We are pleased to announce that The Record will now include stories by veteran reporter Larry Grard.  Larry will report from the front lines of the battle to protect the unborn, the most important moral struggle ever to confront Maine. 

We are grateful for Larry's important contribution to the cause of marriage and the family, and we are honored he chose The Record as the place to publish his insightful and informative work. Welcome aboard, Larry!

 AUGUSTA, Me. – One of Maine’s most dedicated pro-life advocates says he has bruises on his legs, and wanted to file assault charges stemming from incidents that occurred outside an abortion clinic here on Dec. 17.

But Ron Stauble, 76, had to settle for theft charges against the two women who stole his signs outside Family Planning Association Maine, on Gabriel Drive. Stauble said he was outside the clinic as usual on a Thursday, when abortions are performed.

“We found out that was the day they did the killing,” Stauble said. “I had the pictures out there in the snow, and around my car. A mother and daughter drove by the passenger side and threw three signs into the car. I tried to stop them and the daughter was pulling on my arm. Then the mother came around and started pounding on my back. I got a few bruises.”

Augusta police said that Ashley LaGrange, 18 and Lisa McIntosh, 35, were charged with theft by unauthorized taking.

Stauble said that LaGrange and McIntosh drove off with three of his hand-made signs. Two said “Family Planning Kills Babies,” and the other read “29 Studies Tie Abortion to Breast Cancer.”

Officer Christopher Guay responded to Stauble’s call, about half an hour later.

“I was assaulted,” Stauble said. “I’ve got a photo of the bruises on my legs. I wanted that on there. But this guy is working against us. If Family Planning had called, they’d have been there right away.”

Stauble said he is not sure if LaGrange was there to have an abortion.

He said he decided not to attend Wednesday’s arraignment because of the previous night’s heavy snowfall. He lives in the small town of Unity, nearly an hour’s drive from Augusta.

Reviled by the local press, Stauble has courageously acted as a champion for the unborn since the early 1970s, when he drove a bread truck near New York City.

“Governor Nelson Rockefeller legalized (abortion) two years before the Supreme Court,” he recalled. “I saw a black garbage bag full of photos of dead babies. That’s when I started. I couldn’t believe what was going on.”

Stauble said that three Maine women have changed their minds about having abortions after seeing his signs, and thanked him.

Lately, he has slowed down – just a little. Suffering from arthritis, he still holds signs in Bangor on Wednesdays and in Augusta on Thursdays. He doesn’t get to Pittsfield on Tuesdays as much.

“I used to do about four or five days a week, but I couldn’t do it much longer,” he said. He and Agnes, his wife of 51 years, moved to Maine in 1973.

“We had young families – we wanted a better life for our kids,” he said.

Stauble displays graphic signs of aborted babies – the kind that get pro-abortion people, including the press, the most upset.

Outside the Augusta abortion clinic, pro-life protestors are allowed only on the opposite side of the road.

Stauble, a Catholic, is always there on Thursday.

“That’s the last chance to change their minds, and sometimes when they see those graphic pictures,” he said, “they change their minds.”

Beginning on Feb. 17, Stauble will have plenty of help from other Christians who oppose the killing of unborn children. From then until March 28, Christians and others will unite for the major simultaneous pro-life mobilization, “40 Days for Life.”

Faithful believers across America are praying that these efforts will mark the beginning of the end of abortion in America.

40 Days for Life is a focused pro-life campaign with a vision to access God’s power through prayer, fasting, and peaceful vigil to end abortion. The mission of the campaign is to bring together the body of Christ in a spirit of unity during a focused 40 day campaign of prayer, fasting, and peaceful activism, with the purpose of repentance, to seek God’s favor to turn hearts and minds from a culture of death to a culture of life, thus bringing an end to abortion.

Between 2004 and 2009, some 282 cities in five nations have conducted 40 Days for Life campaigns with measurable, lifesaving results. More than 215,000 people of faith and conscience have joined together to pray and fast for an end to abortion.

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