A jubilant though smaller than normal crowd of pro-lifers gathered in Washington Jan. 20 for the first National March for Life since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer. While many pro-lifers around the country now are focusing on state advocacy rather than national efforts, many Arlington diocese Catholics attended the march, along with Protestant groups, pro-life bikers and others. They were unified by a strong feeling that the national march must continue.
“Roe v. Wade was just one of the many battles — it wasn’t the war,” said Jacob Anderson, a sophomore at Northern Virginia Community College and a parishioner of St. Mary of Sorrows Church in Fairfax. “We still have a lot of people trying to keep abortion legal. So Roe v. Wade was a great battle that we won, but we’ve got a lot more work to do and I think the work really just began.”
The March for Life began nearly 50 years ago and was held on or near the anniversary of the decision that legalized abortion across the United States. Though in 2022, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned the Roe decision, participants said Congress still could consider legislation that could threaten pro-life efforts nationwide.
“I think this is a really important cause that we need to continue fighting for,” said Anthony Olivera, a senior at St. John Paul the Great Catholic High School in Potomac Shores. “I think it’s really encouraging to see the unity and how many people are fighting for the pro-life cause. It’s still important to have that national coming together of the pro-life movement.”
The evening before the march, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-life Activities, celebrated the Opening Mass of the National Prayer Vigil for Life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. The next morning, he celebrated a Mass for pro-lifers at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington before heading to Washington.
At the march, Bishop Burbidge gave the opening invocation. “It was a great honor to offer the prayer and to be on that platform,” he said. “This is a new beginning.” Other speakers followed, including pro-life politicians, Sister for Life Mary Casey O’Connor and her twin sister, Casey Gunning, who has Down syndrome, and Jonathan Roumie, the actor who portrays Jesus on the television series The Chosen.
St. Andrew the Apostle Church in Clifton brought 100 people to the march, said Mike Spicer, who heads the parish Respect for Life and Family Ministry. “Ever since I was a baby, I could tell that babies were special and they needed to be protected,” he said. “I think the fight’s really now just beginning because we do have the power with Roe being overturned. It is also very important to work on the state level.” Spicer hopes many parishioners will attend the Defending Life Day in Richmond Feb. 1.
Felicity Wolf, a junior at Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington, came with some 60 classmates, including fellow members of the pro-life club. “I know scientifically that life begins at conception, (that) we’re all made in the image and likeness of God, we all have souls, (and) it’s immoral and unjust to kill people, and that’s what abortion is,” she said. “We want to convince everyone in a nation, not just in a state, that life is supposed to be protected.”
Bishop Burbidge was grateful to Catholics from the Arlington diocese who marched. “It’s a reflection that our people understand that our work is only now just beginning,” he said. “Now we have to transform hearts as well as laws.”
