Pro-Life Movement Reaches Ascendancy

By Martin Wooster | 2011

WASHINGTON, January 27 (C-FAM) Major events in Paris, Washington DC, and San Francisco this past week exemplified the new face of the pro-life movement: young, vocal, and rapidly expanding.

On the heels of a new poll that reaffirmed that a majority of Americans self-identify as pro-life, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gathered Monday in the nation’s capital to protest the 38th anniversary of the US Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion on demand. 

This year’s March for Life was notable for the prominence of its speakers, which included newly elected Senator Marco Rubio from Florida. 

“On this day, we remember the tragic Roe v. Wade decision, whereby the Supreme Court determined that equal protection and equal rights do not apply to the unborn,” said Rubio.  “In doing so, the court rejected the truth that all of our rights are derived from the self-evident, fundamental right to life.”

Further west, one of the world’s most liberal cities hosted 40,000 people who marched 2.5 miles along the Pacific Ocean in the largest pro-life march outside of Washington DC.  The San Francisco March for Life was one of the hundreds of marches in cities and towns across the US that marked the Roe v Wade decision of 1973.

Two days earlier in Paris, France, 40,000 demonstrators marched to protect unborn life, armed with the personal blessing of Pope Benedict XVI and accompanied by four Roman Catholic bishops.

Back in Washington DC, the Gerard Health Foundation hosted the 2nd Annual Life Prizes Awards, which was a highlight among dozens of major events organized last weekend around the annual March for Life.

The event honored six individuals or organizations that split $600,000 in award money.  The honorees included Jeanne Head, UN Representative for the National Right to Life Committee, as well as Alveda King, niece of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.  Several awardees and speakers echoed a major theme of “ending abortion in our lifetimes” in America.

“When I learned that the UN was being used to promote abortion worldwide, there was no choice,” said Jeanne Head in her acceptance speech.  “I had to do more. I discovered that I could do things that I never thought possible.  I found that, armed with just compassion and the truth, I could influence diplomats, ministers, and ambassadors, to do the right thing: to embrace life.”

The recognition for Alveda King embodies the increasing attention being cast upon the targeting of African Americans by the abortion industry, a practice that King and other black leaders have referred to as “black genocide”.

In recent years, polling data has shown an increasingly dramatic shift from the “pro-choice” position to pro-life. A newly released Fox News poll shows a swing of 20 percent in the past 13 years. The Gallup polling organization calls pro-life the “new normal.” Many credit the national debate over partial birth abortion for this dramatic shift. Even so, pro-lifers know their issue is far from won. Roe v. Wade is still the law of the land and many Americans remain at least wary of overturning it.

 

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