‘Every life is precious in His image’

Tennessee Right to Life event is a cause for celebration

By Dan McWilliams

A gathering of 400 heard a keynote talk from a pro-life Knoxville attorney and received legislative updates on life issues at the annual Celebrate Life Banquet on Sept. 30.

The event at Bridgewater Place in West Knoxville is the primary fundraiser for the Knox County chapter of Tennessee Right to Life.

Many East Tennessee Catholics were among those attending the banquet, which counted the Diocese of Knoxville and area parishes and parishioners among its many sponsors. Several Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation were also at the event.

Carol Zimmerman, president of the board of the Knox County TRL chapter, welcomed the large audience before the meal was served and the program began.

“We are celebrating life in Tennessee, where abortion is illegal. Since 2022, we are celebrating over 30,000 babies who have been saved, and moms and dads don’t have to live with the pain and suffering of abortion,” she said. “Thanks be to God for using Tennessee Right to Life and the precious people in this room. Thank you, sponsors. We couldn’t do this without you. … Over 30,000 babies thank you.”

Tomi Robb, the keynoter, spoke on the topic “Endowed by Our Creator: The Worldview of Life.” Ms. Robb is a native of Gallatin, Tenn., and is a 2021 graduate of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville College of Law. She is a media spokesperson for TRL and helps the organization create informational materials, and she is a volunteer with both Deeper Still, a Knoxville-based ministry that holds retreats to help women and men find healing from abortion, and 40 Days for Life.

Angel Brewer, executive director of the Knox County chapter and a parishioner of Holy Ghost in Knoxville, and attorney Will Brewer, the state TRL legal counsel, legislative liaison, and a parishioner of St. John Neumann in Farragut, also spoke.

Father Bo Beaty, associate pastor of St. John Neumann, gave the invocation.

“Heavenly Father, we gather before you this evening with grateful hearts, united in our commitment to honor and defend the sacred gift of human life,” Father Beaty prayed. “We thank you for the precious dignity that you bestow on every person created in your image and your likeness, from the first moment of conception to natural death. Open our eyes to see your presence in the most vulnerable among us and strengthen our resolve to be voices for the voiceless.

“Bless all those who dedicate themselves to the cause of life, the mothers and fathers who choose life in difficult circumstances, the advocates who speak truth with courage and compassion, the caregivers who serve with loving hands, and all who work to build a culture that cherishes every human life. Grant us wisdom in our efforts, charity in our words, and perseverance in our mission. We also ask you to bless all those who have worked to make this banquet tonight possible and to bless this food we are about to receive and the hands that have prepared it. May it nourish our bodies as we continue your sacred work. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.”

Miracle Weber, a member of Holy Ghost, sang the national anthem before Mr. Brewer introduced local and state legislators and other supporters of life attending the banquet.

Those attending included U.S. Rep. John Rose, who is a 2026 candidate for Tennessee governor; state Reps. Justin Lafferty, Jason Zachary, Lowell Russell, and Elaine Davis; Anderson County mayor Terry Frank; Knox County commissioner Rhonda Lee; Knox County mayoral candidate Betsy Henderson; Knox County GOP secretary Barry Beeler; West Knox Republicans Club president Gary Loe; state TRL president Stacy Dunn, who attended with her husband, former state Rep. Bill Dunn; state TRL executive director Daniel Breeden; Oregon Right to Life board member Emily Harfouche; and Knox County sheriff candidate Mike Davis; and from the Diocese of Knoxville, vice chancellor Paul Simoneau, St. Mary-Athens pastor Father Christopher Manning, Holy Ghost pastor Father John Orr, St. Joseph the Worker pastor Father Julius Abuh, and Father Beaty.

Mr. Brewer complimented Ms. Harfouche.

“Thank you to her for that work. If it’s hard in Tennessee, I can’t imagine how hard it is in Oregon,” he said.

Mr. Brewer also asked those who staff or volunteer at crisis pregnancy centers to stand as well.

“Whether you are elected or a community leader or hoping to be elected or are staff or a volunteer for pregnancy centers, thank you so much for the grassroots work that you all do day in and day out,” he said. “We gratefully appreciate it, and we are glad that you are here.”

The pro-life supermajority in the Tennessee legislature is friendly to Mr. Brewer, he said.

“The folks in this room, the representatives and the senators who come here every year, year in and year out, are the ones who welcome me into their office, allow me to hang my coat on their coat rack,” he continued. “They are always the first ones to offer to sponsor or bring forth pro-life legislation, and that is so important, so, please, before you leave tonight, give them a pat on the back or a handshake and thank them for the work they do in Nashville.”

Listening to young leaders

Mrs. Brewer introduced the local chapter’s high-school oratory and art contest winners, who along with other entrants could focus on the topics of euthanasia, abortion, stem cell research, or infanticide.

Abbi Floyd, a homeschooled 11th-grader from Sevierville, won the art contest with her depiction of a pregnant woman looking in a mirror that reflects her born baby. With her art set up at TRL’s display at the recent Anderson County Fair, the Knox County chapter won a first-place ribbon.

“Stacy and Carol and I are always talking about looking behind us to say, ‘Is there anybody young following us? Is there anybody coming up behind us?’ Well, we don’t have to look behind us today. We just have to look in front of us,” Mrs. Brewer said. “Abbi is the daughter of Brie and Ryan Floyd, and we’re very proud of them as parents for raising this beautiful young lady, and we’re very proud of Abbi.”

The winner of the oratory contest, Helen Liulevicius, a senior at Knoxville Catholic High School at the time of her contest entry and now a freshman at Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina, presented her more than 6-minute speech on assisted suicide via video at the banquet. She is the daughter of Kathleen and Vejas Liulevicius of St. John Neumann Parish.

“It’s very powerful. This is the next horizon for us: the end of life. It’s in many states already and it’s coming, and we’re already having to fight it,” Mrs. Brewer said.

Helen also won the state TRL oratory contest in Nashville in May and advanced to the national contest in Kansas City during the summer and placed second in the United States.

Mrs. Brewer also announced a Hometown Hero Award given by the TRL chapter in the spring to art teacher Heather Reynolds of Concord Christian School.

“She has shown exemplary leadership in teaching her children this issue and not only asks and encourages her children to get involved but she makes a unit out of it and teaches them about this cause,” Mrs. Brewer said.

‘That was the big test’

Before providing legislative updates on life issues going through the Tennessee General Assembly in Nashville, Mr. Brewer said that non-election years for state office like 2025 often have “controversial hot-button bills that we might be opposed to” introduced. “This is a year of defense,” he said.

After the Dobbs decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022, state Republicans in the winter 2023 legislative session took a disappointing direction on life issues, Mr. Brewer said, as many who “we had endorsed and vouched for their entire elective tenure turned against us and tried to weaken our pro-life laws, and it was a battle. … We were able to fight back those efforts and maintain the strongest pro-life law in the country. That was the big test.”

In the 2024 election year, “they backed off a little bit,” Mr. Brewer said, although he added that one state lawmaker from Knox County “tried to add a multitude of exceptions to make abortion almost on demand. We were able to combat that once again, and our pro-life law stays intact.”

Mr. Brewer also addressed what he called the “tricky issue” of in vitro fertilization, noting that a state senator from Knox County has sponsored a bill to create a statutory right to IVF and contraception.

“This is an issue that in the past Tennessee Right to Life has not waded in on,” he said.

That was before an IVF facility in Alabama had its frozen embryos destroyed by a patient who breached security and the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that “yes, those embryos are life and therefore should be treated with the same dignity and respect as any other human life … which is a viewpoint that everybody in this room can get behind,” Mr. Brewer said.

“Our intent is to regulate the IVF industry so that these babies cannot be disposed of, killed off, thrown in the dumpster at will,” he added.

Mr. Brewer quoted a doctor who said that IVF embryos in Tennessee are disposed of by mothers and doctors 90 percent of the time if genetic testing shows an abnormality, with embryos also being disposed of if families cannot afford the storage costs for them.

TRL “fought that bill,” Mr. Brewer said. “We tried behind the scenes to amend it, to make it better, to create regulations, but that bill passed” unanimously in the Senate and 54-46 in the House. “Our effort in next year’s session is to come back to that bill and either revoke it completely or amend it so that it creates the dignity and respect that those embryos deserve,” he added.

IVF is “a highly technical and highly medical issue” that is “hard to debate,” Mr. Brewer acknowledged.

The state TRL office worked with Gov. Bill Lee’s office to make sure that a $20 million allocation two years ago for pregnancy resource centers as part of the Strong Families initiative was maintained, the Knoxville attorney said, thanking Gov. Lee and the House and Senate for backing it.

“We hope that $20 million is the floor. We want that number to increase every year,” Mr. Brewer said. “The proposal two years ago was $100 million, and I would have taken that, but we’ll deal with $20 million for now.”

State Rep. Gino Bulso has introduced a measure to strengthen Tennessee’s law prohibiting abortion pills from being shipped to the state from other states or nations, Mr. Brewer said.

“There are hardly any consequences for violating either the federal or the state law,” he said, “so Rep. Bulso created a bill to really add teeth, to add civil-lawsuit liability, increase the statute of limitations, increase the money damages that you can get if you are shipped an abortion pill from out of state. We supported that wholeheartedly. It passed the Senate easily. It is still in the process in the House. It has passed the House judiciary committees.”

The bill “needs to get on the House floor and governor’s desk,” Mr. Brewer noted. “This is the next front line: the abortion pill.”

Mr. Brewer closed by mentioning the late Brian Harris, state TRL president from 1997 to 2020, who died in August, as well as conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA who was assassinated on Sept. 10.

“(Mr. Harris) was a friend to many of us in this room. He was a mentor to me. He died at the age of 57, and he had so many other years left to give to this cause,” Mr. Brewer said. “But with the life he was given by the good Lord, he came into this state and revolutionized Tennessee Right to Life, the state organization. He laid the groundwork, ran the campaign, and got us past the Amendment 1 finish line in 2014, which nobody thought was possible, but we were able to create respect for life in our state constitution. He did that with a vision and an effort and a zeal that many of us in this room were a part of and party to, and he will be greatly missed.”

The Dobbs decision was a “big battle” win for the cause of life, Mr. Brewer said, “but we also kicked a gigantic hornet’s nest, and those hornets are buzzing. I ask you, get involved.”

He again requested crisis pregnancy center staff and volunteers to stand.

“Talk to these folks. These folks are on the front lines day in and day out,” Mr. Brewer said. “They are talking to these women. They are giving them the resources that they need to take care of their babies when they are frightened and don’t know where to turn. They’re handing out diapers, formula, and baby clothes, and they are doing it across the state, and they are doing an amazing job. They are saving lives and evangelizing in the process, and they are doing the Lord’s work.

“This battle is still raging. We have not won. We are far from winning. As many abortion pills as are coming into this state day in and day out, we have not won. There are abortion-minded women in Bristol, Tenn., who can drive five minutes to Bristol, Va., and get an abortion. There are people in Memphis who can drive a few hours to Carbondale, Ill., and get an abortion and make it back in one night without so much as a hotel stay. We have not won this war.”

‘The pursuit of virtue’

Ms. Robb quoted the Declaration of Independence at the start of her talk.

“What is the line that immediately precedes ‘we hold these truths to be self-evident’?” she asked, “It says, ‘A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.’ Meaning what comes next are the reasons we must separate, found a new nation, built upon the principles we hold.

“‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ Then they built a nation meant to secure those rights. The pursuit of happiness in the minds of the Founders involved the pursuit of virtue. Somewhere along the way, we lost that. We lost it so completely that in 1973, our Supreme Court gave us Roe v. Wade. In 1992, they gave us Planned Parenthood v. Casey.”

Abortion is “the intentional pursuit of the death of an unborn child. It is always that, and it is never anything other than that,” Ms. Robb said.

Alluding to the title of her talk, she said “when I ask your thoughts on abortion, I’m really asking you something more. I’m asking your worldview. I’m asking what you think life is, what you think it’s for, and where you get that answer. The biblical answer that our life comes from God, that it bears His image, and that understanding what that means is what life is for, is what our Founders would have called the pursuit of virtue, the pursuit of what makes men happy.”

Ms. Robb cited the Christian roots of America.

“The Declaration of Independence gave us the philosophy of our nation, and the Constitution gave it its structure,” she said. “John Adams famously said, ‘Our Constitution was made only for a moral and a religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.’ A nation that does not believe that our life comes from God cannot function properly under our Constitution. James Madison said, ‘We have staked the whole future of American civilization upon our capacity to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.’”

Ms. Robb made several references to neonatal specialist Dr. Robin Pierucci, who worked with an expectant mother who was told by a genetic counselor that her baby, Aurora, “at 16 weeks had a severe heart defect and would not survive pregnancy.”

But the baby, “Roe,” was born at 38 weeks and two days.

“Roe spent 58 days in the NICU, had three open-heart surgeries, and today is a smiling 3-year-old girl,” Ms. Robb said to a round of applause. “Her mother says the future we were never promised wakes up every morning and greets each new day with a smile. Why was her mother told with such certainty and authority that her baby had no chance for life, when that was never true? Why is this story not unique?

“Dr. Pierucci has an answer for that. She says it’s because prenatal testing is the road to death. She says it has its face planted in a culture of death. Does that sound shocking?”

St. John Paul II “warned of the same thing” in Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) in 1995, Ms. Robb said, quoting the Holy Father from section 14 of the encyclical.

“He said ‘prenatal diagnosis, which presents no moral objections if carried out in order to identify the medical treatment’ for a child in the womb ‘all too often becomes an opportunity for proposing and procuring an abortion. This is eugenic abortion, justified in public opinion on the basis of a mentality … which accepts life only under certain conditions and rejects it when it is affected by any limitation, handicap, or illness.’”

God “personally and individually crafted every one of us, and Scripture tells us over and over how intimately involved God is with life in the womb,” Ms. Robb said. “God cares deeply about life, and simply by saying every life is precious and made in His image, and we should honor it in every way that we can, we would already be on the right side of all these things without any of this knowledge. The only knowledge we ever needed was a knowledge of God, which is what our Founders expected us to pursue, that it would be a tradition with which we would never break.”

“Biblical principle will always land you on the right side of reality and truth, and the more advancements we make, the more we should be reminded that our Creator was always right about the things He made, and because our Founders looked to Him, they were right about it, too, that men were endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, and that is why abortion is unthinkable,” Ms. Robb concluded.

Mrs. Brewer said the state TRL has introduced a billboard campaign about abortion-pill reversal.

“This sign tells the culture of death that we’re not going to stand for it. We’re going to fight. We’re going to do something,” she said.

For the closing prayer, Mrs. Brewer introduced a video of the late Rev. John Schulz, a Lutheran pastor in Knoxville and longtime TRL board member. Pastor Schulz, who died March 12 at age 92, was seen in the video giving a benediction where he served, First Lutheran Church.

“We know that he is in heaven praying for us tonight, so we are grateful to him for his many years of service,” Mrs. Brewer said.

To receive legislative and other updates, sign up on the state TRL site at www.tnrtl.org. The abortion-pill billboard may be viewed at www.tnrtl.org/billboard_campaign. The Knox County chapter website is
prolifeknox.org.