As thousands of pro-life advocates gathered in the bitter cold streets of downtown Chicago, Catholic Archbishop Blase Cupich encouraged the crowd to warmly welcome unborn children into the world.
“As we bundle up in the cold today, we want to make sure children are also born into a world that warmly welcomes them,” Cupich told the crowd. “This isn’t just about Chicago or people in the neighborhoods where we come from. This is about our nation and the soul of our nation.
Reuters reports that the archbishop of the Chicago Catholic Diocese spoke to about 5,000 pro-lifers at the Chicago March for Life on Sunday in near-zero temperatures. The pro-life march was held five days before the 43rd anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, which opened the doors to legalized abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.
“The womb should not be their tomb,” Cupich continued, according to the Chicago Tribune. “Their lives matter. We should make room at the table for them, each and every child.”
The Catholic leader encouraged the marchers to stand strong in the cold because they were sending a message “beyond the borders of the state, beyond the borders of the city” that “speaks to the world about the importance of protecting live.”
Pro-lifers’ spirits were strong, despite the cold, according to Reuters:
Demonstrators held yellow balloons with “life” printed on them as organizers passed around rosary beads and others danced to music to keep warm in temperatures that hovered just above 0 degrees Fahrenheit (-18 Celsius).
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… The Chicago march, now in its third year, offers a Midwest alternative for those unable to attend the larger march held in Washington, D.C. every Jan. 22, said Emily Zender, president of March for Life Chicago.
In addition to Archbishop Cupich, speakers included Corey Brooks, a politically active pastor of a mostly black Chicago church; and Wilfredo De Jesus of the evangelical New Life Covenant Church, a prominent Hispanic pastor.
Brooks said he wanted to take the “fight of the pro-life to African-American community.”
“This is a leading cause of death for African-Americans,” he said, referring to abortion.
After the march, Illinois Right to Life described the event as an “incredible day for the pro-life movement” on its Facebook page.
“THANK YOU CHICAGO! Over 5,000 people Marched with sub zero wind chills to show just how serious we are about overturning Roe v. Wade,” the pro-life group wrote.
The national March for Life in Washington, D.C. will be held on Friday, beginning at the Washington Monument and ending at the U.S. Supreme Court building. The event typically draws half-a-million pro-lifers from all across the country to the nation’s capital.
More than 58 million unborn babies have been aborted in America since Roe. The devastating effects of abortion on human life have drawn diverse crowds to January pro-life marches in recent years. As the truth about abortion becomes more apparent, more people from different faith and cultural backgrounds are uniting to end the human rights abuse of abortion.
