March for Life Founder Nellie GrayPaul Bedard of The Washington Examiner is reporting that this year's March for Life is expected to break records as the country marks the 40th anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, as well as commemorates the heroic woman who started the March, the late Nellie Gray who died in August.Thus far, the largest crowd to ever gather in Washington to protest the legalization of abortion occurred two years ago when an estimated 400,000 converged on the Capitol to march for life.Jeanne Monahan, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund which is organizing this year's March, told Bedard that "We're going to have record breaking crowds."
Ironically, just as the number of pro-lifers rises throughout the country, this year's march could possibly outdraw the inauguration of the most pro-abortion president in U.S. history whose January 21 swearing-in is not expected to top 600,000 - far fewer than the 1.8 million he drew to Washington in 2009.
Thus far, all the signs are pointing toward a record turnout this year.
"One critical sign of how big the march will be: Hotels pre-booked for participants sold out a month ago while many Washington hotels report lukewarm interest for rooms during the Inauguration," Bedard writes. "In 2009, hotels sold out months in advance as an excited nation readied to welcome the first black president."
March for Life events will kick off at 11:00 a.m. on January 24 at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill with the 3rd Annual Law of Life Summit for law students interested in abortion law. This will be followed by a youth rally in the Ballroom of the Hyatt from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. The day of the March, January 25, will kick off with an 8:00 a.m. Mass in commemoration of Nellie Gray at St. Mary, Mother of God Catholic Church in Washington DC. That evening, the 31st annual Rose Dinner will be held in the Regency Ballroom at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill. A new event, a 5K run, will be held on Saturday, January 26. More details are available on the March website.
March for Life festivities will begin just three days after the President is sworn in for his second term. Because January 20, the official day of a presidential inauguration, falls on a Sunday, the president will be sworn-in privately on the 20th, and once again on the 21st, which just happens to be Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Organizers of this event say there has been a dramatic drop in the President's grass roots support with as few as one-third of the spectators who watched his first swearing-in expected to show up this time around.
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