NEWS STORY: Protest, Prayer and Politics Mark Legal Abortion’s 30th Birthday

c. 2003 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Protesters, press conferences and prayer services all marked the 30th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision, which has fueled debate about abortion in the decades since the controversial Supreme Court verdict. Tens of thousands of abortion opponents gathered Wednesday (Jan. 22) beneath the Washington Monument to hear […]

c. 2003 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Protesters, press conferences and prayer services all marked the 30th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision, which has fueled debate about abortion in the decades since the controversial Supreme Court verdict.

Tens of thousands of abortion opponents gathered Wednesday (Jan. 22) beneath the Washington Monument to hear religious and political messages condemning abortion while counter-protesters supportive of abortion rights held alternative observances.


At the 30th Annual March for Life, members of the crowd were wrapped in scarves and mittens on the sunny but frigid day to note the anniversary of the high court ruling that gave women the right to abortion.

President Bush, who had declared Sunday “National Sanctity of Human Life Day,” joined religious and political leaders by telephone to address the audience at the rally.

“For 30 years, the March for Life has been sustained by constant prayer and abiding hope, that one day, every child will be born into a family that loves that child and a nation that protects that child,” the president said.

Saying he shared “a commitment to building a culture of life in America,” Bush cited the progress he’s made on their cause, including signing the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, opposing stem cell research that would involve the destruction of embryos and declining to spend federal funds on international programs that promote abortion.

“We must not create life to destroy life,” the president said. “Human beings are not research material to be used in a cruel and reckless experiment.”

The crowd cheered Bush’s remarks, especially when he said he hoped Congress would this year pass a ban on a late-term abortion procedure, called by opponents partial-birth abortions. Several members of Congress pledged to renew their support for such a ban.

Nellie Gray, president of the March for Life Fund, called volunteers to the stage to carry little white coffins representing “pre-born children” who had been killed each year since the 1973 decision. A bell tolled after she recited each year.


“This is what they have given us in 30 years and that is why we are marching today,” Gray said of “feminist abortionists.”

“We’re going to overturn Roe vs. Wade!”

Several members of Congress took turns at the microphone, many promising to continue their efforts to pass legislation related to the marchers’ cause.

“We need to keep going,” said Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Pa. “We need to keep at it because we need to win.”

Across the crowd, people hoisted signs such as “Women Deserve Better Than Abortion” and “Abortion Kills More People Than War.”

Just hours before and blocks away from the rally, people on the other side of the debate talked about mobilizing their supporters to promote their stand.

“Roe vs. Wade affirmed that it is women who should make a decision about abortion,” said the Rev. Carlton Veazey, president of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.


“It is wrong for government to impose its rules and regulations on such a personal matter and wrong _ in our pluralistic democracy where we value religious freedom _ for government to impose certain religious tenets about the beginning of life on all of us.”

Veazey moderated a news conference at a downtown hotel featuring leaders of other abortion rights groups.

Some of them recalled life before the Roe decision, when women died from botched, illegal abortions. Others said their opponents’ plans for changes in laws and Supreme Court justices should spark abortion rights activists to take more action.

“People out there were so confident that this right would never be overturned,” said Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women. “It is now clear to everyone that this right is at stake and it’s at stake in the very near future.”

The march and the news conference were part of a plethora of activities ranging from candlelight vigils to dinners to worship services.

The marchers, who headed to the Supreme Court after an hour and a half of speeches, had mounted various displays to depict their view. About a block from the stage, some had set up a makeshift cemetery with crosses.


Not far away, three large signs displayed a theme of “the changing face of choice.” The first panel, “religious choice,” featured a picture from the Holocaust. The second, “racial choice,” was accompanied by a picture of a lynching victim. And the third, “reproductive choice,” depicted the tiny limbs of an aborted fetus.

Between the speeches and the patriotic music, members of the crowd said they came to make a stand, some with many years of experience and others newer to the cause.

Ann Poole, a mother of eight from Ebensburg, Pa., has been to 14 of the marches.

“I truly believe human life is sacred from conception with all my heart,” said Poole, who held an “Abortion Is Murder” sign. “Abortion shows the hopelessness of a certain segment of society who doesn’t believe every person has a purpose in life.”

Groups of students from Catholic high schools and colleges congregated within the crowds.

Katherine Bugos, an 18-year-old student at Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, Mich., came with a busload of 60 students.

“Pro-life really says a lot about who you are and how you view life in general,” she said. “If you don’t stand up for the littlest forms of life, how can you expect to respect other forms of life?”


Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox Jews joined anti-abortion groups of elderly, priests and athletes at the march.

“This is a new day,” said Robert Dornan, a former Republican congressman who has attended the march through five presidential administrations. “We will prevail. God will not be mocked and we will save this country from the Herodian court of NARAL,” an abortion-rights group.

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Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, prayed the final prayer before the marchers moved down Constitution Avenue toward the Capitol and the Supreme Court.

“Women tempted by abortion deserve better, Lord,” he prayed. “They deserve our love, our help and our respect. Children waiting to be born deserve better than abortion, Lord. They deserve our protection and care.”

On both sides, there was a mood of concern more than celebration on this anniversary, with anti-abortionists decrying the deaths of unborn children and abortion rights supporters holding a memorial service for women who had died trying to have an abortion and doctors who had been killed for offering the procedure.

“Where the religious right have made progress is the moral condemnation,” said the Rev. George Regas, convener of the Progressive Religious Partnership and the keynote speaker at the service.


“I, as a progressive religious person, believe that it’s grossly immoral to force an unwilling woman to have an unwanted child. That is the grossest of immoralities. We have to say that women having abortions stand on holy ground.”

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