Washington - Tens of thousands, despite freezing temperatures, gathered in Washington, D.C. on Friday for the 49th annual "March for Life", their mood boosted by the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court could soon overturn the Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.
"We are hoping and praying that this year, 2022, will bring us historic change for life," March for Life president Jeanne Mancini said. "Roe is not settled law," she said to cheers from the crowd.
The supporters, many joining with their school and church groups from around the country, assembled on the National Mall carrying signs that read "Love Life Choose Life", “Equality Begins in the Womb”, "The future is anti-abortion."
The event marks the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Attendees were optimistic that this would be the last march to occur before the overturn of the landmark 1973 ruling that established a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy before the fetus is viable, at around 24 weeks.
This year’s event is taking place as the nation awaits the high court’s ruling in a pivotal Mississippi abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. At issue is the constitutionality of the state’s abortion ban after 15 weeks of gestation, a direct challenge of Roe’s prohibition on state laws restricting access to abortion before foetal “viability,” judged to be between 24 to 28 weeks of gestation.
If Roe and the related decision in Planned Parenthood of Southeast Pennsylvania v. Casey were overturned, the regulation of abortion would return to democratically elected state legislatures, many of which are poised to enact major abortion restrictions.
Speakers at the rally included Katie Shaw, a pro-life advocate who has Down syndrome, and Father Mike Schmitz, the host of Ascension's popular "Bible in a Year" podcast.
'Every person matters,' Father Mike Schmitz tells pro-life marchers
The popular podcaster and YouTube star Father Mike Schmitz came well-prepared for his speech at the March for Life rally Friday.
“The first speech I ever gave in my entire life was in eighth grade. We got a chance to choose any topic, any argument, any position,” he told a large crowd assembled at the National Mall. “I chose to talk about the dignity of human life from natural conception to natural death and the evil of abortion and euthanasia.”
He used the occasion to stress the same message he originally shared with his classmates as a young adolescent: every human life matters. This time, the message was deeply personal.
A headline speaker at the pre-march rally, Schmitz, a North Star State native accustomed to the frigid January weather, received a rousing, rock-star reception from the crowd, which included thousands of young marchers.
Born the year after the landmark Supreme Court abortion decision in Roe v. Wade, the gregarious 47-year-old priest of the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, is best known for his "Bible in a Year" podcast and his YouTube videos for Ascension, the Catholic multimedia publisher.
Father Mike told the story of his maternal grandmother, Helen, a nurse who spoke out in defense of the unborn and the conscientious objections of her fellow nurses when the hospital where they worked decided to perform abortions in the wake of the Roe decision.
Struggling to maintain his composure at times, Schmidt went on to share a recent conversation he had with a woman he helped persuade not to abort her child 12 years ago.
“Every child matters. Every woman matters. Every person matters. And no matter what this (march) does, no matter what this changes, your being here, standing, your being here, walking, it changes you, and you matter. God bless you.” Concluded, Father Schmitz
-Reuters, CNA
https://english.cnewslive.com/news/19918/roe-versus-wade-vs-march-for-life-cjk