As I walked down 12th street with thousands of marching Americans, I thought of the 45 other annual March for Life events which have been taking place every year since 1974. The intent was to raise awareness for anti-abortion policy and advocate for additional reform to abortion laws. Our church group and hundreds of other groups were bundled up in the cold, chanting and marching to the capitol building.

The majority of those marching and the representatives, who spoke in Washington D.C. agree that these reforms should limit abortion to strictly cases where the mother’s life is in danger. We began the meaningful day with prayer in Capitol One Arena. The sights after the prayers showed the true power of the Freedom of Assembly, thousands of peaceful protesters walking side by side.
It was no doubt that the march was a success as expressed by the “love life choose life” and other posters that were held by more than half a million people as they marched between 12th and 14th streets.

I believe this is what’s needed to push for change in abortion laws. Since the march began, hundreds of thousands of Americans annually march against what they believe is immoral and wrong.
Additionally, the march was a peaceful one and went as planned according to Jeanne Mancini, March for Life’s president. “We march to build a culture of life, to end abortion and in protest of the court’s deeply flawed decision and its devastating effect on children and families across the country,” said Mancini when describing the mission of the march. Unlike many marches, like the Antifa march back in August of 2018, the pro-life march had a more resonating feel as it was peaceful. On the other hand, marches like the Antifa march feature physical attacks on the opposition and the police present who are just there to keep people safe.

Many teenagers and college students attend the rallies with their church groups and/or youth groups. The younger demographic has increasingly become more involved in events like the March for Life and March for our Lives; two different events but both wanting change.

The march did an impeccable job in embodying the stance of the pro-life generation, specifically a high proportion of the young, anti-abortion population. This was summed up in one sentence, which was the theme of this year’s message to lawmakers: “Pro-Life is Pro-Science.” People believe this march is a bunch of religious people marching for their Bible, however, this year they’re making a scientific point.

This is due to the rise in the usage of new technologies in the medical industry. Every single time that new technology is used, in ultrasound, for example, it can be seen that each fetus, starting at conception is living and unique.

Along with the political and moral ideology behind the movement, those who were there were able to listen to the speeches of many pro-life public figures. Some of which are representatives in the federal government like Vice President Mike Pence, and others, like Ben Shapiro, are simply popular political commentators.
Prior to the actual march, Ben Shapiro performed his daily podcast, The Ben Shapiro Show, on stage in front of thousands to express in short the beliefs of the march to everyone and why abortion is wrong factually and scientifically.

In addition, abortion, in fact, is the leading cause of death in America taking over 330,000 lives in 2018 alone. Abortion has claimed the lives of nearly 55 million innocent children in America and less than 1% are in cases of rape (source: CDC.gov and the Guttmacht Institute). This means that during the vast majority of cases when abortion is performed, it is unnecessary and when left to nature, the baby would have been born healthy.

After expressing their freedom of assembly to the people of America, people attending the march were able to hear the opinions of many uprising pro-life voices in America, including some Democrats like Dan Lipinski a representative from Illinois’ 3rd district.