GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Lawmakers on Capitol Hill won’t get much time to catch their breath following last week’s women’s marches that popped up in cities around the country. An event of similar enormity – at least in the capital – is taking place this Friday. The message this time: pro-life.
For the past 44 years, since the passage of the controversial Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973, the March for Life has been something of a pilgrimage for pro-life activists. Attracting hundreds of thousands of demonstrators annually, the march is meant as a call to action and West Michigan will be well represented.
“It is an opportunity for us to pray - not only to pray in our hearts, but pray with our feet, if you will,” said Mark Mann of the Grand Rapids Diocese and organizer of a trip to the march that’s expected to include over 200 West Michiganders.
“We also relate to it like the ancient tradition of making a pilgrimage,” said Mann “In this case, not too necessarily a holy place but we are going to our nation’s capital.”
Within the group will be a handful of local students making their inaugural or returning trip to the March for Life.
“It’s very exciting for many of the young people that we take year after year, especially for those who go for the first time,” said Mann. “The opportunity to make that stand for them, for some of them this is the first time that they’ve really done that in a real way.”
Nearly 100 demonstrators from West Michigan will travel by bus to D.C. on Wednesday with another 135 in tow the following day. The weekend will include a prayer service of some 20,000 strong inside the city’s Verizon Center before Friday’s rally, followed by the rally itself and several days of sightseeing over the weekend.
This will be the first time in eight years the march has gone on under the administration of a pro-life president in newly elected Commander-in-Chief Donald Trump, who has already put pen to paper on several anti-abortion executive orders.
For more information on the March for Life, visit their Facebookpage.
