One week ago news outlets were reporting Dr. Ben Carson had put his hat in the ring for the U.S. presidency. Turns out they were wrong, if not premature. The world-renowned pediatric neurosurgeon told a Vitae Foundation audience Sunday night that the focus of his life has been medicine and saving lives.
“I’m always delighted to be doing things with Vitae because it is saving lives. I want to thank everyone for participating in that effort,” Dr. Carson told the sold out crowd in Columbia, Mo., who were very receptive to the 62-year-old Professor Emeritus at Johns Hopkins University.
Vitae President Dr. Pat Castle explained how Vitae is a “pro-life think tank,” gathering, interpreting, and using right-brain research to reach women experiencing unplanned pregnancies to help them find local resources that will support them in making a life-affirming decision.
“The abortion industry is trying to deceive us with talk of safe abortions, saying it’s about women’s health. Whatever you give tonight, there’s a direct correlation to saving lives,” Dr. Castle noted.
Vitae VP Stacey Kromer reported Vitae is covering the state and nation with well-researched messages. Vitae’s collaborating Pregnancy Help Centers so far this year have saved 6,022 mothers and their babies from the atrocity of abortion.
“Remember, an abortion facility makes a woman un-pregnant. A Pregnancy Help Center saves lives,” Kromer stated.
Dr. Carson recalled his days as an intern at Johns Hopkins when he could walk through the halls and see kings, queens, and wealthy people from around the world, seeking out a cure for some disease that would most likely take their lives. They would have traded all that wealth in return for a clean bill of health.
“You see just how important life is,” from that vantage point, Dr. Carson noted. “Your health is by far the most important thing you can ever have. That’s why it’s important we do everything we can to preserve it and honor it.”
“The Founding Fathers of this nation,” Dr. Carson remarked, “would turn over in their graves if they could see what’s going on today. This country was founded by people who came here to escape governments that told them what they could and couldn’t say.
“We’ve managed to move incredibly far from the original idea that government would conform to the will of the people. Now the people must conform to the government. It’s completely upside down. But I feel it’s starting to change!” Dr. Carson stated.
Many in this country do not want to see this nation ban together and be strong. Some feel it’s better to keep the country divided. Dr. Carson believes this must be resisted.
“People must resist fear and intimidation. People today are afraid to be called a name. If you’re pro-life you are called anti-woman. If you are pro-traditional family you are called a homophobe. If you’re White and you oppose a progressive Black person, you are a racist. If you’re Black, are pro-life and pro-family, and oppose a progressive, they don’t know what to call you!” Dr. Carson quipped.
A product of a broken home, Ben Carson grew up with his mother and brother in a tenement in Boston. His mother left for work at 5:30 a.m. and didn’t return home until after midnight, working several jobs as a domestic. Young Ben and his brother witnessed violence and gangs, even losing cousins who were killed by gunfire.
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It was the sheer will of his mother to stay off welfare that made a lasting impression with the Carson boys. “She always said, ‘I never see anyone who goes on welfare getting off of it.’ She never felt sorry for herself and never thought of herself as a victim. She knew there was always something she could do,” Dr. Carson told the packed crowd.
One of her ideas was to take her two boys to a farm on a Sunday and offer to pick whatever crop needed to be picked, by agreement the farmer would get three to the family’s one. Then she would take what they picked and can the food for them. “If she were the Secretary of the Treasury, we would not be in a deficit situation!” Dr. Carson said with a big smile.
He recalled how he wasn’t the brightest child in the classroom, until his mother started making he and his brother read two books a week they would get from the public library. They had to write a report on each book, not knowing their mother couldn’t read the reports. Reading became the turning point in Ben doing better in school. In about 18 months he went from the “dumbest” child in the class to kids coming and asking him how to work out math problems.
Education was the key for Carson and his brother to escape a life of poverty. They ended up becoming a rocket scientist and a brain surgeon. Even today, Dr. Carson believes that educating people is important when they are faced with life-altering decisions.
“Through organizations like Vitae, people across the nation are getting the facts. What a wonderful thing! The fact that we honor life makes us more civilized,” the Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree stated.
He recalled the time he successfully separated twins who were conjoined at the top of the head, facing opposite directions. It was a great social challenge as well, as it was attempted at the only major Black hospital in South Africa. Dr. Carson decided to combine four surgeries into one. At 19 hours in they were three-fourths of the way completed. However, the blood vessels were engorged and the situation looked impossible. The surgical team took a break to work out a plan. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the equipment like they would have had at Johns Hopkins.
“Those blood vessels were just daring you to make a mistake!” Dr. Carson explained. At the moment the surgery was completed, the “Halleluiah Chorus” began playing on the sound system in the operating room. Today those twin girls are in the 12th grade and doing just fine.
“But that wasn’t the only success,” Dr. Carson noted. “It was the reaction of the people there. They began dancing in the streets. It was about using talents God has given you to elevate and save others. That’s what Vitae is doing. We are all connected. We have value.”
Vitae VP Stacey Kromer told the audience that helping Vitae gives babies a chance to be a neurosurgeon, a scientist, a patriot, or a thriving 12th grader.
For more information about Vitae, visit its website, www.VitaeFoundation.org.
LifeNews.com Note: Martha Schieber is the Communications Director for Vitae Foundation. The pro-life organization has long sponsored pro-life advertising campaigns that haven been proven to reduce abortions and change public opinion.
