by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
The 2010 March for Life broke records on both sides of the issue this year. While a record number of people marched for life this year, a smaller than usual contingent of pro-abortion forces bothered to make an appearance.
This year’s March, which marks the 37th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion in America, not only drew record crowds to Washington, but a virtual on-line March for Life launched by the pro-life legal group, Americans United for Life, drew thousands more who could not make the trip.
The events started the night before with a Vigil for Life held at the National Basilica which included 45 bishops, 350 priests, 65 deacons and 550 seminarians. The evening also included a first-ever “flashlight” rally in Lafayette Park across from the White House which drew thousands of people. The crowd held flashlights in lieu of candles, which are not allowed in the park.
The March began the following morning at the Verizon Center which was organized by the Archdiocese of Washington. It featured a Mass, religious bands, and a “confess-a-thon,” in which more than 100 priests heard confessions at stations set up in the arena.
Marchers then traveled along Constitution Avenue, up Capitol Hill and ended at the Supreme Court.
The mood was upbeat and positive after the stunning victory of conservative Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts which upset plans by the pro-abortion lobby to gain lucrative funding for the procedure in health care reform. As a result, Brown’s win and health care reform dominated dominated the speeches and prayers throughout the rally.
“Any people from Massachusetts here today?” asked Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), one of several members of Congress who spoke at the rally on the Mall. “Thank you, Massachusetts. Thank you for helping us kill the anti-life bill,” he said in reference to the end of the Democrats filibuster-proof majority in the Senate that resulted after Brown’s election.
A Catholic physician summed up the mood of the crowd in a comment he made to the Washington Post: “We couldn’t be happier that with Massachusetts, health care looks like it’s all the way back to square one,” said Keith Burkhart, from Silver Springs, Maryland who attended the March with his wife and son. “As physicians, we’re really concerned about not just abortion, but end-of-life issues, embryonic stem cell research. It all weighs on you, what you may be forced to do.”
A smaller than usual crowd of counter-demonstrators were on hand during the March. A small contingent of pro-abortion protestors from the National Organization for Women were gathered in front of the Supreme Court where the March ended.
The National Organization for Women was defiant in their refusal to give up on using health care reform to push abortion. “To those who tell us we should be willing to give up abortion rights in order to get other health-care reforms, we respond with a resounding ‘No,’ ” the group said in a statement. “We will not trade off the rights and needs of some women for the benefit of others.”
The secular press did its best to downplay the event, either not covering the March at all or distorting the scant coverage they gave it. One writer, Krista Gesaman of Newsweek, wrote an embarrassingly ill-informed piece about how young women were conspicuously absent from the March.
Her opinion contrasted sharply with that of another secular writer, Robert McCartney of the Washington Post, who devoted an entire article to covering the astonishing number of young people present at the rally. After writing about the “pro-life generation” where six out of 10 young people are pro-life according to a new survey, McCartney writes: “The antiabortion movement feels it’s gaining strength, even if it’s not yet ready to predict ultimate triumph, and Roe supporters (including me) are justifiably nervous.”
In a disappointing end to the day, President Barack Obama, the most pro-abortion president in the nation’s history, issued a statement on Friday evening in which he affirmed his support for a woman’s right to choose.
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