Tens of thousands rallied in Washington, D.C. at the 53rd annual March for Life on Friday. This year’s theme: Life is a Gift.
While some suggest that unborn life is a cause for parents and grandparents, thousands of young Americans joined the March for Life in a public display that defied the caricature of the pro-life movement. Some shared their stories with The Daily Signal.
James, 22 and a student at the University of Central Florida, traveled from Orlando, Florida to join the March for Life. “I was actually adopted, so the pro-life movement is very important to me,” James told The Daily Signal.
“It shows that there’s other options besides abortion for unwanted babies, and I am proof that you don’t have to abort your children,” James shared.
Clara, age 19, told The Daily Signal, “it was so cool to see everyone from around the country come and join and be a part of this movement.”
“There’s so many people around us just supporting that movement, making it stronger, and knowing that you can potentially save a life,” Clara continued.
“We march for one thing and one thing only, and that is obviously life,” said Clara proudly.
Shanyce Thomas, age 25, traveled from Baltimore for her first March for Life. “I’m marching because I am a victim of the abortion pill,” Thomas told The Daily Signal.
On Thursday she joined Live Action on Capitol Hill for the “Abortion Pill Exposed” press conference to share her story with members of Congress.
Thomas suffered life-threatening injuries after being pressured by her boyfriend to take the abortion pill.
“Doctors had no choice but to perform a partial hysterectomy. In one moment, my ability to carry children in my future was taken from me, not by choice but by necessity to save my life,” Thomas shared at the press conference.
The march is “something bigger” Thomas continued. “I see what it can do, and I see how people are trying to stop [abortion] just by all of us being here and marching in front of The Supreme Court,” she said, describing what the march meant to her.
Jennie Bradley Lichter, the new president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, shared her vision of the event with The Daily Signal in October.
“Our goal,” Lichter shared, “is to invite everyone to the irrepressible joy of the March for Life; to be swept up into a movement that transcends politics and celebrates the joy, beauty, and goodness of life itself.”
The march is a faith filled event for many. Javier, 22, traveled from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with the John Jay Fellowship to join the march. He told us he is pro-life because he is Catholic.
Javier shared that being pro-life “means affirming life, affirming the gift of life, and rejecting the culture of death.”
“We’re here building for the Kingdom,” Javier said.
Madeline, 23, attended her eighth March for Life on Friday. She started coming to the march when she was just 14 years old.
“I want to make sure that people don’t forget that the young people care about this issue too,” Madeline told The Daily Signal.
“I will not let this issue be lied about, that it’s old people that want to just control women’s control women’s bodies, and that the young in our society really do yearn for truth,” she continued.
Katie, also 23, is another long-time marcher. “This is my sixth March,” she told The Daily Signal. “My first march was in 2020, when I was a senior in high school, it was actually the march that Donald Trump came to and spoke at for the first time,” Katie said.
Before 2020, Katie says she was a “a hopeless pro-lifer.” But that year she said she was inspired to see thousands of pro-lifers standing out in the cold. “I was very inspired by their selflessness and their courage, and that inspired me to want to come back every year,” Katie said.
“And here I am,” she added.