#WhyWeMarch March for Life
The hashtag, #WhyWeMarch, has been used for a while to spread the word about the wide variety of reasons people attend the national and state March for Life events.
Why
Everyone’s ‘why’ is a little different, but the bottom line is that babies die from abortion. On January 22nd 1973, Roe v Wade was decided along with a companion ruling of Doe v Bolton. These two cases lifted the lid from Pandora’s Box. This is a metaphor that states, “Once opened, it can never be shut.”
We march in opposition in the hope that one day soon, abortion will be unthinkable. An ocean of people came together to denounce the decision that opened the floodgates of abortion. The blood of millions of tiny innocent people has been shed in the US alone. Some people estimate that close to a billion children have lost their lives to abortion world wide so far.
Where
The March for Life takes place in Washington DC within days of the anniversary of the decision by the Supreme Court and though the route may be altered a bit, it includes the Supreme Court Building. Officials close the streets. Police and fire fighters man the barriers. The people who attend and kind, respectful and their love for life doesn’t stop when children are born.
Nine old white guys decided that abortionists should have access to women at any time, for any reason during pregnancy to kill their unborn children. Granted, they did not have the technology that we have now. At that time only the killers could see the victims. Now, anyone willing can see exactly what abortion looks like.
When
Events take place for days around the actual March For Life. Conferences and summits and rallies and protests and galas and gatherings abound. There is education and encouragement throughout the week. The actual March takes most of the scheduled day. Many states also hold similar events. Usually, they are the week prior or following and often on weekends.
It takes a lot of time to gather over 100,000 people in one place. People start gathering before 9am and may still arrive to join as late as 1pm. Participants disburse over time too. It might be 4-5pm when they return. The energy is high. The forgiveness and hope is palpable.
Who
People from all walks of life join: from lone grandmothers to high school groups.
I am vice president of Save The 1: a global pro-life organization. I traveled to the March For Life because I want people to know that members of Savethe1 are the people that people call, “exceptions” in pro-life discourse.
So, when someone says, “I am pro-life, except in the case of rape or incest, or fetal anomaly and poor prenatal diagnosis,” we are those exceptions. Our members are the very people that they are talking about. My mom was 15 years old the first time he raped her. When she found that she was pregnant with me, she says that we were in it together. She saw me as a person immediately. The unfortunate thing is that she married him, thinking it would be ok, but he was a serial abuser.
Early childhood sexual abuse left me vulnerable. I am also a juvenile sex trafficking survivor. When I got pregnant, saving my baby saved my life. I escaped my trafficker with the help of pro-life people. Attending the March for Life and speaking about my experience is one way I hope to help prevent others from experiencing the kind of deprivations that I suffered.
The baby is never the aggressor. Sexual violence is traumatic, but adding the trauma of abortion will never un-rape a woman and will only serve to hurt her more by robbing her of her maternity. She is a mom already, if she is pregnant. I hope my witness will help moms protect their tiny children.