participate in the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., Friday, including
thousands of “virtual” marchers joining in online and dozens traveling from
abroad.
As many as 200,000 people have attended previous marches,
which are held on the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling
that legalized abortion.
This year, Americans United for Life (AUL) Action is hosting a
separate Virtual March for Life that has already gained 44,000
participants, including former governors Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin, and
Focus on the Family founder James Dobson.
Virtual marchers will be represented
by an avatar chosen at the group’s Web site, which will be placed in front of
an image of Capitol Hill with other online participants on Friday.
AUL President Charmaine Yoest said the threat of federal
abortion funding under the current health care bill makes this year’s march “the most important in history.”
“We
created the Virtual March for Life to encourage people to be here tomorrow and
to give voice to countless Americans who can’t be in Washington but wish they
could,” Yoest said. “We are encouraging everyone to click and be heard.”
After a morning rally, March for Life participants will begin
walking at noon along Constitution Avenue to Capitol Hill, where activists are
being encouraged to lobby their representatives to reject abortion policies in
the health care bill and other legislation.
March for Life President Nellie J. Gray said this year’s attendees are highly
motivated to “stand up,” which is the event’s theme, and to call on the
president, Congress and the Supreme Court justices to do the same.
“[Washington officials] must understand that by allowing
abortion in America that they are responsible for about 3,000 pre-born boys and
girls being killed every day,” Gray told Charisma. “And the president
should understand that in the first year of his administration approximately 1
million pre-born boys and girls have been killed.”
Before the march begins, participants from Africa, Europe,
South America, Asia and Oceania will protest what they describe as the Obama
administration’s “radical expansion of anti-life policies” during a conference
hosted by the Catholic group Human Life International (HLI) based in Virginia.
“America’s March for Life is now the world’s March for
Life,” said Joseph Meaney, director of international coordination for HLI.
“It has become the world’s pro-life protest because of the aggressive
promotion of abortion and population control that is now official policy of the
United States, thanks to the administration of President Barack Obama.”
Ligaya Acosta, HLI regional coordinator for Asia and
Oceania, said Obama’s decision last year to reverse the Mexico City Policy,
which banned U.S.-funded organizations from promoting abortion overseas, has
promoted “assaults on life” in her native Philippines and around the world that
have resulted in millions of abortions.
“It is wrong, and we are here to tell him and Congress to
stop paying to kill our children,” she said.
HLI activists also point to a $447 billion omnibus spending
bill that Congress passed and Obama signed in December. The legislation
allocates $648.5 million for international
family-planning groups, without the restrictions of the Mexico City Policy, and
$55 million for the pro-abortion United Nations Population Fund.
“When international aid is tied to abortion, it’s like
holding a nation hostage, telling them that children are bad, which translates
into hopelessness for the future,” said Raymond DeSouza, HLI coordinator for
Portuguese-speaking nations. “This is a terrible violence against the families
and children of the developing world.”
At the end of Friday’s march, actress Jennifer O’Neill and
pro-life activist Alveda King, niece of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther
King Jr., will share testimonies of how they were hurt by their abortion
experiences outside the U.S. Supreme Court building.
The two will be among 45 women scheduled to share their
abortion experiences as part of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign. Many
participants will carry signs that read: “I Regret My Abortion” and “I Regret
Lost Fatherhood.” Similar signs, produced by Silent No More, are expected to be
peppered among the March for Life crowd.
“The Silent No More Awareness Campaign was born of the
grief, pain and suffering that those of us who have had abortions know all too
well,” said ministry co-founder Georgette Forney. “We are growing in
number because women have found that abortion is not the answer, it’s the
problem.”
Similar March for Life events will be held in cities nationwide.
Cheri Fuller and Cindy Lamb Curry 
Marilyn Hickey 
Charisma Staff