24 hours before it was set to come up for a vote on Jan. 22 after some Republican congresswomen, led by Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.) and Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.), objected to the the rape and incest exception in the bill, which said a baby 20 weeks old or older could only be terminated if the the baby had been conceived by an act of rape or incest that had been reported to the appropriate alw enforcement agency.

In 2012, Ellmers had co-sponsored and voted for the D.C. Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act which banned abortions in the 20th week or later and had no rape or incest exception whatever. She also voted for the 2013 version of the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which included the same type of rape and incest exception that was in the bill the House leadership pulled in January.

Stanek, a nurse who formerly worked at Christ Hospital in Chicago, became involved in the pro-life movement 16 years ago after she held a live baby who had survived an abortion and was left to die afterwards.

“I’ve been in this movement for 16 years, from the moment I held this little aborted baby, and I’ve never felt convicted to be arrested,” Stanek explained during the protest on Wednesday.

“I’ve always felt my voice was well-heard, speaking and writing," she said. "But when this bill failed to be brought forward on Jan. 22, I was just so frustrated and disgusted with our Republican House leadership, that they would abandon these babies over political maneuvering.”

“I decided right then and there that I was willing to be arrested on behalf of this little baby that I held, and others like him,” she said.

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