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| Sunday, January 30, 2011 |
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Young people lead the way at the 2011 March for Life in Washington, DC
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Young people lead the way at the 2011 March for Life in Washington, DC
Young people lead the way at the 2011 March for Life in Washington, DC - Washington DC Human Rights | Examiner.com
Hundreds of thousands of pro-life demonstrators from across the nation took to the frosty streets of Washington, DC yesterday for the March for Life. The March marked the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, a 1973 Supreme Court decision, which held that women have a constitutional right to an abortion in the early stages of pregnancy and that the criminalization of abortion violates a woman’s right to privacy. The March for Life has been held annually in Washington, DC since 1974.
The majority of this year’s participants were overwhelmingly young and many represented Roman Catholic high schools and youth groups from various states. Over 27,000 of these young people attended a pre-March Youth Rally and Mass for Life at the Verizon Center and the DC Armory. In his homily to the youth, Father Mark Ivany of The Church of the Little Flower in Bethesda said, "[t]he greatest difference between other civil rights movements and this one is that most of the people affected by Roe v. Wade can't march on Washington. They can't give great speeches.”
During the March, young demonstrators were particularly exuberant, belting a myriad of chants and cheers that included, “Hey, Obama, your Mama chose life,” and “We love babies, yes we do, we love babies, how 'bout you?” The most prominent signs were large, religious-themed banners, though thousands of smaller signs included wording such as “Defend Life,” “Defund Planned Parenthood,” and “Life Counts.”
Among the pre-March rally speakers were Congressmen Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Mike Pence (R-IN), as well as His Beatitude Metropolitan Jonah, Archbishop of Washington and Metropolitan of All America and Canada of the Orthodox Church in America. In his address, Metropolitan Jonah told the crowd that abortion “creates a culture of death, which creates a culture of despair, which condemns a generation of women to self-hatred, to decades of guilt, to decades of despair.”
Congressman Pence (R-IN) thanked the demonstrators for braving the cold. He promised the crowd that, "we will continue to fight on for life. We will fight on for the unborn and the brokenhearted."
Long-time human rights advocate and pro-life supporter, Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) spoke directly to the young people in attendance. “Our young people know child abuse when they see it. And they--all of us--demand that it end.” He also alluded to the recent arrest of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, a Philadelphia doctor who was charged with killing a woman, as well as seven babies who were aborted and survived, but died after their spinal cords were allegedly cut with a pair of scissors.
“The tens of thousands of young people here today bravely defending the youngest people in America know that the killings in Philadelphia--and all abortion--is violence against women and children.”
Congressman Smith’s remarks come on the heels of the recent introduction of the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act (H.R.3), which would prohibit the expenditure of federal funds and taxpayer dollars for both abortion and health benefits that include coverage of abortion. (Exemptions include abortions of a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, or abortions performed to save the life of a mother who is in danger caused or arising from a pregnancy.) Last week, Speaker of the House John Boehner promised that H.R.3 would be one of Congress’ “highest legislative priorities.”
According to a 2010 report by The Guttmacher Institute, a non-profit organization that works to advance and promote sexual and reproductive health, “the United States has one of the highest abortion rates in the developed world.” A 2011 report by National Right to Life puts the number of abortions performed in the United States in 2008 at 1.2 million.
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