2010 'heartwarming' March for Life (OneNewsNow.com)

2010 'heartwarming' March for Life

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 1/23/2010 4:00:00 AM

According to the estimates, the annual March for Life attracted over 250,000 people yesterday, drawing wide participation in the rally against legalized abortion.

This year's march began with prayer offered by Anglican Priest Martin Mims.

"Forgive us for the many ways in which we have failed to respect the sanctity of every human life," he began. "Give us courage to be a voice for the voiceless. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. We gather today to pray for our leaders. We pray especially for those who even now are making decisions about providing healthcare for all our people. Protect them from choices made out of political expediency with no mind for your truth," Mims requested. "Remind them of your promises. Turn their hearts to the children. Lord in your mercy hear our prayer. And now to the God who showed his love for the whole world, to the gift of his only son, Jesus the Christ, and who calls us to do the same, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time and now and forever, Amen."

The event's focus was the issue of life, and the vast crowd marched to its conclusion at the Supreme Court, which is where the 1973 decision was made to legalize abortion. Since that decision in Roe v. Wade, more than 50-million babies have been aborted.

Nellie Gray, 84, president of March for Life, later spoke to the crowd, explaining one of the purposes behind being in the streets of the nation's capitol on a cold, wintery day. "We've got to get the president to hear us," she declared. "We've got to get the justices to hear us, and we've got to get Congress to hear us."

The event president made reference to a letter March for Life has written a letter to President Obama, pointing to a statement he made while touring the Buchenwald concentration camp last June where many thousands of Jews were killed during World War II. He said, "When you look at the horror that was here that was done by a government to its own people, then you know that was wrong."

"Mr. President, it seems as if you have forgotten it," she stated in reference to that statement. "There is the killing of the innocent children here in America. You have forgotten it already since June, and the essence of this killing is hard numbers."

Dr. Peggy Hartshorn (Heartbeat International) Another participant in this year's march was Peggy Hartshorn of Heartbeat International, an association of crisis pregnancy centers, and she remarked on the crowd. "It's hard to even move, there are so many people trying to march," she said. "It's very exciting to know that so many people have sacrificed and have come here to stand up for life."

She added that one of the heartwarming aspects was the number of young people who participated since "probably the average age at the march would have to [have been] in the low 20s...."

Hartshorn further noted the "eight moms with their babies from pregnancy centers all over the country -- from Texas and Louisiana and Illinois and Indiana and Ohio" who were lobbying members of Congress earlier in the week on the aid that crisis pregnancy centers provide to save the unborn from abortion at no cost to taxpayers.

Shaun Kenney (ALL) Shaun Kenney, executive director of the American Life League, was asked to describe the mood at the event. "Well, it's cold. It's absolutely packed and ecstatic over here," he explained. "This is probably one of the best attended marches I've seen in a long time. Obviously the condition at Capitol Hill and elsewhere, it's never been a friendly environment here in Washington for pro-lifers, but the mood here is absolutely electric."

Kenney comments that the atmosphere last year was rather somber, but this year, there was a change in the air.

"We have seen just how quickly change really does happen in America, and I think that this generation, the folks here understand that, and they can taste it," he said. "They know that if we do what we need to do, we do what we are supposed to do, we change this culture towards life and we can end abortion within our lifetime."

The executive director stresses that even though the curtain has closed on this year's March for Life, the battle for that culture will continue as participants go to their local communities and continue the fight against abortion.