January 22nd provided me with a unique opportunity–a chance to get a bird's eye view of the March for Life. Thanks to the gracious invitation of Peter Shinn of Pro-Life Unity.com, I had the incredible experience of being on the fourth floor of a building at the corner of Constitution Avenue and First Street NE in Washington, DC at exactly 2 pm when the march began approaching the United States Supreme Court building.
Throngs of pro-life Americans with young faces and youthful exuberance streamed down the street overflowing onto the sidewalks. Thousands of young people sang, chanted, prayed and praised God for the gift of life while mourning the deaths of their aborted brothers and sisters. You could feel the resolve in this immense throng as though each of them was accepting responsibility for converting America to a pro-life nation.
The stream of people continued for two hours! Yes, for 120 minutes the crowds edged their way toward the Supreme Court building, and during that entire time I was mesmerized by the faces, the dedication and the incredible energy that is emitted by such vast numbers. Near the end of the march I went down into the throng, welcomed my son and his family and the students from St. Michael the Archangel High School located in Fredericksburg, Virginia. I looked at them and I knew that each of them was chilled to the bone but glad to be part of this amazing demonstration of faith. At that moment I praised God that for the past 33 years I have witnessed this annual March for Life grow into the powerful and youthful statement it became today.
When I returned to the meetings I was attending, I said a silent prayer of thanks, for while the pundits will dismiss this effort and the major news outlets will ignore it, there is one thing that became crystal clear to me. America is becoming a pro-life nation. It is slowly, like a lumbering ox, awakening to the fact that every act of abortion is evil and cannot be tolerated. It is listening to the facts, it is watching the babies thanks to 4D ultrasound and it is resolving to regain the moral sanity that once defined our nation.
It has always been my view that the pro-life goal of personhood would become a reality but I never really felt that I could predict when that might occur. I have immense hope now that it will come sooner than later, and in that opinion I do not stand alone.
As Steven Chapman, the highly respected editorial writer recently opined:
The prevailing view used to be: Abortion may be evil, but it's necessary. Increasingly, the sentiment is: Abortion may be necessary, but it's evil.
You and I know that abortion is never necessary, but America is awakening to that fact as well. Let us thank God that we are living in this age, celebrating the gift of children and helping our fellow Americans see the truth. We will persist and that is why we will one day be victorious.
