Actor Kirk Cameron will headline Right to Life banquet in August
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
EVANSVILLE — Right to Life of Southwest Indiana's annual banquet — an anti-abortion event in Evansville that annually attracts more than 2,000 people — is set for Aug. 10 this year.
Los Angeles-based conservative actor-writer-producer Kirk Cameron will be the keynote speaker for the banquet, which begins at 6 p.m. at Old National Events Plaza. Also on the bill: David J. Scotton, an attorney and adoption advocate. The 2022 film "Lifemark" tells the adoption story of Scotton, who Right to Life of Southwest Indiana says "was seconds away from not having life." Cameron co-produced the film.
Cameron, best known for co-starring in the 1980s sitcom, "Growing Pains" and the "Left Behind" film series, also headlined the 2010 banquet in Evansville for what was then Vanderburgh County Right to Life.
What is the Right to Life of Southwest Indiana annual banquet?
The banquet is the organization's primary fundraising event. A table for 10 costs $680, and individual tickets can be purchased for $68 each.
"These funds support programs and projects such as installing and maintaining Safe Haven Baby Boxes at local fire departments, providing thousands of diapers to local pregnancy resource centers, educating students and empowering them to make healthy life choices, and unveiling the Go Mobile Clinic, a traveling pregnancy resource center which provides free services to women seeking pregnancy care in underserved areas within Southwest Indiana," stated Right to Life of Southwest Indiana's announcement of the banquet.
The organization's website (rtlswin.org) contains more information about corporate sponsorships, seats and advertising for the event.
Who has spoken at this banquet in past years?
The Right to Life banquet in Evansville drew more than 3,000 people when 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin and conservative author and commentator Candace Owens spoke in 2009 and 2021, respectively.
Other speakers have included:
Former GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson;
Pam Tebow, the mother of athlete Tim Tebow and a nationally known advocate for the anti-abortion cause;
Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz;
Michael Reagan, adopted son of President Ronald Reagan; and
Mike Huckabee, former presidential candidate, Arkansas governor and television personality.
In April 2009, Palin, then Alaska's governor, chose Right to Life of Southwest Indiana's banquet to make her first major public appearance outside her state since her unsuccessful 2008 vice-presidential campaign. Palin was, at the time, one of the nation's hottest political properties.
What happened at last year's Right to Life banquet?
About 2,400 people showed up to hear former Vice President Mike Pence, who was governor of Indiana from 2013 until 2017, and Abby Johnson, founder of anti-abortion nonprofit And Then There Were None. The banquet came two months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark legal decision that had established a federally protected right to abortion since 1973.
More than 50 protesters stood outside of Old National Events Plaza in support of abortion rights. The majority of the group had traveled down the block from Someplace Else nightclub as a part of the "Woe vs. Rage; We’ll CEED You in Hell" event planned by local group Collective Efforts for Equity and Diversity.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Actor Kirk Cameron will headline Right to Life banquet in August
