Editor's Note: David Bethel is a member of the Pro-Life Club at The Ohio State University. Ohio Right to Life assisted the group in attending the 2012 March for Life.
Photo by Kate Simon, Pro-Life Club at OSU
On Monday, January 23rd 2012, the 39th annual March for Life was held in Washington DC, and I was in Washington DC for my first March for Life. The March is held annually to remember and protest the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. Since the decision over 53 million babies have been legally killed according to the law of the United States.
Arriving to the National Mall with extra time Monday morning, we decided to go for a walk and check out the WWII national memorial. The memorial is an impressive sight, with pillars and bronzes stills commemorating scenes of battle and of the home front. But the thing that struck me most was the wall of golden stars, over 4,000 in all, each representing 100 American citizens killed or missing during the war. It was a sobering representation; it seemed to me a multitude of stars, yet each one represented not just one dead but 100. And then it occurred to me the number of children killed by abortion since 1973. If the same memorial were made for them, there would be over 530,000 golden stars. And the wall holding the stars would be over two miles long. This image stuck with me throughout the day and sticks with me now.
At 12 p.m. the rally began on the National Mall, with a prayer led by a mixed group of Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox bishops. After this a host of pro-life congressman took the stage several of whom were from Ohio. These included House Speaker John Boehner and Representative Jim Jordan. Also speaking was the brother of Terri Schiavo and a group of women who have experienced abortion first hand, and attest to the remorse, pain, and anguish that it causes women who have had abortions. Throughout the rally the Mall continued to fill, whereas once we had been on the periphery we were now in the middle of a densely packed crowd.
The March began and the sea of people began moving en masse towards the Supreme Court building. As we mounted Capitol Hill I turned to survey the crowd and could not see the end of it, it stretched down the hill around a bend and out of sight. A tide of people sweeping uphill, seeking justice for those who cannot seek it themselves.
-David Bethel, Pro-Life Club at The Ohio State University
Arriving to the National Mall with extra time Monday morning, we decided to go for a walk and check out the WWII national memorial. The memorial is an impressive sight, with pillars and bronzes stills commemorating scenes of battle and of the home front. But the thing that struck me most was the wall of golden stars, over 4,000 in all, each representing 100 American citizens killed or missing during the war. It was a sobering representation; it seemed to me a multitude of stars, yet each one represented not just one dead but 100. And then it occurred to me the number of children killed by abortion since 1973. If the same memorial were made for them, there would be over 530,000 golden stars. And the wall holding the stars would be over two miles long. This image stuck with me throughout the day and sticks with me now.
At 12 p.m. the rally began on the National Mall, with a prayer led by a mixed group of Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox bishops. After this a host of pro-life congressman took the stage several of whom were from Ohio. These included House Speaker John Boehner and Representative Jim Jordan. Also speaking was the brother of Terri Schiavo and a group of women who have experienced abortion first hand, and attest to the remorse, pain, and anguish that it causes women who have had abortions. Throughout the rally the Mall continued to fill, whereas once we had been on the periphery we were now in the middle of a densely packed crowd.
The March began and the sea of people began moving en masse towards the Supreme Court building. As we mounted Capitol Hill I turned to survey the crowd and could not see the end of it, it stretched down the hill around a bend and out of sight. A tide of people sweeping uphill, seeking justice for those who cannot seek it themselves.
-David Bethel, Pro-Life Club at The Ohio State University
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