5,000 People Protest Abortion at Pennsylvania March for Life

It rained all day in Harrisburg on Monday but more than 5,000 dedicated pro-lifers showed up anyway for the fourth annual March for Life Pennsylvania. It was a bigger crowd than I had seen in previous years and I was happy for the chance to represent Priests for Life.

I made plans to ride on a bus leaving from St. Phillip the Apostle Church in Lancaster so I drove about 70 miles from my home in Philadelphia, arriving in time to concelebrate Mass with Father Lawrence Sherdel, pastor. Then my fellow travelers and I boarded the bus for the 35-mile drive to the state capital.

I enjoyed the chance to address my fellow riders, and organizer Rosie Gross, head of Catholics Defending Life of Lancaster, spoke about the importance of voting, and voting pro-life. Lancaster is Amish country so the scenery was beautiful along the 40-mile route.

We arrived a little more than an hour early and the crowd was already sizeable. I decided to get out of the rain by visiting the gorgeous St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and was surprised to find Mass starting and the sanctuary packed.

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During the rally I passed out cards bearing the Election Prayer for Life written by Priests for Life National Director Frank Pavone. Holding an umbrella and passing them out presented some challenges, but it was worth it to spread this powerful prayer.

The march itself began with a rally featuring several high-profile speakers. Pro-life activist Mark Houck, one of the first victims of the Biden administration’s weaponized Justice Department, was the keynote speaker, delivering a fiery speech about the need for pro-lifers to be active and to get out on the streets.

Houck was arrested in 2022 when more than a dozen heavily armed FBI agents swarmed his house early in the morning, dragging him away in front of his wife and seven terrified children. He was charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act after a minor altercation with an escort outside a Planned Parenthood killing center a year earlier. He was acquitted of all charges at a trial in January 2023.

“One man came up to me after I was raided by the FBI and said, ‘I could never do what you do. You have a very special gift.’ I said, what’s my gift? I just show up. Folks, that’s what you have to do. You have to show up. Be present.”

Houck and I are friends and he sought me out in the crowd afterward to say hello.

Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson Perez also spoke at the rally, calling the rain “holy water” and a blessing from heaven.

The day’s most powerful testimony came from Wendy Burpee, executive director of the Genesis Women’s Clinic in Pottstown and Phoenixville.

Pregnant at 19, she went to Planned Parenthood for a consultation. While waiting to see the doctor to ask questions, she was offered an injection to calm her down.

“I took that medication,” she said. “And then I woke up … The abortion had already happened. A woman came in and said, ‘You’re free to go. Everything will be OK now.’ But it wasn’t.”

An abusive boyfriend coerced her into a second abortion, and when she showed up at Planned Parenthood with visible bruises from a beating, no one at the abortion business asked any questions. That abortion was incomplete, sending her to an emergency room with a raging infection, parts of her baby still in her womb and her uterus torn.

“After that it seemed like my life was hopeless and couldn’t get any worse,” Ms. Burpee said. “Four months later, I would have another abortion because I did not want anyone to have me as a mother. I was broken beyond repair, surviving one day at a time. And then, God.”

Today she is a married mother of three who tells her story to young women who find themselves in the same situation and assures them they do not have to travel her same path. Hers was a very moving speech, the most compelling of the day.

Statewide Marches for Life have become more important now that regulation of abortion has returned to the states. To make sure Pennsylvania’s elected officials got our message, we were urged to text members of the state Legislature at a special number supplied to us.

In a state led by a pro-abortion governor, and where babies are killed until 24 weeks, it was very important that we made our presence, and our unwavering support for life, known to each and every lawmaker.

LifeNews Note: Fr. Denis Wilde, OSA, Ph.D., is the associate chaplain for Priests for Life. A concert pianist, he was formerly an associate professor of music at Villanova University.

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