March for Life 2005
and Walk for Life West Coast

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Rochester Area Right To Life

March for Life 2005
and Walk for Life West Coast

Washington, DC

This year the weather did not cooperate for the March for Life in Washington!  The Rochester contingent was mostly absent, as the road conditions caused buses to be cancelled.

However, the March continued with an estimated 150,000 marchers, according to Life Site.  The distribution of the crowd was different, however, this year, leading to highly variable estimates of attendance.  One participant thought there were over 200,000 marchers because the places where he/she was were much more crowded than normal, another participant estimated less because other places were less crowded.

The Vigil Mass for Life held at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception filled the Basilica with about 8,000 people.  It was concelebrated by over 200 priests, 16 bishops, five cardinals, and the U.S. Papal Nuncio.

The marchers are a marvelous mosaic.  There were many families, young people, older people, college and high school students, and pastors with congregational delegations.   There was a trio of rabbis with Jewish pro-life sentiments on their signs.  One marcher walked in bare feet, dressed as Jesus.  Casual but dedicated, all of them.

President Bush gave an address by telephone, which was greeted with roars of approval.  He put the issue in a nutshell when he said, �You know, we come from many backgrounds -- different backgrounds, but what unites us is our understanding that the essence of civilization is this: The strong have a duty to protect the weak.�  And he congratulated the crowd for not allowing the weather to stop them!

Many people before and after have expressed the wistful thought that it would be nice if Mr. Bush appeared in person.  Others have pointed out that the massive security measures connected with an appearance by the President would grossly interfere with the process of the March.  In any event, crowd appreciated the wonderful support given so publicly by the President.

At the end of the March, Nellie Gray was observed standing on the back of a pickup truck and urging marchers to continue to the Supreme Court building and legislative offices to visit Congressmen.  

The group Silent No More was to speak at the Supreme Court building.  This is a group of women who had abortions and regret it.  Many have worked through their experience sufficiently to be able and to want to speak publicly about it, to warn others that abortion is not the quick easy fix they may have thought it was.  At the March, in multiple places, members hold up signs saying, �We regret our abortion.�

This year Silent No More was split.  Georgette Forney, the President, was in San Francisco at the Walk for Life West Coast.

San Francisco

Organized by two San Francisco women for the first time this year, the Walk in San Francisco was intended to reach especially women who were pregnant or who had had an abortion.

It was opposed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, who according the Maurice Healy of the Catholic San Francisco had earlier �unanimously passed a resolution declaring the city to be a �pro-choice� zone� and then staged their own rally earlier in the day of the Walk.  The police in SF did a magnificent job of protecting the 7,000 peaceful pro-life Walkers from an estimated hundreds to 3000 of screaming pro-abortionists, who threw condoms and shouted often anti-Catholic and/or obscene insults from the other side of the police guard.  Walkers had been instructed not to respond, to either smile or simply face forward if confronted with hostility.

 Georgette Forney said, �We want the truth to be heard in San Francisco. We want women and men to know help is available if you are hurting from your abortion.

�The San Francisco board of supervisors should be ashamed of themselves for proclaiming this a pro-choice city. If the supervisors really cared about women they would provide pregnancy centers and provide real choices for women. Our experience is abortion is not good for women. Abortion hurts women!�

 In the Catholic San Francisco, editor Maurice Healy commented that  "Thanks to the repugnant rhetoric of city officials and the boorish behavior of several hundred pro-abortion activists, San Francisco went a long way on Jan. 22 to solidify its reputation as one of the most intolerant cities in the nation."

 One of the Walk organizers commented that they had chosen San Francisco because of its very high abortion rate.  She felt that she needed to take the message where it was most needed.

 The Walk was supported by the San Francisco Diocese in several ways.  Archbishop William Levada both delivered a prayer at the rally beginning the Walk and also was one of the Walkers leading the crowd through the city streets behind a big banner that proclaimed �Abortion Hurts Women.�

Rochesterian Carol Crossed, national president of Democrats for Life, went to San Francisco to help kick off the event.  She commented that it was strange to find such opposition from the local government, when she had been previously so welcomed as an anti-war activist.

 The net effect in San Francisco had to be a heightened awareness that abortion hurts women.  Women who came up to Walkers confiding their own abortion stories are being helped by referrals to counseling.

How wonderful!  Pro-life people on the move on both coasts! (And in the middle, but that�s another story in itself.)

Washington info:
Pictures and comments at the Free Republic site:  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1328010/posts
Text of President Bush�s message:   http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/01/20050124-7.html
Reporting by Life Site News  http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jan/05012507.html

Want to see West Coast pictures?  Try the Free Republic site  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1326420/posts
and also  www.indybay.org
The West Coast website is  www.walkforlifewc.com

San Francisco Catholic Diocese comments: http://www.catholic-sf.org/012805.html

Updated on RARTL Feb 2005


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