March for Life is a Celebration of Dobbs and Overturning Roe v. Wade

The reversal of Roe v. Wade was the main goal of the American pro-life movement for five decades but it was not the only objective of the national March for Life.

The March for Life is perhaps best known for bringing people together, from all over the country. It is exhilarating to be surrounded by tens of thousands of people who all feel the way we do about the unborn and our need to protect them. It’s hard to describe the power in those numbers. But there’s always been more to the March than that.

Founded by Nellie Gray, an attorney and Catholic convert, the March published and aimed to educate people on the Life Principles, calling for a complete end to abortion. “No exceptions, no compromise,” as she was known to say. Every baby needs protection because no abortion can be justified.

Nellie and I met often and spoke frequently about the March – held every January since 1974 – and also about the need to continue educating people in the Life Principles all year long. That is as true today, 18 months after the fall of Roe, as it was in Nellie’s day.

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And Nellie’s volunteers would always have roses delivered to every Congressional office on the morning of the March. She would urge the marchers to visit their elected representatives that day to lobby for pro-life laws.

In Nellie’s day, the Rally before the March would feature talks from as many pro-life lawmakers from Congress willing to fit the chilly event into their schedule. Sometimes the March was notoriously late in stepping off because politicians do like to talk, but their messages were important and Nellie didn’t want to refuse them the time. They didn’t talk about overturning Roe v. Wade; they talked about legislation, and often it was legislation they had passed that very day.

The March was never just about the Court. It was about Congress too.

This year the March for Life organization has chosen as its theme: Life: Why We March. Priests for Life Executive Director Janet Morana, members of our staff and Pastoral Team are in DC for the March, as we are every year. We march because, simply put, the unborn are still not protected. There is more protection for them now, praise God, but the goal has not yet been achieved, on a federal level or in many of the states.

This year, in conjunction with the March, the Senate voted on advancing the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. Democrats have opposed this life-saving bill for years, and did so again this time. I applaud Republican efforts to get on the record all those who oppose providing medical care to a newborn. They understood the importance of holding this vote while the capital is packed with pro-lifers.

Abortion advocates and those on the fence might wonder why we keep showing up year after year, especially now that the Dobbs decision has reversed Roe. But the reversal of Roe means precisely that we increase our urging of lawmakers to protect the unborn. Roe meant that when these lawmakers passed pro-life laws, the Courts would block them.

But now thanks to Dobbs, the Courts have to defer to the lawmakers and to us, the people, who can protect the unborn if we want. So why would we stop marching, advocating, and lobbying? The age of Dobbs is the time for more marches, more laws, more activism. The door has been opened wide and we need to go through it.

So abortion advocates have got a lesson to learn. We aren’t going away until we have overcome the Culture of Death and protected the right to life for every unborn child.

LifeNews.com Note:  Frank Pavone is national director of Priests for Life and the national pastoral director of Rachel’s Vineyard Ministries and the Silent No More Awareness Campaign.

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