Pro-Life Advocates Prepare for National March for Life Against Abortion 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 16, 2007
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — In less than a week, hundreds of thousands of pro-life advocates will head to Washington to participate in the March for Life. Though abortion has been legal without many limits since 1973, the marchers haven’t lost any of the convictions that have brought them out in the cold year after year.
Pro-life advocates expect the same kind of strong turnout they see every year.
Right to Life groups in the Hudson Valley area of New York state are working with at least 14 churches to send busloads of pro-life people to Washington. Other states will do the same.
"We have two buses and around 70 people signed up, and the maximum is 110 people," local pro-life advocate Tom Faranda told a newspaper recently. "To be at this number at this stage is very good."
The march is planned for January 22, and participants will mourn 34 years of legal abortions since the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton that combined to overturn to the pro-life laws of almost every state.
Port Chester resident Rosemary Tirone is 71 but she’s attended almost every march and looks forward to this one.
"There are thousands of people who feel they want this change, and we want our congressmen and -women to know that we will be here until it does change," she told the Journal News.
Rev. Theodore Mens, pro-life director for the Diocese of Gary, Indiana has attended most of the marches since 1973 and he is encouraged by the number of attendees this year.
He said the Gary Diocese is bringing at least 55 people to the march.
"It doesn’t matter if people don’t want to believe you," he said. "You have to give witness to who you are, what you stand for and what you believe in."
Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, urged every pro-life person who can to come to Washington and participate.
He said it was additionally important to have a large turnout because on the day after this March for Life, President Bush will address the nation in his State of the Union.
"President Bush has been a staunch defender of life and, as he faces a new Congress beholden to the abortion lobby, it is important that he knows the American people are behind him," Perkins said.
"The liberal Congress plans to challenge every one of the pro-life policies we have won, and that President Bush has upheld," Perkins explained. He asked pro-life advocates to encourage "him to use his constitutionally granted veto power to stop any legislation from this Congress that would weaken current pro-life law."
Pro-life advocates of all stripes are encouraged to attend, even though March organizers have upset some pro-life advocates by prohibiting pro-life feminist, Democrat, and gay organizations from officially attending.
