March for Life Takes on Abortion with Renewed Energy
WASHINGTON – The massive March for Life crowd by the U.S. Capitol on Monday demanded, with renewed strength and energy, that Congress pass legislation ending federal funding of abortion.
The crowd – which included Catholic parish members, grade school students, and church members – showed up near the nation's Capitol building energized and excited to walk despite Washington D.C.'s frigid temperature.
"Thank you for braving the cold one more time and saying to the heart of our national government, 'We will fight on for life. We will fight on for the unborn and the brokenhearted,'" declared U.S. Congressman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) on stage at the 38th annual pro-life march.
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Messages from a long list of speakers delayed the march by almost an hour, but once the send-off message concluded, eager pro-life advocates took to the streets before the official banner was in place at the front of the march.
During the walk to the Capitol building, marchers chanted slogans such as, "Hey, Obama, your mama chose life" and waved signs proclaiming the value of life and the stark reality of abortion.
One sign read, "Planned Parenthood steals souls."
The crowd was awash with colorful hats, scarves, and yellow life balloons. Singing marchers with guitars helped fill the march with songs.
Lisa Faulkner of Anglicans for Life estimated that somewhere between 50 and 70 people from her group attended the march.
"We just try to show that there are people in America that are pro-life, and we try to bring more and more people every year that we come," she said.
Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser told The Christian Post that the March for Life crowd is an outgrowth of pro-life supporters who voted during the November election.
Their momentum, she said, led to the election of 17 pro-life women in the U.S. House of Representative and one pro-life woman in the Senate. The goal now, she stated, is to transfer that energy into reform that will save lives.
"Right now is [the] moment, a moment in time that we have not seen since 1973 where we have the momentum, we have the power and all the ability to save children's lives by stopping the funding of children's deaths," she shared.
Speakers on stage hammered away at the evils of abortion, urging participants to do whatever it takes to stop tax dollars from funding the practice.
"The time has come to deny any and all federal funding to Planned Parenthood of America," proclaimed Pence.
"We must not retreat now; we must move forward; we must stand our grounds. There is no ground whatsoever for retreat or a truce. We must hold our elected officials' feet to the fire," urged another speaker.
Rabbi Yehuda Levin of the Rabbinical Alliance of America led the crowd in the chant, "Defund Planned Parenthood."
The messages left marchers fired up and ready for action. "We got a lot of work to do," said Dale Klobusnik of Lutherans for Life.
Nellie Gray, founder of March for Life, remarked: "After 38 years, we have a youthful march."
