A record number of pro-lifers marched through the streets of Lincoln, Nebraska on Saturday to mark the anniversary of infamous U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade and peacefully call for protections for unborn babies.
“The 42nd annual Nebraska Walk for Life sponsored by Nebraska Right to Life was a huge success with 5,000 pro-life Nebraskans showing up on Saturday, Jan 30th outside the State Capitol,” the group’s Executive Director Julie Schmit-Albin told LifeNews. “40 degree temperatures and sunshine helped with the record turnout.”
The walk began on the steps of the Nebraska State Capitol, where pro-life Gov. Pete Ricketts kicked off the event. Ricketts told the crowd that they are making a difference for life in Nebraska, according to the Omaha World-Herald.
“It has been a long fight,” Ricketts said. “Because of what you are doing we are making progress. We will, in the end, be successful.”
He was joined by Lt. Gov. Mike Foley, U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry and several members of the Nebraska Legislature, who spoke about a new state bill that would ban dismemberment abortions that tear unborn babies limb from limb.
Schmit-Albin said the crowd also released pink and blue to remember the more than 58 million unborn babies who have died since 1973, including more than 183,000 in Nebraska.
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After the thousands of pro-lifers marched seven blocks through downtown Lincoln, they went to the University of Nebraska Student Union to hear keynote speaker Sue Thayer, a former Planned Parenthood director from Iowa who later became a whistle-blower against the abortion business.
“She told the standing room only crowd about her experience as a former clinic director with Planned Parenthood of the Heartland,” Schmit-Albin said. “The attendees gave Sue a standing ovation …”
University of Nebraska-Lincoln freshman Trent Smith was one of the many young people who attended the event. Smith also went to the March for Life in Washington, D.C. last week, and on the way back, his bus got stuck in a snowstorm on Pennsylvania Turnpike, he told the newspaper.
“It was a no-brainer coming today,” Smith said. “Every single time you come to a march like this it reignites that spark and keeps the flame going. As long as we weren’t on a bus, I was fine with it.”
According to the local news report: “Young people made up a great number of the group outside the Capitol. A group of high school boys were ‘shirtless and shoeless for the voiceless’ holding signs that read ‘I am the pro-life generation.’ Small children held heart-shaped signs reading ‘A person is a person no matter how small’ and ‘Every heartbeat is a gift from God.’”
