Tens of Thousands Join 2022 March for Life to Protest Abortion: ‘All Lives Matter’

(CNSNews.com) — The annual March for Life celebrated it’s 49th anniversary in Washington D.C. on Jan. 21 with an estimated 100,000 pro-life advocates from all over the U.S. joining to stand up for the rights of the unborn, fight to end Roe v. Wade, and to make abortion unthinkable.

“This is the reality of abortion … it only destroys,” said international pro-life advocate Toni McFadden at the march. “The greatest regret of my life was ending the life of my child. I believe all lives matter. Those who advocate for ‘Black Lives Matter’ and demand equal rights for black men and women, that needs to start in the womb.”

The March for Life is the world’s largest pro-life gathering and protest. It was founded in 1974 by Nellie Gray, following the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Jeanne Mancini currently represents the march as president. The march is held every year during the week that Roe v. Wade was decided, on or around Jan. 22.

This year’s theme was “Equality Begins in the Womb.” The attention given to equality in other capacities over the last few years prompted the march organizers to stress that if Americans want true equality, they must first recognize that it “begins in the womb.”

Pro-life advocates march up the hill toward the U.S. Supreme Court. (Getty Images)

Pro-Life speakers at the event included: actor Kirk Cameron, Fr. Mike Schmitz, Duck Dynasty’s Lisa Robertson, Toni McFadden, Katie Shaw, Kristen Waggoner, Rachel Young, Jeanne Mancini, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.), former Rep. Dan Lipiniski (R-Ill.), George Schubger, Cissie Graham Lynch, Greek Orthodox Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, and musician Matthew West.

Katie Shaw, a pro-life advocate with Down syndrome, spoke about the importance of recognizing that equality begins in the womb and explained how her parents chose to give life to her, despite knowing her medical condition.

“I believe equality for you, me, and for everyone started in the womb” Shaw said. “It started the day at conception, when God gave us our souls. I am proud to be here to march to show the world that people with a disability or not need to have a chance to show the world God’s plans for them.”

“They need a chance to live a wonderful life outside the womb,” she said. “My parents found out I had serious medical issues and Down syndrome. When my mom was five months pregnant with me, my parents never thought about aborting me.”

Shaw continued, “Many people don’t know that there is a waiting list. A waiting list for babies with Down syndrome to be adopted, and yet over 80% of babies with Down syndrome are not given the chance to be adopted. They are aborted and their equality ends. It makes me very sad to think of the friends that I have, that I might have lost, if their parents did not believe equality starts in the womb. It makes me sadder to think of  friends I missed because they were aborted.”

Since Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court has heard arguments in several abortion cases. Recently, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor compared a brain dead person to a living human being in the womb.

“There’s about 40 percent of dead people who, if you touch their feet, the foot will recoil,” she said. “There are spontaneous acts by dead brain people. So, I don’t think that a response to — by a fetus necessarily proves that there’s a sensation of pain or that there’s consciousness.”

Father Dave Pivonka, president of the Franciscan University of Steubuenville, commented on Justice Sotomayor’s statement.

“Well, first off, it seems like such a utilitarian answer, the beauty and the dignity of a human person is that they have a soul and a being created by God, so because somebody can’t move or their foot doesn’t move, it just doesn’t hold,” he said.

“It fails to respect the fundamental beauty and dignity of a human person,” said Fr. Pivonka. “If we are simply using whether a person’s foot moves by the nature of whether or not that person deserves respect or deserves dignity, that just misses the beauty of the human person.”

Pro-life advocates are hopeful that the more conservative-leaning justices will uphold the Mississippi state law that bans abortion after 15 weeks during pregnancy. (Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.) If they do, it will upend Roe and its 24-weeks viability guideline.

Although Associate Justices Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Barrett are likely to uphold the Mississippi law, it is not a sure thing that Justice Kavanugh and Chief Justice Roberts will.

Back in 2017, Kavanaugh, although nominated by President Donald Trump to the nation’s highest court as an apparent constitutionalist (conservative), gave a dissenting opinion that a teenage illegal immigrant does have a right to abortion in the case of Garza v. Hargan.

As for Kavanaugh and Roberts, Penny Nance, the CEO and president of Concerned Women for America, said, “I have no way of knowing what they are going to do, but I can tell you that our members are praying every single day for the Holy Spirit to enlighten them, for their hearts to be opened, and their minds to be open for them to see the science, and recognize the truth.”

“In this case, we are talking about 15 weeks, right? We are talking about a little baby who has eyes, ears, a nose, and a mouth, all her major organs, she even has fingers and toes…this is a human life that deserves protection. So we are confident that that’s truth and we are praying that they recognize that truth as well.”

In comments at the march, author Michael Knowles, host of The Michael Knowles Show at the Daily Wire, said, “Everyday I am more convinced that although secular or scientific or materalist arguments against abortion might persuade some people around the edges, it is not possible to articulate a coherent pro-life message if it is not grounded in religion.”

“Because as Cardinal Manning says, ‘All human conflict ultimately is theological’,  and so we can observe that a baby is alive and not dead,” said Knowles. “We can observe that a baby is a human and not a giraffe, but you can’t look through a microscope to see that it is wrong to commit murder.”

“You have to make a moral, ultimately, a religious argument, because if you make a moral argument, you have to ask, who inscribed the moral law?” he added. “So everyday, more and more, I end up back, I think at the earliest insights of the pro-life movement, which is ultimately — this is not just about medical science, chemicals, and heartbeats — it’s about good and evil.”

He concluded, “People of all ages, from children to adults, and of all backgrounds came to march for the millions of lives who have been taken from abortion and for millions of babies who have yet to be born. The pro-life movement will continue to fight until Roe v. Wade is finally overturned and the value of life is finally recognized as starting in the womb.”