On Friday, thousands of men, women and children braved the cold, and a Secret Service inspection, in order to make a stand for life.
Hundreds of thousands gathered on the National Mall to commemorate not just the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, but to pray that one day abortion will not only be illegal, but also unthinkable.
In a historic moment, President Donald Trump gave the keynote address, which no other president has done. He received a warm reception by the crowd as he stated his strong support of life, women and mothers.
“To all the women here today, your devotion and leadership uplifts our entire nation and we thank you for that,” President Trump said. “The tens of thousands of Americans gathered here today not only stand for life, it’s really here that they stand for it so proudly together, and I want to thank everybody for that. You stand for life each and every day. You provide housing, education, jobs and medical care. You just make it your life’s mission to help spread God’s grace. To all of the moms here today, we celebrate with you and we declare that mothers are heroes. Your strength, devotion and drive are what powers our nation, and because of you our country has been blessed with amazing souls that have changed the course of human history.”
Jeanie Mancini, the president of the March for Life, also made some comments, including, “Mother Theresa said it best, abortion is profoundly anti-woman. Three quarters of its victims are women, half the babies and all the mothers. Inspired by these pressing needs, our theme for the March for Life 2020 aims to change hearts and minds to make abortion unthinkable. Life empowers, pro-life is pro-woman.”
In a great moment, Steve Scalise, the Louisiana Representative who was shot during a bipartisan baseball game practice, gave a great speech: “In 2013, Barack Obama became the first president to speak at Planned Parenthood’s annual conference. Today, Donald Trump becomes the first president to address the March for Life. Don’t tell me that elections don’t have consequences, you know what’s at stake.
“Louisiana was just rated the #1 most pro-life state. And why? Because we are not afraid to stand up for life. Marching for life is not a revolutionary idea, when you think about those three unalienable ideas, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It’s no coincidence that they put the first among those as the right for life.”
In addition to representation from the Republican Party, there were also pro-life supporters from the Democratic Party there as well.
Louisiana State Senator Katrina Jackson, who wrote Louisiana’s legislation that required abortionists to have admitting privileges to hospitals, said, “We hope one day, just like Louisiana, Congress will have Democrats and Republicans as we fight for life. So, Louisiana and this nation is fighting in unity for life because it’s so important to let people know everywhere that the fight for life doesn’t have a partisan stance to it but that we love babies. Every day that we get up we fight for life. And every day that we pray, we pray for life. … Because life is the most important thing.”
The First Lady of Louisiana, Donna Hutto Edwards, is an outspoken advocate for children and families. In her speech, she said, “Being here is important to me and my husband, Governor John Bel Edwards. Our faith is the guiding force in both of our lives and we’re not shy about it. We rely on our faith daily to inform the decisions that we make. We know that prayer changes things. As believers, we know that God is not conformed to man’s laws, and at the end of the day it is up to each of us to pray and to stand in the gap in prayer for those who need our help and see things changed for the better.”
That’s the power of the March for Life. It can bring people of different political perspectives together.
It was fantastic to see so many people, especially young people, making a stand for life. In this cancel culture, where it feels like any slight can end you up on the social media blacklist, there were hundreds of thousands of people standing boldly for the truth. Hopefully, someday, the March for Life will no longer be needed as the scales fall from people’s eyes and the reality of life in the womb is finally recognized.
