Citing concerns about COVID-19, the leadership of the March for Life has announced that the annual anti-abortion march in Washington, D.C., will not take place this year. Instead, the usual pro-life rally will be hosted virtually on January 29, and a small group of pro-life leaders will walk the usual marching route. The group is encouraging pro-lifers across the country who usually travel to the capital for the event to participate virtually.
This is the first time since 1974 that huge numbers of pro-lifers won’t gather in the nation’s capital on the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision to protest legal abortion. While the choice to go virtual is understandable given concerns about COVID-19, it’s certainly disappointing, especially after a year of so much loss, despair, and political unrest.
I’ve been to the March for Life nearly every year since I was born, first as an attendee and then, in more recent years, as a reporter. It’s always such a sign of hope. Though pro-lifers gather in D.C. every single year to protest abhorrent violence against unborn human beings, despite considerable political and media opposition to their cause, there is always so much joy and peace in the crowd. We could have used that reminder in a particular way this year, and it would’ve been a good reminder, too, that for decades pro-lifers have managed to gather en masse and protest the grievous injustice of abortion peacefully.