Tens of Thousands March for Life in Historic Blizzard
As the historic blizzard began to pummel Washington, D.C. on Friday afternoon, tens of thousands of pro-life advocates poured on to the National Mall to take a stand for life.
Despite the frigid temperatures and the blinding snow, the March for Life made its way down the streets of our nation’s capital ending at the steps of the Supreme Court to commemorate the 43rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade – the case that legalized abortion in America. Pro-life marchers of every religion, race, social class, and region braved the storm to honor the more than 50 million children who have lost their lives since the Court legalized abortion on demand, and to peacefully proclaim that every human being has the right to life.
Before the March began, people arrived in D.C. by car, plane, train, and bus to attend conferences discussing the current state of abortion in our country. Hearing from pastors, activists, Senators, journalists, and more, these conferences spoke not only of the human rights tragedy of millions being aborted, but also of our obligation to care for women with crisis pregnancies.
When the rally began at the Washington Monument, participants heard from leaders in the pro-life movement, each speaking to the March’s theme that “Pro-Life and Pro-Women Go Hand-In-Hand.” Participants challenged the cultural narrative that to be against abortion is to be against women.
Speaking to the crowd, Senator Joni Ernst (IA), who is herself a veteran, said she rejects the claim that the pro-life movement is waging a war on women:
I will remind them I am a woman and I have been to war. And let me be clear: this is no war on women. Rather, to me, being pro-life means you have a deep respect for the miracle of life and a women’s unique ability to bring life into this world.
The Little Sister of the Poor, whose challenge of the Obama Administration’s HHS abortion-pill mandate has reached the Supreme Court (a case in which we recently filed a critical amicus brief), were also among the attendees.
And in a picture that embodied the polling showing that Millennials are more pro-life than previous generations before them, the crowd was full of youth groups, campus organizations, and young professionals. March for Life President Jeanee Mancini attributes Millennials’ increasingly pro-life stance to scientific advances.
“Young people have grown up in a sort of tech-savvy world,” said Ms. Mancini. “They’re very digitally engaged, and they’re used to having pictures for everything, and so the fact that you can see or hear a heartbeat very early kind of rebuts this position that, ‘Oh, it’s a blob of tissue.’ The pictures say something else.”
Ms. McGuire describes those under 35 as the “ultrasound generation.”
“They can now do 3-D and 4-D ultrasounds where you can see what the baby [will look like] outside the womb,” said Ms. McGuire. “It’s actually unscientific to say, ‘That’s not life.’
The pro-life movement showed the world one thing this year – nothing is going to stop our message of hope and life, not even a historic blizzard. We will continue to be a voice for the voiceless every year until every person, no matter how small, has the right to life, which is endowed to each of us by our Creator and enshrined by our Founders in our Constitution.
The ACLJ is proud to stand with our pro-life allies from around the country in working to not only overturn Roe v. Wade and make abortion illegal, but to work every day to make abortion unthinkable.