WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Tens of thousands of pro-life advocates descended upon the US capital for the 50th March for Life on Januart 20 — the first national march since the overturn of the US Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that initially prompted the annual demonstration.

Standing on the event stage at the National Mall, with the US Capitol visible in the background, Jeanne Mancini, March for Life president, told attendees at a rally prior to the march that “the country and world changed” when Roe was reversed in June 2022. But she said the annual March for Life would continue in Washington until abortion is “unthinkable”.

“While the March began as a response to Roe, we don’t end as a response to Roe being overturned,” Mancini said. “Why? Because we are not yet done.”

The march took place on a sunny and unseasonably warm day in Washington. A headcount of attendees was not immediately available, as the National Park Service does not release crowd size estimates.

The national March for Life first took place in Washington in 1974 in response to the Roe decision legalising abortion nationwide the previous year. The protest has taken place in Washington each year since, with a smaller-in-scale event during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.

The 2023 event was the first national March for Life since the high court’s June 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe and returned the matter of regulating or restricting abortion to state legislatures.

At the pre-march rally, the Christian band “We Are Messengers” performed, followed by a number of speakers, including Jonathan Roumie, known for his role as “Jesus” in the television series “The Chosen”, former Indianapolis Colts Head Coach Tony Dungy, Democratic Connecticut State Rep. Trenee McGee, and Gianna Emanuela Molla, the daughter of St Gianna Beretta Molla. Canonized in 2004, St. Gianna gave her life for Giana Emanuela, choosing to move forward with her fourth pregnancy even after doctors discovered a tumour in her uterus.

Molla told the rallygoers that she thanks her “saint mom” for the gift of life. “I would not be here now with all of you if I had not been loved so much,” she said.

Roumie told the crowd – “God is real and he is completely in love with you,” he said, adding that each person is individually loved by God.

“Remember my dear friends, we know how the story ends: God won,” Roumie said.

The rally also featured some lawmakers from the US House of Representatives. Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, a Catholic Republican and co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, said at the rally, “Future generations will someday look back on us and wonder how and why a society that bragged about its commitment to human rights could have legally sanctioned” abortion.

“The injustice of abortion need not be forever, and with your continued work and prayers, it will not be,” Smith said.

Prior to speaking to the sea of pro-life marchers on the National Mall, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who argued the Dobbs case before the Supreme Court, told OSV News that “empowering women and promoting life” were the next steps post-Roe.

“Some of the things that we’re talking about in Mississippi and promoting legislation on are workplace flexibility options, particularly for mothers,” she said. “We lose young mothers because they don’t have any options. They don’t have that flexibility. We’ve got to have childcare. It’s got to be affordable, accessible and quality.”

Fitch said she wants to see the pro-life movement do “some heavy lifts” to push laws enhancing child support enforcement and reforming the adoption or foster care systems.

“(These systems) are failing our children; they’re broken,” Fitch said. “We’ve got to make those (changes) happen and put those children in these loving families.”

Speaking with OSV News at the march, Kristan Hawkins, president of the pro-life group Students for Life of America, said the next front of her organisation’s activism will focus on fighting the spread of medication abortion. Hawkins said the pro-life movement should also focus on broadening the social safety net and its remaining goals at the federal level, such as stripping Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest single abortion provider, of taxpayer funds.

“We’re walking and running and chewing gum all at the same time,” she said.

“There is a lot for us to do as a nation, especially raising awareness among its citizens,” Isalyn Aviles Rodríguez, who came to the march from Miami, told OSV News. Rodríguez said she was motivated to march because “the nation needs to know that children are part of God’s plan from conception until natural death”.

As in prior years, the March drew teenage advocates for life as well. Angeline Moro, 14, from Trenton, New Jersey, attended the event to learn how to raise her voice in defence of the most vulnerable.

“We all need to have a chance to live,” Moro said.

At various events leading up to the march, pro-life advocates joined together in prayer and solidarity.

At the January 19 opening Mass for the annual National Prayer Vigil for Life, the night before the march, Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, said in his homily that the pro-life movement has “much to celebrate” because Roe v. Wade “is no more”.

But, he added, a “new important phase” for the cause of life “begins now”.

“Our efforts to defend life must be as tireless as ever” not only to change laws but also hearts “with steadfast faith in the grace and power of God to do so”, said Bishop Burbidge, chairman of the US of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities.

The event, held at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, drew between 6000 and 6500 people, with most of the congregation filling the Great Upper Church. Dozens also viewed the Mass via screens in the lower level of the basilica.

Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the US, read a message from Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, issued on behalf of Pope Francis, who imparted his blessing on all those participating in the March for Life.

“His Holiness trusts that Almighty God will strengthen the commitment of all, especially the young, to persevere in their efforts aimed at protecting human life in all its stages, especially through adequate legal measures enacted at every level of society,” the message said.

The Mass was followed by a “Holy Hour for Life” at the basilica, which launched a series of Holy Hours of Eucharistic devotion throughout the night in dioceses across the country.

The thousands of attendees at various events streamed into the National Mall, where they assembled at the noon rally and prepared to begin marching an hour later.

With the overturn of Roe, organizers had planned for a reworked march route, resulting in a new final destination: the East Front of the US Capitol, symbolising the movement’s new goals. However, restrictions on the use of sticks for signage put in place by the US Capitol Police after the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol resulted in the route instead passing by the West Front. For the 50th time, the national march ended in the same spot: before the steps of the US Supreme Court.

Morgan Ehlis, a student from the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, told OSV News that being in Washington with “like-minded people” was an “overwhelming experience”.

“I’m grateful to be pro-life,” said Ehlis. “It’s swimming upstream for sure, but (this is a) big support group we have.”

Photo: Pro-life advocates gather for the 50th annual March for Life in Washington on January 20, 2023 (OSV News photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)

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The ruling marks a historic day for the United States after almost five decades during which “America has enforced an unjust law that has permitted some to decide whether others can live or die”, said Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles and Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore.

The prelates issued a joint statement as USCCB president and chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, respectively.

The 5-4 ruling to overturn Roe came in the court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which was a challenge to a Mississippi law banning most abortions after 15 weeks.

However, Chief Justice John Roberts, while agreeing with the opinion on the Mississippi law, disagreed with the majority’s decision that overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and the 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

The latter case affirmed Roe and prohibited regulations that created an “undue burden” on women seeking an abortion.

Archbishops Gomez and Lori said the new ruling marks a “time to begin the work of building a post-Roe America”.

“We thank God today that the court has now overturned this decision,” they said. “We pray that our elected officials will now enact laws and policies that promote and protect the most vulnerable among us.”

The archbishops recalled the lives of tens of millions of children who have lost their lives since 1973, saying the USCCB mourns their loss and that their souls have been entrusted to God.

“Our hearts are also with every woman and man who has suffered grievously from abortion,” they said. “We pray for their healing, and we pledge our continued compassion and support. As a Church, we need to serve those who face difficult pregnancies and surround them with love.”

Archbishop Gomez and Archbishop Lori also credited the people who for five decades have worked peacefully together “to educate and persuade their neighbours about the injustice of abortion”, to provide care and counselling to women, and to work for alternatives to abortion such as foster care and public policies that support families.

The Pontifical Academy for Life, under its president, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, joined the USCCB leaders in welcoming the Supreme Court’s opinion, saying it points the way for the world to follow.

“The court’s opinion shows how the issue of abortion continues to arouse heated debate,” an academy statement said. “The fact that a large country with a long democratic tradition has changed its position on this issue also challenges the whole world.”

“The protection and defence of human life is not an issue that can remain confined to the exercise of individual rights but instead is a matter of broad social significance,” it continued. “After 50 years, it is important to reopen a non-ideological debate on the place that the protection of life has in a civil society to ask ourselves what kind of coexistence and society we want to build.”

Archbishop Paglia added, “In the face of Western society that is losing its passion for life, this act is a powerful invitation to reflect together on the serious and urgent issue of human generativity and the conditions that make it possible; by choosing life, our responsibility for the future of humanity is at stake.”

Several state Catholic conferences and individual bishops echoed the USCCB leaders’ sentiments in welcoming the court’s decision.

The eight prelates of the New York State Catholic Conference said they were “overjoyed with the outcome of the court”.

They also acknowledged “the wide range of emotions associated with this decision” and called on “all Catholics and everyone who supports the right to life for the unborn children to be charitable, even as we celebrate an important historical moment and an answer to prayer”.

Saying the court’s ruling was “a judicial victory, not a cultural one”, the New York bishops called for building a “culture of life” by enacting family-friendly policies that welcome children, support mothers, cherish families and empower them to thrive.

Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, said in a statement the ruling recognizes “that even the most helpless and dependent human beings have a right to life and possess inherent dignity and worth.”

Pointing to the words of Pope Francis, Cardinal Tobin said, “Abortion is not a religious issue; it’s a human rights issue”.

“We recognise that a woman’s decision to have an abortion is often tragic and panful,” he said. “A woman who takes this desperate action is often under great duress and is encouraged by social structures that are patently sinful.

“As people who care deeply for all women struggling with unplanned or unwanted pregnancies, we must ensure that life-giving options are available, and our support does not end simply with the birth of a child.”

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In Australia, Archbishop Anthony Fisher, OP, of Sydney described as “very encouraging” the leaked draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, which said “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start.”

The draft opinion that may strike down the 1973 US abortion ruling, published by Politico on May 2, comes as Canada’s prolife movement prepares for its largest annual events: the March for Life May 12 in Ottawa, Ontario, as well as smaller gatherings in provincial capitals.

Canada’s Parliament passed legislation that decriminalised abortion on May 12, 1969.

Alito’s draft opinion stems from the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organisation, a challenge to a 2018 Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The news from the US is “already rallying the troops,” said Father Larry Lynn, pro-life chaplain for the Archdiocese of Vancouver. “The pro-abortion people are saying, ‘this could happen here’, and ‘be on your guard’, and those sorts of things.”

He added, “I think you can mark this day as a time when a real battle has begun.”

Removing Roe v. Wade as precedent would put US abortion law back in the hands of the states, which Father Lynn called “a perfect example of subsidiarity at work, a very Catholic principle, a foundation of Catholic social justice”.

While the 1973 US ruling removed the abortion issue from the states and made it federal law, the draft majority opinion states that “Roe v. Wade was egregiously wrong in taking that power away from the states”, Father Lynn explained.

As for any political parallel in Canada, Father Lynn expressed doubt.

“I think that the political will in Canada to work against abortion is virtually nil,” he said. “All the governments since (Prime Minister Brian) Mulroney’s time have not been willing to touch it. They won’t event discuss ‘when does life begin’.”

Tabitha Ewert, legal counsel for grassroots initiative We Need a Law, agreed that there won’t be a tangible effect in the near future in Canada, but said the draft opinion is important from a social perspective.

“There won’t be any legal impact but we’re already seeing the political impact,” she said, pointing to a Bloc Quebecois motion in Parliament on May 3 seeking unanimous support for women’s right to abortion. The motion failed because it lacked unanimity.

Josie Luetke, youth coordinator for Hamilton, Ontario-based Campaign for Life Coalition, said the largest task for the pro-life movement in Canada is to “reignite the abortion debate” and “keep momentum going”, with the first opportunity at the marches for life.

“Abortion has become kind of a sacred cow in Canada that many mistakenly think cannot be challenged,” Luetke said. “If Roe is overturned, the abortion debate is certainly coming to Canada, where we’ll be advocating for protection for preborn children.”

In Sydney, Michael Quinlan, national head of the School of Law at the University of Notre Dame Australia, told The Catholic Weekly, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Sydney, that it was “important to remember what happened in Roe v. Wade”.

“The court took medical and other evidence and it formed a view in which it divided up pregnancies into different trimesters and said that states had power to legislate in particular ways in relation to particular trimesters,” Quinlan explained.

“The minority judges in that case said their concern was that sounded very much like what you’d expect a parliament to do, to get into that kind of detail. And they were completely correct about that,” he said.

The case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey later abandoned the trimester divisions in favour of “fetal viability”, which Alito said “makes no sense” as a legal standard.

“Viability is the point at which the child has a possibility of surviving if delivered unharmed,” said Australian bioethicist Margaret Somerville.

“This raises the issue of whether a right to abortion is only the right of the woman to evacuate her uterus or also includes having the child intentionally killed before delivery when it might have a chance of living – a very sensitive issue,” she said.

Noting that the World Health Organisation reports 73 million abortions worldwide annually, Somerville cautioned that prolife supporters most go beyond simply opposing abortion.

“We must offer support to vulnerable women who see abortion as their only feasible option for dealing with an unwanted pregnancy,” she said.

Archbishop Fisher said even though the US Supreme Court decision is welcome, it “will not end the scourge of abortion in the United States”, but “will give each state the opportunity to prohibit or at least restrict this horrific practice that has claimed the lives of more than 60 million unborn children since Roe v. Wade was decided”.

The draft decision, he said, also offers prolife advocates in the Australian state of New South Wales “a great sign of hope” three years after legislators in the state parliament passed legislation that decriminalised abortion.

“For us here in NSW, today’s news is a reminder that the advocacy for the dignity of all human life is an ongoing task, the fruits of which can often take the work of entire generations.”

(This story includes information from The B.C. Catholic in Vancouver and The Catholic Weekly in Sydney.)

(Photo: Pro-life supporters gather while holding signs outside the New South Wales Parliament House in Sydney on August 1, 2019 (CNS Photo))

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