This Blizzard Couldn’t Stop the March for Life

By Al Perrotta Published on January 23, 2016

Despite a historic winter storm bearing down hard, transportation sparse and the prospect of having to trudge miles through the snow, the annual March of Life carried on Friday in defense of the unborn. This year’s theme: “Pro-Life and Pro-Woman Go Hand-in-Hand.” Or mitten-in-mitten as it turned out.

According to The Washington Post, “City officials had suggested to March for Life organizers that they prioritize participants’ safety — what sounded like a hint to cancel.” No chance. One could say there was even a hint of heavenly help. “But actual snow held off for the first hour or so of the event,” the Post reported, “giving protesters a chance to rally at the foot of the Washington Monument, before the temperatures plunged and the snow began to fall as the march up to the Supreme Court began.”

Laura Wee, left, and Nicole Kelly, center, of Prior Lake, Minn., sing with Lake High School students, during the March for Life 2016 rally, commemorating the anniversary of 1973 "Roe v. Wade" U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in Washington, Friday, Jan. 22, 2016.   (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Laura Wee, left, and Nicole Kelly, center, of Prior Lake, Minn., sing with Lake High School students, during the March for Life 2016 rally. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

It was 43 years ago today that the Supreme Court ruled against the right to life in Roe v. Wade. Exactly one year later, on January 22, 1974, thousands gathered for the first March for Life.

Catholics have long taken a leadership role and are traditionally extremely well represented at each year’s March of Life, but evangelicals also participate, and this year several national evangelical leaders spoke. “We were late to the party,” said Focus on the Family President Jim Daly, “but we are with you.”

Many who wanted to be with them could not be, as the weather wrecked the travel plans for church groups and organizations from across America. Aleteia profiles how some of those groups spontaneously created March for Life events in their local communities.

Still, tens of thousands made it to Washington, according to ABC7. Richard Sith, an Indiana law professor who’s been taking part in the protest for 36 years, told the Post it was the smallest crowd he’d seen in decades, but “the mood is still really upbeat. … What is it that Shakespeare said — ‘We happy few’?”

Among the “happy few” was former NFL center Matt Birk, who made news in 2013 when he refused to join his Super Bowl-winning Ravens teammates at the White House due to Barack Obama’s radical abortion views. “We march,” he said, “because I’ve never heard a woman give birth to a baby and say, ‘I wish I had an abortion. That is why we march.” He continued, “I’ve never heard of a worker at a life clinic who decided to go work at an abortion clinic. That is why we march.”

Conversely, the crowd did get to hear moving testimonies from women who had worked at abortion clinics, but have now chosen life: Jewels Green and Catherine Adair of Silent No More. The loudest cheers came for Little Sisters of the Poor, who are currently challenging Obamacare’s “contraception mandate” inside that very same Supreme Court.

Throughout the day, the marchers stayed enthused, many holding up handmade signs. The Daily Signal‘s Mariana Barillos shares 31 of the most interesting signs she came across.

March for Life - Daily Signal

(Photo by The Daily Signal/Mariana Barillas)

Why did so many make the effort to come in the face of a raging blizzard? “Because,” first-time participant Sandra Clouter told ABC7, “the stand for life is so important that nothing can stop us from coming.”

March for Life - students for life

(Photo by Students for Life)

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