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August 21, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – This week’s episode of The Van Maren Show takes listeners into the pro-life movement with Mark Harrington, the leader of Created Equal. Harrington has been involved in varying degrees of the boots-on-the-ground pro-life movement, having spent over a decade working full-time to save babies in the final days of the Operation Rescue Movement. He then continued with the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform’s Genocide Awareness Project. 

Van Maren starts off with his favorite question, “How did you get started in the pro-life movement?” Harrington tells the story of coming to Christ at 28 and then meeting his wife, who was volunteering for a pregnancy resource center. It was her work with pregnant women and her showing him a photo of an aborted baby that really changed the direction of his life: “You know, it was one of those things that you kind of feel the Holy Spirit just gripping your heart. And that changed my life. I mean, it was that quick; it was that immediate that I knew, at that point, I had to do something to stop the killing.”

Harrington then dives into a brief overview of what Operation Rescue was – the largest divil disobedience movement in American history – and describes how he went from Operation Rescue to the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform to Created Equal. (Operation Rescue evolved into a pro-life organization run by veteran activist Troy Newman, who monitors abortion industry abuses.)

“I walked away from a good career, making good money – very stable in my career and so forth. But I knew there was more, and I was unsatisfied,” Harrington explained. 

Van Maren then shifts the conversation to what it is like to be a “family man” while being so involved in the pro-life movement. Harrington replied, “It’s been difficult, but it’s also been very rewarding for me and my family.” He talks about raising his children and how he and his wife chose to incorporate their kids at a young age into their activism.

“I think it was, overall, a good experience because they developed early on a very solid Christian worldview. They understood that life is much more not about them, but about others,” Harrington shared. 

When it comes to the pro-life movement and the political landscape, Harrington is more of a realist, stating, “you can make it illegal, but people are still going to want it somehow. So we’ve got a lot of work to do.” And that work looks mostly like connecting with people and changing hearts and minds. 

Wrapping up the conversation, Harrington explains that pro-lifers need to be willing to do what’s needed, not just what is simple. He founded Created Equal as an organization that will equip people with the abilities and resources to be the hands and feet of the pro-life movement.

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