John,
We were almost forced to cancel our sold-out Life Awards Gala at the Ritz-Carlton in Los Angeles last Saturday — just hours before guests arrived.
This annual event draws hundreds of people and celebrates heroes in the prolife movement, fueling the work of Live Action, and we have worked well with the Ritz Carlton in the past.
But hours before the gala was about to begin, Marriott’s Ritz Carlton tried to shut us down by blocking our security team and making last-minute demands that would have endangered our guests.
This was a blatant attempt to cancel the largest pro-life event in America happening that night.
The last-minute challenge revealed something incredible to me, though. With just two hours before the event was supposed to begin, our team reached out to local friends and allies.
Within minutes, we had a list of multiple alternate local churches and groups willing to open their doors and host nearly 500 people at a moment’s notice that night. So many people took the call.
Thankfully, because thousands of supporters raised their voices, Marriott backed down, and the gala was able to go forward.
The evening’s success was a testament to their courage and commitment to our shared mission of abolishing abortion and making America the most welcoming nation in the world to raise a family.
For this year’s awardees, we honored pro-life activist Bevelyn Williams, the pioneer of the abortion pill reversal protocol, Dr. George Delgado, and Lianna Rebolledo, who rejected abortion after conceiving her daughter in rape.
