[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 130 (Thursday, July 23, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4459-S4460]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO MARGIE MONTGOMERY

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, people of faith across my hometown of 
Louisville gathered recently to mark 50 years of fighting for the 
unborn in the Bluegrass State. Together, they celebrated the Louisville 
Right to Life Association and its inspirational work for the most 
vulnerable in our society. I was proud to offer my congratulations to 
these champions for life. Today, I would like to look back to the 
group's founding and a remarkable Kentuckian's choice to pick up the 
phone.
  One evening in 1970, Margie Montgomery watched a troubling editorial 
on the local news. The segment argued for the removal of legal 
restrictions on abortions. To say my friend was shocked would be an 
understatement. She called the station to voice her strong opposition. 
Before long, Margie appeared on that same news program to deliver a 
genuine and heartfelt defense of life.
  That broadcast was just the beginning. What followed was a campaign 
of advocacy, organizing, and hard work. Margie spoke up, and she began 
a movement.
  Her passion ignited people of faith and conscience across our 
Commonwealth. The Louisville group grew into a statewide organization, 
the Kentucky Right to Life Association. Margie helped create a 
grassroots network of pro-life volunteers who give voice to the 
voiceless.
  Their work is certainly making a difference. Today, the majority of 
Kentuckians proudly stand on the side of life. Margie's courageous 
witness led thousands to join her cause.
  For decades, I have had the privilege to work with Margie on many 
pro-life issues. I look forward to our frequent meetings, both in 
Kentucky and our Nation's Capital. Along with so many Kentuckians, I am 
constantly inspired by her passion and drawn in by her compassion. The 
movement is lucky to have a steadfast and loving leader like Margie.
  Tragically, innocent life is still under threat in our Commonwealth 
and our Nation. There is more work that must be done so all people can 
enjoy their God-given right to life. As we continue fighting for those 
who are unable to fight for themselves, I am grateful Kentucky has 
Margie to champion our cause. It is an honor to join all those who 
celebrate her golden anniversary of advocacy, and I wish her many more 
years of celebrating the gift of life.
  Mr. President, the Courier-Journal in Louisville recently published a 
profile

[[Page S4460]]

of Margie's leadership for the sanctity of life. I ask unanimous 
consent that the column by former Kentucky State Representative Bob 
Heleringer be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

          [From the Louisville Courier-Journal, July 14, 2020]

A Determined Margie Montgomery Has Been Defending the Sanctity of Human 
                           Life for 50 Years

                          (By Bob Heleringer)

       In 1970, a gentleman named Bob Schulman occasionally 
     appeared during the late evening news on WHAS-TV to read on-
     air editorials (``One Man's Opinion''). Wearing his trademark 
     bow tie, he looked and spoke like a college professor. One 
     night, he said it was time to liberalize the abortion laws in 
     this country, to remove the legal restrictions that had made 
     this medical procedure a criminal offense.
       Watching at home that evening was a 37-year-old wife, 
     mother, civic volunteer, Rosemont College graduate and former 
     city editor of the Irvington (New Jersey) Herald newspaper, 
     Margaret Anne ``Margie'' Montgomery. Alarmed, the then-
     president of the League of Catholic PTA called the station 
     the next morning and was cordially invited by Mr. Schulman 
     himself to give a response.
       After she gave the first of what became thousands of 
     public, passionate addresses defending the sanctity of all 
     human life, her telephone rang for a week--some were complete 
     strangers but all agreed with Mrs. Montgomery that 
     ``something had to be done.''
       Right there in her kitchen, a national, state and local 
     Right-to-Life movement was born. (The ``right to Life'' is 
     one of the ``self-evident'' unalienable rights proclaimed by 
     the Declaration of Independence.) This Thursday evening, 
     about 700 socially distanced people will gather at the Crowne 
     Plaza hotel for the 47th annual ``Celebration of Life'' 
     dinner that will also honor Margie Montgomery's remarkable 50 
     years of service on behalf of the greatest civil rights cause 
     in our beloved country since the abolition of slavery.
       When the movement she began outgrew her house, in 1973, 
     Mrs. Montgomery opened a full-time operation in St. Matthews, 
     where she still today, from a tiny and cramped corner office 
     in a nondescript office building, oversees the state's 
     lobbying efforts in Frankfort and Washington, D.C., runs an 
     annual statewide convention, organizes the annual pro-life 
     rallies in Frankfort and downtown Louisville on the 
     anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the pernicious Supreme Court 
     decision that legalized the killing of our preborn sisters 
     and brothers, coordinates a double full-page ad in this 
     newspaper on that anniversary with thousands of names of 
     Louisvillians, organizes the yearly dinner with a national 
     figure giving a keynote address, presides over the annual 
     Walk for Life up and down Shelbyville Road, quarterbacks a 
     political action committee that strives to elect pro-life 
     candidates to public office (people like her that will ``do 
     something''), and still appears at every school and civic 
     group that will have her to give one of her ``talks,'' the 
     central theme of which is ``abortion stops a beating heart.''
       Now into the sixth decade of her vocation, this soft-spoken 
     but determined woman has been the Gold Star Mother who won't 
     let America ever forget the staggering human toll of this 
     heretofore unknown constitutional ``right:'' the 61,628,584 
     babies' lives ``terminated'' (through 2017). She is still 
     Kentucky's first responder whenever and wherever human life 
     is threatened, the full-throated voice for those who have no 
     voice.
       She didn't hesitate to use that voice when she confronted 
     the very man who wrote the infamous Roe decision: Justice 
     Harry Blackmun. When the University of Louisville law school 
     favored Mr. Blackmun in 1983 with its Brandeis Medal, Mrs. 
     Montgomery was in attendance.
       When it was her turn in the receiving line, as he extended 
     his hand, she asked, ``How can you sleep at night knowing how 
     many lives have been lost because of your terrible 
     decision?'' The associate justice of the United States 
     Supreme Court audibly gasped and, as he withdrew his hand, 
     Mrs. Montgomery quietly said, ``I will pray for you.''
       Thanks to those efforts, and those of thousands of 
     volunteer women and men from all over this commonwealth, 
     Kentucky can fairly be called America's most pro-life state 
     with an overwhelmingly prolife congressional delegation and 
     state legislature.
       Elections have consequences, some good. Pre-natal killings 
     in our state have declined from a high of 11,000 a year to 
     ``only'' 3,000. Legislation Mrs. Montgomery advocated, the 
     ``Choose Life'' license plates, finances more than 50 crisis 
     pregnancy centers in Kentucky that, if only a woman will 
     assent to let her baby live, she will be sheltered, 
     protected, nurtured and financially supported. (As of 2017, 
     there are 2,752 of these life-affirming centers throughout 
     the country.)
       This, then, is Margie Montgomery's most inspiring legacy: 
     Her unwavering commitment to preserve, protect and defend all 
     human life has directly led to an untold and unknown number 
     of human lives being saved by women in crisis who got a 
     timely word of encouragement and support, looked at a 
     leaflet, spotted a billboard message, read an ad in a church 
     bulletin, called a crisis hotline, saw their unborn baby move 
     on a sonogram or ultrasound and blessed God's creation by 
     giving humanity one more life to marvel at, appreciate, love 
     and cherish. Those saved people walk among us every single 
     day. As the Talmud says (paraphrasing): ``(S)he who saves a 
     life, saves the entire world.''

                          ____________________