A father shares the heartache of abortion at rally celebrating overturning of Roe v. Wade

Students and pro-life advocates gather at the Lincoln Memorial for a rally commemorating the second anniversary of the overturning of Roe v. Wade on June 22, 2024. / Credit: Gigi Duncan/CNA

Washington D.C., Jun 25, 2024 / 14:45 pm (CNA).

Thomas Kearns knows the heartache that results from abortion. It was only three months ago that he lost his preborn daughter. 

Clementine, who was almost five months along, was “subjected to a second-trimester abortion without proper legal and ethical guidelines being followed,” Kearns shared with the crowd gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for the Celebrate Life Rally on June 22. 

“People tell me she is not a human, or she wasn’t alive. People tell me I’m crying over someone I never met before. But the first time I truly met Clementine was during the sonogram,” Kearns maintained. “We heard her heartbeat; it was so loud for someone so small. There she was, her little body and beautiful future.”

Kearns continued his heartbreaking story before the group of students and pro-life advocates. He described how an abortion clinic “preyed” on Clementine’s mom’s “uncertainty and vulnerability,” ultimately leading her to a late-term abortion that left her with “trauma and regret.”

His family’s “deepest sorrow,” he said, has been that his daughter was denied a proper burial because Clementine’s body was taken and sold for research — “dissected by advanced bioscience resources who distributed her remains to research centers.” 

“My daughter has been a science experiment for three months,” he stated. “Our children are not disposable, with souls, lives, and destinies that deserve to be fulfilled. So why did Clementine have to die? What would you do to save your family, to stop someone you love from dying?”

At the rally commemorating the second anniversary of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Kearns called on those in attendance to be bold and continue the fight to protect the unborn.

“It’s time to wake up to the truth. Abortion is ending families and killing our children,” he said. “True empowerment comes from providing encouragement, love, and protection. Not the false choice of ending a family member’s life.”

In an impassioned statement, Kearns declared: “I love Clementine. I will find her and give her a resting place and the respect that she deserves. Clementine will make a difference; Clementine’s voice will be heard. Even after my death, Clementine will live on.”

When asked by CNA what his outlook of the pro-life future consists of, Kearns shared: “What we’ve been doing these past years needs to be amplified. We need to educate people on the truth, on science and biology. Transparency is the future.”

“We need to explain every detail, explain the facts. Abortion is gruesome,” Kearns continued. “This is another stage of life. We should protect the unborn the same way we would protect a 2-year-old.”

While those attending the rally and subsequent conference events celebrated the anniversary of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, many also expressed a shared motivation to push harder for the sanctity of human life ahead of state ballot measures that could enshrine abortion “rights” into their constitutions. 

“Remember Clementine,” Kearns concluded as the crowd cheered. “And end abortion.”