Rep. Steve King left President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address to pray for the nation’s unborn babies.

King, R-Iowa, said he prayed in the Congressional Prayer Room “for God to raise up a leader whom he will use to restore the soul of America.”

King walked out of the U.S. House chamber minutes before Obama’s speech Tuesday night, leaving his chair on the House floor empty. He also left his guest gallery seat open to honor aborted babies.

“[Obama] has reserved an empty seat next to the First Lady to commemorate ‘the victims of gun violence who no longer have a voice,’” King said in a formal statement, adding:

There will be another empty seat in the gallery during Obama’s last State of the Union address. I have reserved it to commemorate the lives of more than 55 million aborted babies, ‘the chorus of voices that have never been heard in this world but are heard beautifully and clearly in the next world.’

Send me your #ProLifePrayers. I will offer each of them in the Members chapel during #LastSOTU.

— Steve King (@SteveKingIA) January 12, 2016

The Congressional Prayer Room, near the Capitol Rotunda, has been set aside since 1955 for individual members of the House and Senate who wish to retreat for quiet prayer and reflection.

The pro-life conservative announced his plans earlier in the day before Obama gave his annual address to the Congress.

“President Obama’s first official act, immediately upon his inauguration was to sign an executive order to accelerate abortions worldwide,” King said:

The first tears we have seen him shed in seven years were for the victims of the tragic Sandy Hook School shooting.

As far as we know, Obama has never shed a single tear for even one of the more than 9 million babies aborted under his watch. He is the most pro-abortion president ever.

The White House announced Sunday that a seat would be left vacant for victims of what it calls gun violence.

“I cannot abide sitting in there and being lectured one more time,” King told reporters.

Thus, King exited Obama’s address and retreated to pray, explaining, as TheBlaze reported:

So I left my gallery seat empty, and my seat in the House chambers empty in commemoration of those who’ve never had a voice, not those who no longer have a voice, but those unborn babies who have never had a voice — and I’m going to the members’ chapel, where I’m going to spend my time there praying for the unborn, praying for the restoration of the Constitution and that God will raise up a leader whom he will use to restore the soul of America.