HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - At one point, about 100 people gathered in the freezing breeze on the east side of the Madison County Courthouse in Huntsville Monday, Jan. 21, 2013, for the 14th annual Stand for Life.

The annual rally, which included state Rep. Jim Patterson, R, Madison; state Rep. Mac McCutcheon, R, Limestone and Madison; and state Sen. Shadrack McGill, R, Eighth District, is sponsored locally by Christian Coalition of Alabama, Alabama Alliance against Abortion, Christian Citizen Task Force of Whitesburg Baptist Church, Knights of Columbus and Huntsville Right to Life.

Alabama state Sen. Shadrack McGill addresses those gathered for the Huntsville Stand for Life 2013 on Monday, Jan. 21, 2013, on the east side of the Madison County Courthouse. (Kay Campbell / KCampbell@al.com)

Dianne Bentley, the wife of Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, a speaker at the rally in 2012 who had been billed as the 2013 keynote speaker, cancelled her appearance.

Those invited to take the microphone included 10 men and two women. The service included Bible scriptures urging the protection of life and 2013 goals for local pro-life organizations.

Among those goals, said state Sen. Shadrack McGill, is strengthening the state's definition of the beginning of life to state that life begins at conception, even if that conception occurs in a laboratory.

"We need to let physicians know: Any eggs that are fertilized need to be placed in a mother's womb," McGill said. "And another thing: People say it's a woman's body and she has a right to kill the life inside of her womb. But she can't ask the abortionist to kill her, too. Our laws protect you from your own self."

Father James Henderson, with his wife, Carol, and grandson, Aaron Scalf, listens to speakers during Huntsville's Stand for Life 2013 on Monday, Jan. 21, 2013. (Kay Campbell / KCampbell@al.com)

Father James Henderson, a retired U.S. Army colonel who directs the annual rally, said that the 2013 legislative goal for the Alabama Alliance against Abortion is to require the five free-standing women's clinics in Alabama that provide abortions to also be required to have a physician on staff with admitting privileges to a hospital near the clinic.

"That would cut out the fly-by-night, second class medical practitioners currently going around the abortion clinics," Henderson said.

Henderson also related how pro-life activists in Huntsville a few years ago worked to expose a local physician who was affiliated with a local women's clinic. Henderson said activitists picketed his main clinic to say that the physician also worked at the clinic where abortions were provided. The physician shortly afterwards resigned his position with the Huntsville clinic, which has since closed because of the difficulty of keeping a licensed physician.

Kelly Manley, the director of Huntsville Right to Life, said that among the 2013 goals for her group is urging the support for child care at Alabama's public universities to help support the women who do have babies.

Kelly Manley, executive director of Huntsville Right to Life, addresses the crowd during Stand for Life 2013, Monday, Jan. 21, 2013, on the east side of the Madison County Courthouse in Huntsville, Ala. (Kay Campbell / KCampbell@al.com)

"Women deserve better than abortion," Manley said. "Neither abortion nor the slavery of welfare are equal opportunities for women in America."

Manley ended her talk warning that she had a vial of holy water and to stand back if anyone found it offensive, a reference to the recent arrest of a pro-life demonstrator alleged to have squirted pro-choice demonstrators with a spray bottle filled with holy water.



Joyce Fecteau, who is charged with misdemeanor assault in that case, and her husband, Major Fecteau, attended the rally Monday just long enough for Major Fecteau to read a list of Bible scriptures urging the protection of life.

Mollie McConnell, at left, 10, and her cousin, Jack Flynn, 1, join others at Huntsville's Stand for Life 2013 Monday, Jan. 21, 2013, on the east side of the Madison County Courthouse in Huntsville, Ala. (Kay Campbell / KCampbell@al.com)

Signs in the crowd, which had dwindled to about 40 people by the end, included "Respect Religion Freedom.

The signs were passed out by representatives of the Knights of Columbus to defend the First Amendment, presumably a reference to the Catholic Church's equation of the requirement that health insurance plans offer contraceptive coverage to a violation of the church's prohibition of artificial birth control.

NOTE: Story updated Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013, to clarify statements by Father Henderson about the demonstrations directed at a physician some years ago.

For more Huntsville Times coverage of the abortion issue, go here: