Tens of thousands of people went to Washington, D.C. Friday, for the 50th annual March for Life. The march was established a year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision established a nationwide right to abortion. This was the first march since the high court struck the law down last June.
“For nearly 50 years, you have marched to proclaim the fundamental dignity of women, of their children and of life itself,” Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, whose office argued the case that overturned Roe v. Wade, told the crowd. “But this year is different.”
Indeed, with the Supreme Court victory behind them and lawmakers now the ones to be persuaded, marchers took a new route along the western face of the Capitol, to their usual destination between that complex and the court.
The crowd appeared smaller than in past years but bore multiple hallmarks of previous marches in the enthusiasm of the gathering, the large numbers of young people from Catholic schools around the country and plenty of banners representing different churches and religious orders.
“The struggle has changed,” said Marion Landry, 68, who came from North Carolina with her husband, Arthur, 91, for the sixth time. “In some ways you don’t have that central focus anymore. Now it’s back to the states.”
“We really see this March for Life as one of the most significant yet. Yes, we are in a post-Roe world, but we’re really in a new world…What the Supreme Court did in June was they gave this issue to the people and their elected representatives,” Jamie Dangers, legislative director at the Susan B. Anthony List told CBN News.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy offered support in a statement pledging that the new Republican majority will stand with those who fight for the unborn.
“While others raise their voices in rage and hatred, you march with prayers, goodwill, fellowship, compassion, and devotion in defense of the most defenseless in this country,” McCarthy said.
Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, said the march is “a somber reminder of the millions of lives lost to abortion in the past 50 years, but also a celebration of how far we have come and where we as a movement need to focus our effort as we enter this new era in our quest to protect life.”