Below are a number of photos taken from this year’s March for Life:
Reflection by Liam O’Toole, Photography by Alex Donahoe
At this year’s March for Life, I held a sign with a simple message: “I Stand for Life.” Personally, I like the message this sign sends, and I think it fits well with the Pro-life movement. While last year I held up a “Stop Abortion Now” sign, styled like a stop sign, I like this sign for its different approach to the March: rather than taking a stand against abortion, we are taking a stand for life– all life– which includes the unborn. This is why I also don’t like how some style our movement as “anti-abortion”– it’s accurate, certainly, but characterizes us as being against abortion primarily when in reality we are against abortion as an extension of being pro-life.
Framing the movement as a positive one rather than negative, I think, has kept it alive. It’s why the March for Life has only gotten larger (I noticed many more attendees this year than last). It’s why this year the March had more credibility, with an address given by President Trump (the first sitting President to directly address the March) and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. As Catholic University President John Garvey said in a speech this morning, the pro-life movement was expected to die away in the years following Roe v. Wade, but it has always remained strong. Nearly everyone at the March held a positive, cheery attitude, even in protesting abortion. This is because those of us at the March have positive, and not negative beliefs, even in the face of the grave injustice of abortion. Following the March, I’m hopeful that progress can be made in protecting the right to life for all people, inside and outside the womb.
