March for Life, 2025

Last week, January 24^th, I went, as per my annual tradition, to the March for Life down in Washington D.C.  Though it is my annual tradition, I was not able to go last year.  I don’t know if I ever posted on it.  What happened last year was that I was all paid to go and I was at the meeting spot, which was in front of Blessed Sacrament Church on Staten Island, waiting with the other pilgrims for the bus to arrive at 5:30 AM.  We waited and waited and by around an hour later we got word the bus had broken down and there was no replacement available.  With a communal sigh of disgust we had to accept the fact that we could not go in 2024.  Also once the march was cancelled and no one went.  The March was cancelled in 2021 because of Covid.  With 2016 being my first year, I have gone to eight Marches the last ten years. 

This year we again met in front of Blessed Sacrament Church but this year the bus showed up!  The process was the same as in 2023.  The bus dropped us off at St. Patrick’s Church in Washington DC, attended Mass, and then made our way (about four or five blocks) to the Washington Monument where nearby the pavilion for the speakers was set up. 

In 2023 I posted pictures of St. Patrick’s Church, and so I’ll let you go back to that.  I will post this plaque that stood outside the church showing it goes back to 1792. 

The pilgrims that attended this Mass at St. Patrick’s were those from busses from the Archdiocese of New York.  The celebrants—and it looks like there were quite a few—were all pastors and auxiliary bishops from New York.  The chief celebrant was Bishop Peter J. Byrne who was on our bus and is the auxiliary bishop for Staten Island.  Let me include these video shorts of the processing in and the processing out from Mass.

 

It was a lovely Mass with a touching homily from Bishop Byrne.

This year everyone entering the Mall had to go through metal detectors.  This took quite a while.  People had to empty their pockets and open their bags and quite a number of items could not go through.  Beside a tree before going into the metal detectors I noticed a few pocket knives that people left on the ground in the hopes I think of retrieving them afterward.  It was different, and the wait on line made me miss the first half of the speakers.  But as I found out later, the ones I missed were all from politicians.  Thank you Lord for being spared their hot air.  Here is a picture of the crowd at the Mall.

I was all the way in the back and I could hardly see the stage.  There were two big monitors for video display of the speakers.  There was a time when most of the speakers at the March were testimonies of those impacted by abortion.  Now it seems most of the speeches are from politicians.  I am forever moved by those who have experienced abortions only to regret it and from those saved from abortions.  Here from YouTube are three such speeches. 

From Dr. Catherine Wheeler, an obstetrician who came to reject doing abortions.

 

  

From Beverly Jacobson, a mother of a disabled child who was pushed to abort the child.

 

And from Josiah Presley, a survivor.

 

 

Now for some pictures.  I can’t post them all, but here’s a bunch.  Let’s start with the starting line of the March.

And then this one to get a feel for the crowd.

 

One of the highlights for me is looking at all the different signs.  They can be so creative.  Here are some.

 

 

That’s probably enough of pictures of pithy signs.  Some other phrasing on signs included:

 

Save the Baby Humans (with a picture of a turtle)

Child Sacrifice Dies With Us

Chemical Abortion Pills kill babies, harm women, & pollute our drinking water

Make Abortion Unthinkable

Love Them Both (with a picture of a pregnant woman)

Honor Motherhood Choose Life

Defund Planned Parenthood

 

One of the other highlights is looking for where the pilgrims come from.

The University of Mary is in Bismarck, North Dakota.  Holy smoke, that’s 1,534 miles of driving.  I wonder how long it took them.  Here’s another pretty far place.

And here’s the furthest of them all, Ireland!

Here’s someone interesting.  We saw him in the Mall crowd listening to the speeches.

How about this little kid who rode on his father’s shoulders the whole time.

That is so cute.

The marching route was different this year.  Instead of going around the Capital and turning to the Supreme Court Building, we turned in front of the Capital and then turned left toward the Supreme Court Building.  I think that’s because now with Roe having ended, abortion is out of the courts and into the hands of legislators.  A pretty picture of the Capital building.

Let’s end with the funniest of them all.  You probably need to be a football fan to get this.

Mahomes is the quarterback for the Super Bowl winning Kansas City Chiefs who seems to get extraordinary protection from the referees. LOL, he's going to be in the Super Bowl again next week.

March for Life, 2023

I was able to make the March for Life again this year.  There was some doubt.  First at the beginning no one was sure if there would be a march, so the usual organizer on Staten Island didn’t organize transportation this year because Roe had been overturned with the Dobbs decision.  Then a few weeks before the March date, I got an email from an old organizer who used to arrange it.  She said she would be getting a bus.  My only problem: I had a business trip that same week and I wasn’t sure if I would be home by Thursday night.  March for Life is always the third Friday in January—January 20^th this year—coinciding with the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.  Well, by God’s grace the business event ended a day early and I was home by Thursday night.  Tired as I was, I got up at four in the wee hours of the morning and met the bus before departure time.

This year was different.  Instead of Mass on Staten Island before departure, we had Mass in D.C. upon arrival, a Mass for the whole contingent from the NYC Archdiocese.  Definitely it was way more than our single bus.  It was a lovely Mass at a beautiful church (St. Patrick’s) celebrated by a wonderful auxiliary bishop who had attended the first March for Life fifty years ago.  Unfortunately I did not catch his name.  I do remember he started his homily by pointing to his face and saying, “Look at this face.  Do you think this face is old enough to have been here fifty years ago?”  And then he went on to describe how he was involved with the very first March.  Here’s a picture of St. Patrick’sChurch in Washington, DC from the back looking toward the altar.

 

The Church was full.  Here’s a picture of the church from the outside.

Then we had to walk about three quarters of a mile to the Washington Mall where a stage was setup for the speeches.  This year’s theme was, “Next Steps: Marching into a Post-Roe America.”  There were great speeches.  You can see the list at the March for Life website and you can YouTube any speech or the entire event.  The memorable speeches were from football coach Tony Dungy and his wife—they mentioned they have adopted eleven children!—from Connecticut State Representative Treneé McGhee, who as a black woman railed against the inherent racism in the pro-abortion side, and of course the keynote speaker, actor from the TV series, The Chosen, Jonathan Roumie.  I’m going to post Jonathan Roumie’s speech here, but I encourage to listen to them all.  Roumie’s speech is more religious than anticipated for a mixed audience, so I leave it up to you if you want to listen to it.  He’s apparently a devout Catholic.

 

There were some great passages in his speech.  Let me post a couple.

 

They say we live in a post-Christian society. I reject that. You can reject that. Change the culture by impacting the culture. Embrace that which is bigger than you — He who gave you abundant life and He who has called you by name; do not be afraid. Mute the noise of the popular and embrace the counterculture of Christ’s love, and the message He offers you: The road is wide which leads to destruction and many will enter it. So enter through the narrow gate, my dear friends, for therein lies the kingdom of heaven.

And

We are under an assault on our sense of virtue. We’re enduring an affront to the innate holiness we are all imbued with, and called to, and an attack on the family structure and the sacredness of the gift of life.

 

But as ones created in the image and likeness of God who is Himself love, we are charged to be the standard bearers who defend and preserve the dignity of every human, but especially the most vulnerable which begins with the initial stages of life and continues throughout the entire cycle from conception through that phase we all aim to enter into our golden years, followed by the final stages of our earthly existence.

You can read from a transcript here.  

The crowd was huge as usual.  I’ve heard it said this was one of the largest.  So much for ending these marches.  Here are a few pictures where I tried to capture the scope of the attendance, and I admit the pictures are woefully inadequate. 

One of my favorite things to do at the March is to look for novel signs.  I’ve got a bunch but I’ll just share a few.

Here’s a much unexpected one, “Pro Bikers for Life,” and they were in their black leather biker gear. 

The Nashville Dominican Sister were there, as every year.

I have a special love of the Dominican Sisters.  As usual there were people from other countries, but here is a group from Poland.

And a Muslim young lady, who was on our Staten Island bus, showed that this goes beyond one religion.

Finally what would a march be without a marching band? 

 

I love the pageantry, I love this movement, and I love this event.  If Washington D.C. is too far from where you live, there will be state and city march events this year.  You will enjoy attending if you do.

On Abortion: Comments

I’ve been having a number of online discussions on the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade and thereby removing a national imposition of a right to kill a child in the womb.  Let me capture some of my various comments and some of the back and forth with those that either agreed with me or were opposed.  There were three Original Posts on the subject, which I’ve placed in bold ahead of the comments for that post.  By the way, these posts were from a conservative forum I belong to, Ricochet.  

 

Supreme Court Overturns Roe V. Wade

My Comment:

I was in tears when I heard.  I thought it would be anti-climatic given the leak of a few weeks ago, but it wasn’t.  I am still moved beyond words.  And it came on the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus!  This is so momentous in my life that I had to write up my own post.  

 

God bless everyone who prayed or worked toward this day.  It is a joyous moment.

Someone’s Comment:

Donald Trump deserves massive praise for sticking with Kavanaugh. He deserves credit for the 3 justices that joined Alito and Thomas. Credit to the Justices for the decision. Credit to McConnell for holding the seat.

 

If nothing else came of the Trump presidency, this was worth it. It was worth all the drama, mean tweets, silly statements, hand wringing, all of it. I’d pay 10x that to have this outcome. Trump’s presidency was overall great policy-wise, but this will be the central pillar of his legacy.

 

This is the biggest pro life win since Roe. Now the battleground shifts to 51 smaller battles. Keep up the good fight.

My Reply:

Absolutely!  This will be Donald Trump’s greatest achievement.  No wishy-washy RINO appointments to the SCOTUS.  He is such an imperfect man but I believe that God worked through him to get us here.  May God bless Donald Trump for this.

Another Person’s Comment:

I am amazed that pro-lifers almost never used one of their strongest arguments, that Roe v. Wade was designed and has functioned to reduce the growth of the black population.

 

For sociocultural reasons nobody understands, black women have abortions two or three times as often as white women.

My Reply:

They do use that argument.  It just doesn’t seem to resonate beyond those who are pro-life.  If you’re pro-abortion, you don’t care where it came from.

Third person’s Comment:

Just out of curiosity, has there been any analysis of how the final decision differs from the leaked draft?

My Reply:

I heard it was near identical to the leaked version.  If there are substantive differences it will come out in the following days.

Fourth Person’s Comment:

I fear more states using this decision as a catalyst and liberalize their abortion laws to include late term abortions. I’m unfortunately doubtful this decision will decrease the amount of abortions. I sure hope I’m wrong.

My Reply:

The stricter abortion laws of the last few years in the GOP states has most certainly reduced the number of abortions.  You can find a number of articles on it, here’s one with data.  

Fifth Person’s Comment in Reply to Another Comment:

That assumes Blacks and Hispanics will remain perpetual wards of the Democrat Party. There has been significant slippage by both groups. In South Texas the Hispanics seem to be beginning the same type of political shift from Democrat to Republican that I witnessed in then sapphire-blue East Texas in the 1990s. If so, the Republicans benefit from banning abortion.

My Reply:

I’ve said on a number of occasions this is a center left country and has been at least since 2000.  However, if the Hispanics can come over to the right (say 40% Republican), then I think this country can be a center right country again.  I’m not willing to compromise my principles, that wouldn’t be a center-right country, but we need to focus on them to persuade them to come over.

Sixth Person’s (from Ireland) Comment in Reply to Another:

That was the biggest lie told in the run up to the repeal of the 8th amendment in Ireland. Even though the wording explicitly stated this, the pro abortions persistently pushed this lie that a woman would be denied life saving treatment if she was pregnant. So many people fell for it, ones you’d never expect

My Reply:

People need a moral cover to implement and legalize sin. Then in time the sin “becomes” normal. That’s when they get outraged that a  “right” will be taken away if ever challenged.

###

Why Are Abortion Proponents So Emotional?

My Comment:

Why?  That is a good question, which I’ve pondered way back when Bill Clinton was triangulating. He could compromise on just about anything when Republicans had that revolutionary retake of Congress in 1994. Even when he was being impeached they stuck by him as long as he was pro-abortion. So why do they hold on to abortion to this level?  The only thing I can conclude is that this is a “religious” issue for them. It’s a matter of doctrine, dogma, and “religious” devotion. It is the left’s “sacrament” and Satanic devotion.

 

I should add to this. Abortion is the sacrament but the faith is in sexual freedom. Sexual freedom is their spiritual connection with whatever they consider divine.  It’s actually quite a pagan outlook.

 

It’s true. Paradoxically the more contraceptives the more abortions. It only takes one screw up and you’re pregnant. This is why Planned Parenthood is such a pusher if contraceptives. You would think it would be working against their interests. But it doesn’t. It’s sympathetic to their interest in that it builds a culture of sexual promiscuity.

 

###

Comment:

This is so but men were naturally made to rape and conquer foreigners. Nature sucks. We should try to move beyond our filthy ape nature.

Reply:

If men stop raping and conquering, civilization can still continue. Not so if women don’t have children.

My Reply:

And men weren’t made to rape and conquer.  That’s from his perverse understanding of humanity. 

Reply to my reply:

We are pretty close to chimps mate. It ain’t pretty but it’s True.

My Retort:

You maybe, but not me. 

A Different Person’s Reply to Me:

Religion has a refutation and an explanation for science, but… science also has an explanation for religion, and need not bother with refutation.  That said, I agree that HC has mis-stated the case.

My Reply:

Scientifically, the difference between a chimp and a human is great.  Just look around you.  Can a chimp design a car and build one?  Does a chimp live in a house?  Does a chimp create a bourbon I’m now sipping?  Come on.  You’ve bought into this pseudo science.

His Reply:

I’m intrigued by chimp bourbon.

My Reply:

LOL. I’m not sure it’s worth trying. 

###

 

A Missed Pro-Life Argument: Addressing Ambivalence

My Comment:

I don’t know. There’s always a mushy middle on every issue. Abortion strikes me as an issue where there is a sharp and clear divide. It’s just a more emotional and polarizing issue than others. And there’s very little room to compromise. You’re either for it or against it. It should be made clear. The SCOTUS decision the other day did not ban abortion. It returned the issue to where it rightly belongs, the states.

A Reply to Me:

Wrong.  I, for one, am in the uncomfortable middle. FWIW, here is the outline of my stance:

 

I am not religious, and I don’t recognize moralizing arguments re abortion founded in any particular religion. I also think the country is past the point where a religious based argument will carry the day, it’s instead more likely to cause blowback.

Nonetheless, there needs to be some recognizable combination of ethics and pragmatism, that is reasonably likely to stand the test of time in the face of political, social and technological change.

 

·         I personally believe the cutoff date for abortion without evidence of grave harm to the mother should be at the point of higher brain function, which is what distinguishes a potential human from an animal. (So I’m already outside the all-or-nothing set.)

·         However, I don’t found my argument for a public solution on that personal belief, instead I’m basing it on pragmatism, specifically in what rationale is likely to survive technological and market challenges.

·         Current technology allows a fetus to be taken to term outside the womb for almost the entire third trimester. Killing it rather than extracting it in that case I find hard to distinguish from murder. I think that’s an argument that will largely resonate for anyone who’s not an absolutist for abortion to the point of birth.

·         On the other hand, abortifacients, e.g., ‘Plan B’ are readily available and that genie is not going back in the bottle. Trying to outlaw abortions during the period when they are effective would lead to an even more tragic drug war, with second order effects that would likely include the creation of even more powerful and easily concealable abortion doses. I think that’s also a reality that can be recognized by those who are not religious absolutists against abortion of any kind.

·         And finally, the whole issue arises tragically because people literally f*** up.  While there are accidents out there, the majority find themselves in a morally compromised position due to incompetence or indifference. It’d be nice if that could be an issue that both sides would cooperate to improve, but I’m not holding my breath.

I will probably, as usual, take incoming from both sides. C’est la vie.

My Reply Back:

No you’re wrong.  You are objectively killing a human being no matter what stage in their life, whether it be one second after fertilization or one trimester or at birth at at two years old or forty years old or 100 years old.  That is the objective criteria.  To kill a human being is morally unethical at any stage.  If you don’t want a moral criteria, then you’re a liberal, playing God at will with life and death depending on your utility.

“I personally believe the cutoff date for abortion without evidence of grave harm to the mother should be at the point of higher brain function, which is what distinguishes a potential human from an animal. (So I’m already outside the all-or-nothing set.)”

 

Ha!  That’s like five years old.  That is the liberal criteria, sentience.  What you are arguing for is infanticide, just like Pete Singer and the radical leftist “ethicists” and filtered down to college students arguing to kill two year olds. 

 

This is the perfect example of why conservatism is not conservative unless it be linked to Judeo-Christian morality.  You can’t have conservatism without God.

His Reply:

Your actual statement of position is what I referred to as religious absolutism, and is an example of what I think will not only not win the day in public opinion, but will probably have negative results.

My Reply:

No, it’s not religious absolutism.  It’s scientific absolutism.  A human being is a human being at any stage after fertilization.  That’s the objective criteria.  Everything else is arbitrary for convenience.

His Reply:

A normal embryo has the genetic endowment of a human being from the point of conception. It does not, however, have the fully developed phenotype of a human being, a reasoning mammal, which is when I would contend its rights begin to overwhelm any consideration of the mother. That’s just as ‘scientific’ as your formulation.

My Reply:

Neither does a one day old.  Neither does a person born mentally challenged.  Neither does a person who has severe brain damage.  This again is the Liberal argument from sentience. 

His Reply:

No, it’s not. I’m saying the cutoff is evidence of cerebral cortex function. Neural activity, no IQ tests, no sanity checks. How about engaging with that argument instead of name calling or putting words in my mouth. I’m told that’s more persuasive.

My Reply:

I didn’t call you any names. I’m not sure there is much of a distinction between sentience and brain function ability. Even if granted the distinction, it’s still an in process of development moment in time that considers a person not to be a person because he is not fully developed. I don’t see that as any ethically different.

A Different Person Replying:

Definitively.  Evaluation of human worth and subsequent killability is not a matter of individual estimation.  Either it is human, and individual, and living, or it is not.  Once we start saying that a human life is not old enough to be of worth, or thoughtful enough to be of worth.  Then all killing of innocent life is reasonable.

 

A newly fertilized egg will mature into if all goes well and according to nature’s plan a 70 or 80 or 90 or 100-year-old man or woman.  We don’t have the right to say one person is worth this existence and another is not.

My Reply to the Third Person:

Thank you. No argument can sustain philosophic inconsistency. That’s why the Liberals changed their criteria from “it’s not human” to sentience as to when to allow abortion. They lost the argument that it’s not human.

 

By the way, the “it’s not human” argument was the same argument used to justify slavery of blacks. It was no longer sustainable once you had objective facts.

A Fourth Person Replying to Me:

Actually, I believe there are some variations that suggest a middle ground, albeit a middle ground that would be totally unsatisfactory to anyone who believes that life begins at conception.

 

For example, a majority of Americans believe that abortion (at an early stage) is acceptable in cases of rape, incest, and saving the life of the mother. Many also believe that abortion is acceptable (at some point) when the baby will be born with down syndrome or some other genetic deformity.

 

In my state, Ohio, for example, the Republican legislature adopted a heartbeat bill, which suggests that the states interest in protecting the baby’s life begins when the baby has a heartbeat and thus could theoretically survive outside the mother. This is, of course, a very early stage of pregnancy.

 

To me, these are middle grounds that would be unacceptable to those whose beliefs inhabit the far ends of the debate (like me), but they are middle grounds nevertheless.

My Reply to the Fourth Person:

Well, there is political power and political power will ultimately get its way.  I have been arguing from the philosophic merits of the issue.  Each state will find some balancing point to satisfy the most voters.  But mind you, this is raw political power, not philosophic consistency or more importantly ethical justification.  It is the same raw political power that determined people with black skin were not human beings and justified enslavement or the same raw political power that determined in Nazi Germany that six million people were not human enough to live.  Raw political power, that is, might, does not make right.  And for certain there is no nobility in it.

 

Let me tell you something about the heartbeat criteria.  I’ve been close to the pro-life movement for at least ten years, probably more.  When I was looking for some sort of compromising criteria, I came up with the heartbeat.  No where had I ever heard anyone propose it, and for the longest time I still hadn’t.  I thought I held the secret formula for compromise.  Not that I published it anywhere, but since I never heard anyone else bring it up I held it close to my heart.  The first I heard anyone was a year to two years ago when one of the states recently brought it up as a criteria.  Perhaps it was Ohio.  I thought, finally someone is bringing this up, but by this time I had come to the realization that it is just as much a human being before the heart starts beating as after.  The normal human progress is under way, just as any normal human progress, just as my body at 60 is heading toward senescence. A human being is a human being at whatever stage it is at.   It does not meet meet the ethical criteria.

 

Now that is not to say I would not accept it.  The heart starts beating at six weeks or less.  That’s pretty early and is a firm criteria that an abortionist can be held to.  If the most Liberal of the states would adopt the heartbeat criteria I would be thrilled.  I think I’ve mentioned this before.  On abortion I feel like Schindler at the end of the movie, Schindler’s List.  How can I save one more.

My Concluding Comment:

Any line that is drawn will be purely arbitrary, except perhaps the heartbeat line as David mentioned above.  Some would like to pick a spot where the child has not developed pain yet.  That can’t be done.  There is no way to know that, and it’s actually an admittance of the cruelty of what is done during an abortion.  The heartbeat is a clear marker that you can measure and is a sort of incomplete science where one can claim that life begins there.  That’s why I was so hot on it for a number of years.  But it’s incomplete because one has to put blinders on as to what is happening beforehand.

 

By the way, I don’t think I have ever brought up religion in this argument.  I have brought up human ethics.  It’s the pro-aborts who always claim pro-lifers are motivated by religion.  Perhaps there is an intertwining of ethics, religion, and pro-life, but I have not made any argument from a religious point of view.  Perhaps there is no human ethics if one does not believe in religion.  Dostoyevsky seemed to think so: “Without God all things are permitted.”