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A police officer arresting Father Fidelis Moscinski, CFR during the July 13 Red Rose RescueJake Hart

February 28, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Red Rose Rescue, a budding pro-life campaign inspired by Canadian activist Mary Wagner, is holding its first national conference this April in Bridgeton, Missouri. 

The Red Rose Rescues are something of a revival of successful tactics used during the early days of the pro-life movement, before the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) imposed harsh penalties on pro-lifers who save babies by physically blocking “access” to abortion facilities. 

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Red Rose Rescuers enter abortion facilities, offer the women inside roses, and refuse to leave even if they are threatened with arrest. There have been 16 Red Rose Rescues in the U.S. since 2017. All but one have resulted in the arrest of the peaceful pro-life activists. Charges have been dropped a number of times, notably in federal court; others have ended in trespassing convictions. The state of Michigan has treated rescuers the most harshly, jailing pro-lifers and even charging four with felony obstruction of officers. Michigan’s attorney general is a lesbian in a same-sex “marriage.”

Rescuers have ranged in age from 21 to 65. 

On March 24 and April 3, rescuers will again be on trial for their baby-saving efforts, this time in Morristown and Trenton, New Jersey. The judges in these cases have permitted a necessity defense, under which the pro-lifers admit that they did in fact break the law but argue it was necessary for them to do so to stop greater harm from happening. In both cases, the defense lawyers will seek to present expert testimony to show that abortion harms women. 

No Red Rose Rescuers have been charged under FACE, however.

They describe their campaign as “the Gospel of Life lived in words and deeds of merciful love.” 

Red Rose Rescuers stay in the place of execution in solidarity with their abandoned brothers and sisters performing a non-violent act of defense through their continued presence inside the killing centers remaining with them for as long as they can. 

The Rescuers stay with the abandoned unborn, as the manifestation of our love for them recognizing that unborn children, as members of the human family, have a right to be defended.  The rescuers will not leave the unwanted, but must be “taken away.”

Organizer Dr. Monica Migliorino Miller, author of Abandoned: The Untold Story of the Abortion Wars and head of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, told LifeSiteNews that she hopes this conference “will be a real opportunity for people to learn about Red Rose Rescues, to understand the spiritual principles of defending the unborn by entering the clinics and talking to the mothers.”

“We want to help pro-lifers see that the Red Rose Rescues are a real practical act of charity for those scheduled for execution, the defenseless unborn,” she said. “We hope to inspire pro-lifers go that extra step and offer this act of defense to the unborn about to be aborted, in loving their mothers, an act of defense to which each unborn child is entitled.”

Following her conviction in Canada last year for trespassing and interference with the operation of an abortion business, Mary Wagner said: “This conviction is nothing I am ashamed of. On the contrary, I am pleased that the court has found there is enough evidence to conclude that I interfered with the business of destroying helpless unborn children, who remain unprotected and abandoned by the courts.”

Renowned moral theologian Professor Janet Smith, the “godfather” of the pro-life movement Joseph Schiedler, and Red Rose Rescuer Father Fidelis Moscinski, CFR are some of the luminaries slated to speak at the conference.

The conference, of which LifeSiteNews is a sponsor, will be held the evening of Friday, April 24 through Saturday, April at 25 Embassy Suites Hotel St. Louis Airport.

The registration fee of $75 includes access to informative workshops, talks by exciting speakers, hors d'oeuvres Friday night, and breakfast and a boxed lunch Saturday. Room reservations will need to be made separately by calling the hotel and asking for reservations under “Citizens for a Pro-Life Society.”

“It's time for the pro-life movement to revisit the feasibility of the rescue movement and this conference is a great way–indeed the best way, right now, to do just that,” said Miller.

Register by clicking HERE.