More than one thousand pro-life advocates gathered in the rain Monday in Annapolis, Maryland to urge lawmakers to protect unborn babies by rejecting several radical pro-abortion bills in the state legislature.
“We were 1,300 strong tonight despite the rain. We filled Lawyers Mall and the streets as well and we were LOUD for Life!!” Maryland Right to Life wrote on Facebook after the event.
The 43rd annual Maryland March for Life brought together pro-lifers from all across the state to call for unborn babies to be protected.
“Fifty years of legal abortion has failed to cure the underlying socio-economic ills that women face in raising our families. We challenge state lawmakers to put patients before abortion politics so they may begin to address the legitimate needs of women and families in our state,” said Laura Bogley, J.D., the executive director of Maryland Right to Life, which helped organize the march.
The Maryland Legislature is considering several pro-abortion bills this winter, including one that would create a state constitutional right to abort unborn babies for any reason without limits. Another would force public colleges to provide abortions and emergency contraception to students, according to the Baltimore Sun.
The proposed constitutional amendment would make it more difficult for future state legislatures to pass any protections for unborn babies and mothers against abortion.
To amend the Maryland Constitution, the measure must pass the state legislature by a three-fifths majority and then be approved by voters on the ballot. This year, Democrats won supermajorities in the state House and Senate.
ACTION ALERT: To oppose this bill, contact Maryland state lawmakers.
Maryland already allows unborn babies to be aborted for any reason up to birth, and is home to at least two late-term abortion facilities. It allows nurse practitioners and midwives to abort unborn babies and allows underage girls to get abortions without their parents’ knowledge or consent.
Pro-life leaders lamented how Maryland has become a destination state for abortions, and pointed to polls showing strong public opposition to late-term abortions. Creating a “right” to abortion in the Maryland Constitution would only make the situation worse, said Michele Hendrickson, chair VP of the Maryland March for Life.
“Any such constitutional amendment set to codify abortion through all nine months would be a devastating misrepresentation of Maryland families and lock us into rampant unregulated abortion rather than prioritizing real holistic support for women in need,” Hendrickson said.
One of the keynote speakers at the march, popular Catholic podcaster Gloria Purvis encouraged pro-life advocates to keep speaking up for those who cannot speak for themselves, the Sun reports.
“That includes the child in the womb; that includes the person at the end of their life; that includes the person in difficult circumstances right now that are not heard. We are their voices,” Purvis said.
Purvis said abortion hurts whole families, including children, mothers and fathers, and destroys unborn babies’ human rights.
“They talk about abortion as a human right. I’m like, ‘A human right is never a human wrong,’” she continued. “Abortion goes against the very nature of what it is to be a female and that is to be able to bear a child.”
Others who helped coordinate the march included the Maryland Coalition for Life, Students for Life of America, the Baptist Convention of Maryland and the Catholic Archdioceses of Baltimore and Washington.
ACTION ALERT: To oppose this bill, contact Maryland state lawmakers.
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