I am one of 14 children born to Norma & Mel Meiners. Mom delivered 15 babies over a span of nineteen years. Baby Dennis died several weeks after his birth in the mid-50s.

That loss of life spun my parents into an emotional freefall. Nonetheless, they went on to accept the blessing of 12 more children. I was the fifth (technically sixth) child born to Norma and Mel and they never stopped loving, encouraging, and leading all of us.

Both of them have been gone for over a decade. The one mission that their Catholic faith led them to pursue above all else was the protection of life. My parents marched every year on January 22, my birthday and the date of passage of Roe vs. Wade.

Norma and Mel believed in the sanctity of life and pushed back against those who casually claimed that abortion was a decision for a mother and her doctor to make. The Meiners children were taught that only God chooses who lives or dies, that there are no “mistakes” in conception, and that authority over life belongs to God and God alone.

I appreciate what Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin states in the following video. The words of Down Syndrome adult John Franklin Stephens (below) are my testimony in the argument over who shall have the authority to end a child’s life.

In an increasingly perverse culture that callously celebrates infanticide and death…

Kentucky will unashamedly continue leading the fight to protect the most basic human right…LIFE! #WeAreKY #WeAreProLife https://t.co/Uz2ZoagIGa

— Governor Matt Bevin (@GovMattBevin) February 3, 2019

While Democrats are currently arguing in favor of late-term abortions if the baby has an “abnormality,” John Franklin Stephens makes a powerful argument against that:

“See me as a human being, not a birth defect.” pic.twitter.com/FzCiIrgRUP

— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) January 30, 2019

I love you, Mom and Dad. You are missed every day. You taught us well.