The Great America Show - November 17, 2023


VOICES FOR THE UNBORN


Episode Stats

Length

34 minutes

Words per Minute

166.25919

Word Count

5,667

Sentence Count

338

Misogynist Sentences

4

Hate Speech Sentences

14


Summary

Pro-life activist Mark Houck and founder of the organization 40 Days For Life, Sean Carney, join host Lou Dobbs on the Great America Show to discuss the FBI raid of a pro-life abortion clinic in Philadelphia, PA in 2017.


Transcript

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00:01:14.940 Hello, everybody. I'm Lou Dobbs and welcome to The Great America Show. Great to have you with us
00:01:22.680 today. FBI Director Christopher Wray back on Capitol Hill this week testifying alongside
00:01:28.360 the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Wray was asked about our
00:01:34.620 southern border that's being overrun by millions of illegals from everywhere, it seems. But most
00:01:41.400 importantly, he was asked specifically about terrorists infiltrating our southern border,
00:01:46.860 terrorists who mean to do great harm to America and Americans. Here is Congressman August Pflueger
00:01:53.440 of Texas grilling Wray and getting this rather chilling and absurd answer from the Director of the FBI.
00:02:01.280 Are there people that match the terror watch list that were apprehended by CBP that the FBI and other
00:02:08.380 agencies are searching for in the United States? There are certainly individuals who are the subject
00:02:15.900 of terrorism investigations that we are searching for. Are there not there people? To me, I guess the
00:02:21.540 distinction I'm drawing is, well, there's obviously a lot of focus on the watch list itself.
00:02:28.540 One of the things that, and I've tried to be clear in my testimony here this morning, one of the areas
00:02:33.000 that we are of concern is individuals who once hear information later comes in. Are there people
00:02:39.800 that you don't know where they are that the FBI is searching for today? Yes or no? Yes. Right from
00:02:46.300 the mouth of the Director of the FBI, there are terrorists, by the way, he should know right now
00:02:51.240 who came through that border that the FBI is actually looking for. His answer is absolutely
00:02:57.940 inexplicably inexplicable. But no matter, he's the man in charge, and he's either lying to Congress
00:03:03.740 or is so stupid, too stupid to be in that job. President Trump's legal team has formally filed
00:03:11.460 for a mistrial in his New York civil fraud case against the Trump Organization. In a 30-page
00:03:17.380 filing, Trump's attorneys say Marxist Judge Arthur Ingeron and Clerk Allison Greenfield have tainted
00:03:25.060 the proceedings with their hatred of President Trump. They said a mistrial is the only way to
00:03:30.320 quote, salvage what is left of the rule of law, end quote. In other legal news, Hunter Biden is back.
00:03:37.820 He's looking now to subpoena President Trump and former Attorney General Bill Barr, claiming bias in
00:03:44.480 his gun charge case. Hunter's attorneys asked the judge presiding over his criminal gun case
00:03:50.060 to authorize subpoenas for President Trump, for the former Attorney General and two other Trump
00:03:56.060 administration officials. It seems Hunter, who has had a lifelong problem with accountability for
00:04:02.800 himself, is now looking to pin the blame squarely for his criminality on others. Hunter this week,
00:04:09.820 with more bad news, House Oversight, Judiciary and Ways and Means Committees subpoenaing
00:04:14.640 Hollywood super attorney and Democrat donor Kevin Morris, who paid off Hunter Biden's tax debts.
00:04:21.820 Morris reportedly loaned millions of dollars to Biden to help him pay back taxes and pay off his
00:04:27.660 legal bills and China debt. And now, turning to our guests. Last year, in a politically motivated
00:04:34.980 persecution, the FBI staged a guns-drawn raid of 40 Days for Life participant Mark Houck for exercising
00:04:44.000 his pro-life free speech rights in front of a Philadelphia abortion facility, he and his 12-year-old
00:04:50.500 son. Earlier this year, a federal jury handed the FBI and the Biden Department of Justice a humiliating
00:04:58.460 defeat, exonerating Mark of all charges. Our guests today are pro-life activist Mark Houck and also the
00:05:06.900 founder of the organization 40 Days for Life, Sean Carney. Mark and Sean with us to take up this
00:05:12.340 fascinating story. I know it's a tough story for you, Mark. Let's start with your view of what
00:05:17.280 happened that day and why. If you're talking about the incident that occurred back on October 13th,
00:05:24.000 2021, right? Right. That's the day I was with my son in Philadelphia. And for 20 years, your audience
00:05:31.980 should know I've been going every Wednesday to pray in front of an abortion clinic in Philadelphia.
00:05:38.260 You know, as part of 40 Days for Life and being a part of those campaigns, you know, we're there
00:05:43.720 all year. And so my son in 2021 was part of that experience with me. And on that particular day,
00:05:52.600 my son was being harassed and badgered by a volunteer escort for Planned Parenthood. Now,
00:05:59.180 of course, I've met this man. I've known this man for 20 years. My son knew this man. Nonetheless,
00:06:05.080 he was very aggressive and would not relent so much so that I had to get involved. There was a
00:06:12.620 shove on the sidewalk of Philadelphia, which was not a big deal in the state of Pennsylvania
00:06:17.880 or in the city of Philadelphia, for that matter. Happens every weekend at the Philadelphia Eagles
00:06:22.580 game. But nonetheless, I was put in a private criminal complaint, which was quickly dismissed
00:06:29.860 by the PA state court in April of 2022. Five days later, Lou, I was served a target letter from
00:06:38.480 the Department of Justice saying that was a target of a federal grand jury investigation.
00:06:44.020 And then, of course, Dobbs is overturned five months, six months later. Actually, it was only three
00:06:50.840 months later. But six months later, I was raided at my home as a result of an indictment against the
00:06:58.480 Faced Act. And, of course, that raid was international news. And I put us into a trial
00:07:04.260 where we were facing 11 years in prison, $350,000 in fines.
00:07:08.580 And at that point, you called in Sean, correct?
00:07:12.620 Well, we had been working with Voyage for Life and their legal team for a while, even prior to when
00:07:18.760 the first incident occurred that I mentioned, you know, Matt Britton, who's counsel for Voyage for
00:07:24.640 Life, was there with us to talk us through that. And then Thomas More Society got involved at the
00:07:31.060 recommendation of 40 Days for Life. And Thomas More took over the legal battle that was the federal
00:07:37.380 case. But then since the Catholic organization, that's right. Well, yeah, they more or less. But
00:07:45.060 they but since that acquittal, 40 Days for Life has has been involved in the lawsuit against the DOJ.
00:07:52.480 Well, Sean, and what did you do? And and as you're watching this unfold as the country, I guess the
00:08:01.000 issue is, as Mark said, the world, this was just such an absurd story that this would move from a shove to
00:08:10.320 keep a man from interfering with his 12 year old son, which it didn't sound like much of a shove.
00:08:16.740 He just simply said, this is it. Your reaction when you had the particulars?
00:08:23.140 Yeah, I mean, there's just nothing here. And like Mark said, this is this is Philly. This is every
00:08:29.100 Dallas Cowboy Philadelphia Eagle game ever played ever, whether it's here in Philly.
00:08:34.640 local police don't press charges. Local DA doesn't press charges. Then it goes away. Mark gets this
00:08:41.860 target letter from the DOJ and our lawyer and another lawyer write a letter to the DOJ as Mark's
00:08:48.820 counsel saying, hey, he'll turn himself in. This is a big deal. That went ignored for months. And it was
00:08:57.320 like, well, as the end of that, you know, they got busy and then they showed up at his house at seven
00:09:01.540 o'clock in the morning and and raided with with 20 agents and and long guns. And it's just like,
00:09:09.800 how did we get here? And I think Mark's case is is an extreme case that that frankly and sadly,
00:09:15.960 we've seen, you know, with 40 Days for Life because we hold peaceful vigils around the world that in and
00:09:21.660 of its nature is controversial. Half the people clap and say way to go and half the people give you the
00:09:26.820 middle finger and don't want you out there. We we understand that. But we've never had a problem
00:09:31.160 with the DOJ. We've worked very closely and very well with them through through W, through Obama,
00:09:37.360 through Trump and even through the start of of Biden. And then, as Mark said, the overturning of
00:09:43.120 Roe at one point, Lou, we went through a stretch where we got one to two inquiries per week from the
00:09:51.360 FBI at our different locations. And when I say inquiry, these are like stay at home moms or retired
00:09:57.360 folks like on the street, just praying peacefully, law abiding. And the FBI wants to meet with them.
00:10:04.200 They don't want them to have a lawyer. They ask them what they're doing. They just start asking
00:10:07.660 questions. So it's one of the reasons we've expanded our legal arm. But this harassment and
00:10:13.520 the blatant bigotry we've seen from from what happened with with them targeting Catholics,
00:10:18.960 the DOJ targeting Catholics with the DOJ targeting pro-lifers, which Mark is is the face of. There
00:10:25.460 are many more. It's absurd. And I think what's really cool about Mark's story is they offered him
00:10:31.840 a deal. And on, you know, January 6th at five thirty in the afternoon, many people would have taken that
00:10:38.840 deal. He didn't because he knew that it would be hurtful for for all Americans. Well, good for you.
00:10:45.080 And Mark, your family, what it's been put through, what you've been put through is to me, it is
00:10:53.380 it's just stomach churning because whether you're religious and that's the foundation of your belief
00:11:00.040 in the right to life, whether you are just simply aware of the demographics and the national interest
00:11:09.000 and your own. And that's the foundation of your belief in the right to life. It all comes together.
00:11:16.600 And there is a madness on the land as far as I'm concerned. And I want to talk about this a bit
00:11:21.960 where we have we have seen such a callous and indifferent and in my judgment, immoral
00:11:30.940 and unethical and irrational response in this this fight between life and, quote unquote,
00:11:39.500 abortion rights, reproductive rights. It's to me, reproductive rights is one of the strangest
00:11:45.900 juxtapositions of words that I've ever heard. And I won't even bore you with military intelligence.
00:11:54.380 The fact is that this country is now seeing something approaching and these are at best
00:12:01.980 estimates, but they're the most apparently knowledgeable estimates about 70 million abortions
00:12:08.380 in this country. At the same time, concurrently from 73 till now, we're talking about approaching that
00:12:17.760 number of illegal immigrants. We are talking about a different replacement theory. We are replacing
00:12:26.560 the young lives of these children with illegal immigrants from every culture, every belief system
00:12:34.560 imaginable. And we wonder why we have a crisis in this country of both confidence and patriotism and
00:12:43.120 a willingness to go back to the idea that we will assimilate our immigrants and we will be one people.
00:12:54.800 We're far from it. I want to take that up when we come back, get your thoughts on all of that
00:12:59.520 and what is driving both forces, the secular and the religious positions pro-right, pro-life. We'll be right back.
00:13:13.120 We're back. We're talking with Mark Houck and Sean Carney. And I just want to start,
00:13:22.800 if I may, Mark, by saying that your resolve and your commitment to right to life is, I think,
00:13:33.760 without question, remarkable and certainly inspirational to us all. Give us a sense of what
00:13:40.000 motivates you and what do you see motivate others in the right to life movement.
00:13:45.680 Sure. Well, again, 20 years I've been at it and it begins with faith initially. It's a question of
00:13:55.040 faith as it regards to duty and justice, right? When we talk about the virtue of justice, we have a duty
00:14:03.520 under God and we have a duty to our fellow man. And so when we talk about the preborn child, of course,
00:14:09.360 it's the greatest evil in our country, our world, when children are being killed without a voice.
00:14:18.560 So we have a primordial call there to engage in that battle, to defend and speak up for those who can't.
00:14:25.200 So, look, this is fundamental to the Judeo-Christian ethic where we would reach out and intervene and
00:14:34.320 intercede and lay our lives down for those that need our help. It's right out of Scripture, you know,
00:14:43.120 rescue those who are being dragged to the slaughter. So, look, this is why we go. And this is why I go.
00:14:49.360 And this is why I was taking my son and initiating my son, because I want him to go. I want him to go
00:14:55.040 be a part of it. And of course, you know, we've been a part and Sean knows this as 40 days of life,
00:15:00.080 hundreds of thousands of lives saved. And so once you, you know, you save a life, there's this,
00:15:05.600 this deep desire to continue to do such. And of course, there's a great gift that is to you when
00:15:11.200 you've experienced that as, as a human being. So, you know, that's why I go, that's why I feel called.
00:15:16.640 And, and that's why I will continue to go no matter what, even, even, you know,
00:15:21.520 while they took that away from me during the trial, I couldn't go to pray. You know,
00:15:25.680 we can still do something, we can still pray and fast and, and do something, even though we're not
00:15:30.000 at the abortuary, we can, we can continue to stay engaged that way. And that word was obituary.
00:15:38.480 Well said. And we, and let's go to Sean to, to what drives your organization.
00:15:45.200 And I, I love the fact that you put in your, in your title of your organization,
00:15:52.880 precisely what you mean. We do the same thing here, where we talk about great America.
00:15:57.760 I don't want anybody to misunderstand where we stand when it comes to the United States and to,
00:16:04.480 to all Americans. Give us a sense of what you're experiencing. Are you experiencing growth?
00:16:09.920 Is there enthusiasm for an awakening about the right to life and the dark forces that motivate,
00:16:17.040 in my judgment, in my view, the other side of this fundamental division in our country?
00:16:24.880 Yeah, we are seeing huge growth, particularly since the overturning of Roe.
00:16:30.080 And Lou, what I'm assuming you're alluding to is we're in a weird place.
00:16:35.280 I mean, Bill Clinton, when he reigned for president, after being a pro-life governor,
00:16:39.840 they said, well, you have to be pro-abortion. So he came up with the unfortunately brilliant
00:16:43.920 phrase of, I want it to be safe, legal, and rare. And everybody kind of fawned. And he basically gave
00:16:50.080 nice people permission to support abortion. That's a joke now. I mean, just in the last two years,
00:16:57.840 it really started with Cuomo lighting up the Empire State Building in 2019,
00:17:01.920 when we basically started embracing infanticide with Governor Northam and Governor Cuomo.
00:17:07.200 But once Roe was overturned, this pounding the table, paying for employees to fly to have an
00:17:14.000 abortion, the FDA deregulating abortion pills, the military paying for for women to travel to have
00:17:20.640 abortion, abortion at 40 weeks, abortion like in Ohio, minor can have an abortion with no parental
00:17:26.400 consent. These things that would have been unheard of that Planned Parenthood wasn't talking about
00:17:31.120 five years ago is just now this basic standard political position where we're going to deny
00:17:38.080 health care to the baby girl who survives the abortion. This is unheard of. And I think it's
00:17:43.920 really good for the pro-life movement, honestly, because so many on the left had the comfort of
00:17:49.040 Roe, the blanket of Roe v. Wade. They didn't have to articulate it. And once that left and it goes back
00:17:55.360 to the states and you have to talk about. So you're recognized under the Constitution in Texas, Florida,
00:18:02.240 Tennessee and 20 other states, but not in California, New York or Illinois. And, you know,
00:18:10.560 we saw an increase in the number of 40 days for life cities in the US. We're in 1600 cities in 64
00:18:18.000 countries. But the United States is our largest presence. And we're based here and we focus on the
00:18:23.360 US first. And the number of volunteers who came forward after the overturning a Roe was so
00:18:29.200 encouraging. And I know it doesn't seem that way, but I think we've even seen encouraging things
00:18:34.400 politically. It doesn't look like that on the surface because we can't wait to hear this show.
00:18:39.520 I'm going to talk you off the ledge, Lou. So, you know, the reality is that Roe's overturned,
00:18:45.680 we had all these trigger laws that were just ready to go. Right. And as a result,
00:18:50.160 the pro-life movement was far more prepared. So right now we have 23 states that are essentially
00:18:55.120 abortion free or close to being abortion free, or they highly regulate abortion.
00:19:01.360 That's since Roe fell. There's only been seven states, including Ohio. They were the seventh that
00:19:09.120 have implemented laws that protect abortion. Now you watch TV, you're like, you're crazy. It's not,
00:19:16.880 it's not three to one. It's, you know, 50 to one, the other direction. And that's just not the case.
00:19:22.160 What is the case is what you're talking about, which is the rhetoric has gone insane. I think
00:19:27.040 the Republicans have been useless in handling this issue if we're going to talk about that. But as far
00:19:32.720 as the grassroots where you have things like 40 days for life and you have these network of pregnancy
00:19:38.560 resource centers that outnumber abortion providers five to one, that grassroots work was done for decades
00:19:44.800 leading into the overturning of Roe. And it's, it's focused on, on the woman because no one grows up
00:19:51.680 wanting an abortion. No one grows up wanting to work in an abortion clinic either. And so when you focus
00:19:57.600 on the hearts and minds, you know, we've closed, uh, uh, over 150 abortion facilities, including the one
00:20:06.640 where our headquarters is in, in Texas. Um, this is market driven. We've closed five in Ohio. We've
00:20:13.520 closed over a dozen in California. Our largest presence for these vigils is New York, New Jersey,
00:20:19.360 California. Uh, the, the more liberal the places, the more we thrive. And I think that should be a sign
00:20:24.960 of hope for people who think everybody just has their mind made up and, and it's, there's no point in
00:20:29.840 talking about it. You know, I want to talk to you, Mark, about the church, uh, the Catholic church,
00:20:35.680 uh, and how much support they give you, how big a deal is the right to life still with the Catholic
00:20:44.000 church? Because as an outsider to the Catholic church, it seems to me that much has been eroded,
00:20:49.920 uh, that, uh, that there has been a, a wave of, uh, uh, liberalism is the way I would describe it,
00:20:59.280 uh, in the church that, uh, it is disheartening, frankly, uh, for those of us who are watching this,
00:21:06.880 this issue. Well, look, I, I run a nonprofit men's ministry and just like 40 days for life, we are,
00:21:14.960 we are within the body of Christ, but, but, you know, we're not, we're not funded by the,
00:21:18.960 by the church, you know, the 40 days for life, the King's men, my ministry, we're not, you know,
00:21:23.760 we're not given funds, uh, and I don't want to speak for Sean, but, you know, we, we run our own
00:21:28.080 apostolate. We have that freedom. We have, it gives us a lot of freedom as lay people to not be beholden
00:21:33.680 to, you know, bureaucratic oversight and, uh, and not have to have, um, you know, some sort of, um, leash on us.
00:21:42.100 So that's the great news when you're fighting evil, you know, you want to be creative. You want to,
00:21:45.960 you want to have courage. And, and unfortunately there's not a lot of moral courage Lou coming
00:21:50.760 from the church in the United States. This is why Ohio, uh, just caved to issue one, because
00:21:57.000 the church got on board with it the last three months telling them, you know, don't, you know,
00:22:01.520 don't vote for this, say no to issue one, but you can't erase 30 decades of silence. And unfortunately,
00:22:08.020 Lou, the church has been very silent. Um, there's been some great champions, Fulton Sheen,
00:22:12.520 it's been some John Paul too, right? Of course, great champions for life, but in the church,
00:22:17.400 you know, the Catholics are primarily responsible for the culture of death, you know, with the largest
00:22:22.320 denomination in the U S. So in 1973, guess what? You know, we had the largest voice and, um, sadly
00:22:30.280 that, that did really, uh, equate to, uh, stopping that. And of course it continued to move in politicians
00:22:36.880 that are in name only that would call themselves Catholic, even, you know, uh, father Drinan,
00:22:42.800 who served in Congress in Massachusetts, priest serving in Congress voted for abortion laws,
00:22:50.000 you know? So look, we, we've had a big mess, a big problem in, in the church United States. And,
00:22:55.800 you know, it's in the presence of evil. I believe that, uh, our silence will convict us on our judgment
00:23:01.640 day. So thankfully Sean and I are not their judges. Uh, you know, we have our own judges and
00:23:06.820 we have to just fulfill that call of God in our lives. So I don't know if that answers your
00:23:10.680 question, but I think it gives us a good sense. And I do think it also expresses at the same time,
00:23:18.820 uh, the complexities that are being dealt with in our society and whether it be with the Catholic
00:23:24.120 church, whether it be with, uh, the role of some even evangelical leaders, uh, who have stepped
00:23:30.780 back rather than forward on issues. Uh, we all want to bring a heart to it, but we also have to
00:23:38.400 bring rationality and, uh, our, our sense of what is fundamentally right or wrong, irrespective where
00:23:45.380 we get our value structure from. Uh, we're going to come right back to you, Sean, uh, and, uh, get your
00:23:51.020 thoughts. We're talking, uh, with the two of the most extraordinary folks, and in my opinion, uh, in the
00:23:57.840 right to life movement in this country. Uh, and as we, uh, have them here, that's also our way of
00:24:03.280 saying thank you, uh, to them and to their organizations. Uh, we'll be right back. Stay
00:24:09.080 with us. All right, we're back with Sean and Mark and, uh, Sean, I just said, uh, we went to break,
00:24:21.720 uh, that I wanted to turn to you to get your sense of the political forces at work here, uh, and
00:24:27.760 exactly, uh, your perspective, uh, as a right to life leader, um, about what our Congress is doing,
00:24:36.400 uh, what the evangelical churches are doing, um, and what take, uh, take, if you will, the temperature
00:24:43.380 of the movement, uh, and what is required to, to make this, uh, this movement, uh, even more
00:24:51.320 successful. Yeah. I, I, I think a quick summary is that the people inside the pro-life movement
00:24:57.840 working at the grassroots were prepared for the overturning of Roe. Uh, the Republicans were not.
00:25:03.140 I get the sense that many, uh, you know, were sitting on their couch, uh, that, that June day
00:25:07.960 in, in 2022 and somebody ran in and said they overturned Roe. And, you know, the, the Republicans
00:25:13.060 were like, great, you know, because it's been a very faithful and loyal constituency. They haven't
00:25:19.540 been able to articulate abortion. I get the sense that they're terrified. It's going to come up.
00:25:23.460 Uh, now you have these referendums like in Kansas and Ohio. I still think those are knee-jerk
00:25:28.660 reactions. Uh, I'm a pro-life leader. I would have needed three lawyers in Kansas to figure out,
00:25:34.360 do I vote yes or no? I can't figure this thing out. Um, it was very confusing. They tied COVID in
00:25:39.140 with, you know, you're gonna have to wear a mask if you support it. It was just crazy as it was crazy
00:25:44.240 and confusing in Ohio. I like the idea of reversing it and pro-lifers doing referendums
00:25:50.720 and setting the tone and also being the yes, uh, on the ballot. I think that would be advantageous.
00:25:57.180 I think it would be aggressive. The heartbeat bills that went through, which were by the way,
00:26:02.100 invented in Ohio, they just couldn't pass it. But the heartbeat bills that have spread across the
00:26:06.040 country get wide support from liberal Democrats because they always include, especially here in Texas,
00:26:12.920 a, a, uh, financial support for the women when they choose life. And you are just not going to
00:26:20.240 find a Democrat in America that says, I will not give a single mother money from the government.
00:26:24.860 You're, you're not going to find those. And we hope not. We hope not. Well, we'd definitely find
00:26:30.500 some. Who are we kidding? But it's an easy win. It's when the baby has a heartbeat, uh, you know,
00:26:37.400 abortion is illegal. And I don't know why that's a great starting point. Obviously we want no abortions
00:26:42.900 but, uh, this whole notion of a 15 week ban is somehow that's going to motivate people. Number
00:26:48.260 one, it won't convert anyone from being, you know, supporting abortion to saying, Oh, 15 weeks,
00:26:54.060 the baby can't feel anything. I'm good. It's not going to win anybody over when they wanted it 40
00:26:58.400 weeks. It's also not going to win pro-life people over who are, you know, have the ultrasounds of
00:27:03.460 their own kids at 15 weeks. So I think the strategy is wrong, but Lou, honestly, it's just,
00:27:09.600 if they're scurrying around, they don't know what to do. And, and when you do that, you,
00:27:12.960 you lose elections. You look at, you look at the pro-life governors in 2022 who won handedly
00:27:18.560 DeSantis, Abbott, and Kemp. They all owned the life issue. They didn't apologize. They had
00:27:25.480 heartbeat bills and, uh, and they won. And so I think that that needs to be, uh, you know,
00:27:32.620 part of the strategy and you have the evangelicals, you have the Catholics. And when you mentioned,
00:27:37.640 of course the moral authority of the Catholic church has been so eroded, that's a perfect word,
00:27:43.080 uh, but not on this issue. Uh, I am shocked and I'm grateful, but 40 days for life is allowed in
00:27:50.180 every diocese. We have never been kicked out of a diocese. And I don't care if you're selling snow
00:27:54.660 cones and you're giving away barbecue. It's, you're going to get kicked out of a diocese. It's just
00:27:58.820 play the numbers. That's the way it works. And, and 40 days for life has been embraced, uh,
00:28:03.820 by, by the U S bishops. And I think we see these pockets, particularly in the South where
00:28:09.540 Catholicism is booming growing up in East Texas, living in Houston. Now I've constantly hearing
00:28:16.080 abortion addressed with love and with reason from the pulpit. I've never had a time in my life where
00:28:22.120 I'm like, Oh, the priest don't care or nobody has a moral backbone. I've been very spoiled as a
00:28:26.960 Catholic. But when you look at young Catholics, the vocations in Tennessee, Alabama, Florida,
00:28:34.320 the Carolinas, uh, Arkansas, Texas, uh, the, the vocations are going through the roof
00:28:40.880 in the Southern part of the United States. And it's, it's very encouraging.
00:28:44.960 Here's, here's a problem that I personally bothers me a lot. And that is the Republican party.
00:28:51.180 And I'm talking about nationally. I'm talking about on Capitol Hill, the Senate and the Congress
00:28:55.820 are retreating from the right to life. Yes. They are retreating from abortion and the genius,
00:29:02.780 the genius, uh, savant, uh, consultants are trying to instill just as much, um, uh, jelly in their
00:29:14.800 spines as they possibly can by saying there are all these clever ways to be cute, nuanced, and by the
00:29:21.040 way, push it to the periphery of conscious thought across the country. And that's what concerns me.
00:29:28.560 The Republicans have the opportunity to be straightforward and honest about what is virtue
00:29:34.880 and what is sin, what is right, and what is wrong. And to be at the same time humanitarian
00:29:41.760 and understanding these are human issues that we have to deal with intelligently, sensitively,
00:29:47.360 and effectively, uh, particularly with the young people who are most often, uh, the victims of the,
00:29:54.720 uh, of both the, the far left and its insistence on quote unquote reproductive rights, uh, and, uh,
00:30:02.880 the churches and the forces of good in this country. They're trying to blur it all, obfuscate rather than
00:30:08.960 clarify when what we need is illumination. Uh, we always give our guests the final word here,
00:30:15.920 and I'm going to turn to each of you for, if you would, uh, uh, a few quick concluding thoughts,
00:30:21.360 uh, and let me start, if I may Mark with you. Sure. Well, just to build off what you're saying,
00:30:27.680 you know, we need common sense and we need people, uh, in both parties to, to be thinking about,
00:30:34.560 um, the dignity of the human person and where I think the church gets it right is in the dignity
00:30:39.440 of the human person. Well, maybe Sean and I might disagree on how the church has responded
00:30:43.280 in the last 40 years. Um, the church is right on the life issue. Uh, the teachings of the church
00:30:50.000 is right on the life issue. And so I think whether you're a politician, you know, community organizer,
00:30:56.400 or just dad at home, um, we need to just have that fundamental understanding that the dignity of
00:31:04.320 the human person begins, uh, at, at conception, right. At the moment of conception. And so,
00:31:09.760 and everything flows from there, all decisions, mother Teresa would have said this, Fulton Sheen
00:31:14.880 would have said this, John Paul too, would have said this, that everything, uh, will flow from
00:31:20.240 there. You will be right on these issues. If a politician is wrong, it's like, it's like a mother
00:31:25.440 or a father of seven. I have seven children. I think Sean has eight children. Like, you know,
00:31:29.200 if you're good to seven or six of them, but you beat one of them, does that make you a good father,
00:31:33.440 a good husband, a good, uh, a good mom or a good, uh, you know, mother? Of course not. Of course not.
00:31:39.200 And that's just it. When it comes to this issue, if we get the life issue wrong,
00:31:44.160 we're not going to be right on the other issues. It's just, it's just not going to flow that way.
00:31:48.000 So I think that that's what would be my, my closing sentiment.
00:31:51.200 Well, thank you very much for that. Sean.
00:31:54.240 Yeah. I just want your listeners to be encouraged, you know, and, and Mark and I are,
00:31:59.760 Mark's family is suing the DOJ, you know, to protect all Americans. And we need to keep perspective.
00:32:06.560 And when it comes to the life issue, we've only done this one other time. We've only had the Supreme
00:32:11.040 Court dehumanize a segment of our entire population one other time. And that was Dred Scott, where they
00:32:17.360 dehumanize blacks. And then the second time was, was Roe v. Wade, uh, where they dehumanize the
00:32:23.040 unborn. And we didn't vote on this. Women didn't vote on this. None of us voted on this. This was an
00:32:28.480 all male Supreme Court that gave us Roe v. Wade that was stuck in 1973 science. And I think
00:32:35.120 politically moving forward, we need to be proud of our Supreme Court for dragging us out of this
00:32:40.560 1973 science. Why did they overturn Roe? You know, ask people, have they ever read Alito's opinion?
00:32:47.120 It is a beautiful, uh, modern document that shows how barbaric Roe v. Wade was. And these people,
00:32:55.760 history is a harsh judge as we saw in 2020. Um, and we need to be on the right side of history
00:33:03.200 with this. So, uh, you know, as bad as things are getting politically when it comes to abortion,
00:33:08.480 I think the long game is one of hope. I think it's one that we will win because of science and
00:33:14.400 because of common sense. And, and I think in the end, uh, that will win out over time.
00:33:20.640 God help us make it so. Uh, we appreciate all that you're both of you were doing. Uh, Mark,
00:33:26.880 Sean, uh, we appreciate you sharing your thoughts with this audience. I hope you will come back and do so
00:33:31.680 many times again, as we focus on this issue, uh, from now on, on this, uh, on this great America
00:33:39.120 show. Thank you gentlemen for being with us. God bless you. Thanks. Thanks to Mark and Sean. Thanks
00:33:45.680 for everybody working for the right for life. And thank you everybody for being here today. Please
00:33:50.880 join us here tomorrow, each and every day. Follow me on Twitter and truth social at Lou Dobbs on Facebook
00:33:56.400 and Instagram at Lou Dobbs tonight and check out Lou Dobbs.com. Thank you, everybody. God bless you and may God bless America.