The pregnant high school senior who captured the nation’s attention when she spoke out about her Christian school’s decision not to allow her to walk at graduation has delivered a healthy baby boy named Greyson.
Maddi Runkles spoke out in a statement issued by pro-life organization Students for Life of America, telling The Herald-Mail that everyone is doing well.
“My family and I are doing great,” she said, according to Religion News Service.
Runkles and Greyson recently visited with Students for Life, appearing in photos that help spread the word about the organization’s new pro-life effort: The “Sock it to Planned Parenthood” campaign.
https://www.facebook.com/studentsforlife/posts/10154852097322927
The effort involves the display of 328,348 baby socks, which were collected by Students for Life to represent each of the lives of unborn babies that were terminated at Planned Parenthood clinics last year. The massive pile of socks will travel to states around the U.S. in an effort to show a visual representation of the impact that abortion has had throughout America.
Photos show Greyson sitting on top of the socks as well as Runkles holding her son while standing in front of the sock-filled truck.
“Greyson on top of these socks really puts the catastrophic devastation caused by Planned Parenthood into perspective,” a Facebook description reads. “17-year-old Maddi chose life for her son Greyson despite being Planned Parenthood’s prime target. He now gets to experience all this world has to offer — an opportunity 328,348 of his peers won’t have thanks to the abortion giant.”
The text continues, “Help us enable more strong women like Maddi to choose life and reject the lies of the abortion industry.”
As Faithwire previously reported, Runkles was not to allow her to walk at graduation earlier this year. Despite Runkles’ efforts to bring national attention to her plight, school leaders at Heritage Academy, a Christian school in Hagerstown, Maryland, refused to back down from her commencement ban — a decision made after she broke the school’s purity pledge.
Runkles was reportedly granted her diploma, instead, during an alternative ceremony at Benevola United Methodist Church in Boonsboro, Maryland, where 140 friends and family turned up to offer their support, WRC-TV reported.
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, a pro-life group, had come to Runkles’ defense during the ordeal to try and convince Heritage Academy to change its mind and to let the senior walk, but to no avail.
Hawkins spoke at Saturday’s graduation ceremony and gave Runkles a $16,000 scholarship as well as thousands of encouraging messages from people across the globe, the Christian Post reported.