March for Life 2021: Virtual takes place under a shift in Washington

March for Life 2021: Virtual takes place under a shift in Washington

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But the march, which has identified itself as non-partisan since its founding, continues.

“When we have a pro-life administration, you know, we are marching to encourage them and show support,” Carol Tobias, chairman of the National Committee on the Right to Life, who is among a small group of anti-abortion leaders invited to march in person on Friday, he told CNN. “And when we have a pro-abortion administration, as we do now” under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, “it is to warn them that we are not leaving.”

This will be the 48th March for Life, an annual event that coincides with Roe v. Wade, the historic Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion across the country. The event usually attracts around 100,000 attendees from across the country to Washington, and the plan is to continue the event until Roe is canceled.

The pandemic, as well as security measures implemented in Washington after the Capitol rebellion earlier this month, forced this year’s event to be largely virtual, organizers say. Among those who will speak will be Republican MPs Chris Smith of New Jersey and Kat Cammack of Florida, as well as anti-abortion Democrats such as State Representative Angie Hatton of Kentucky and Hawaii State Senator Mike Gabbard, father of the former Democratic presidential candidate and former US Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

Also on Friday, a small group of about 50 prominent anti-abortion activists will march in Washington physically under this year’s theme “Together Strong: Life Unites!”

But there is another big difference between this year’s march and the recent ones: a new president.

The recent marches had a distinctly Trumpian feel, from the viral confrontation involving a Catholic student wearing a Make America Great Again cap in 2019 to Trump’s appearance last year, the first time an incumbent president spoke at the rally.
The message is likely to be a little different this year, especially since Biden has already made it clear that he will be aggressive in extending abortion rights.

“The other side of our ‘Pro-Life Generation’ indicates that you always see, instead of saying ‘Defund Planned Parenthood’ this year, they say, ‘The future is anti-abortion’, because there was no point in saying Defund Planned Parenthood “in light of Biden’s position on reproductive rights, said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, a nonprofit anti-abortion rights organization that focuses on college campuses.

March for Life President Jeanne Mancini, speaking on a recent podcast, encouraged opponents of abortion in the face of what she described as left-wing intimidation to take a role “to return to a place where we can have dialogue, where we are praying and fasting for peace, so that we can restore some of those basic freedoms that have been taken from us in the scary culture now. “
In the immediate future, Hawkins and Tobias said that lobbying members of Congress to maintain abortion restrictions, such as the Hyde Amendment, as well as working with state lawmakers to continue advancing restrictions, were the movement’s top priorities.

Hawkins expected an increase in the number of new Students for Life groups now that Biden is president, similar to what the group saw during the Obama years. Tobias, however, expressed optimism that Trump’s transformation into the federal judiciary will pave the way for judges who will be “more receptive to the protection of unborn children”.

Meanwhile, abortion rights groups like NARAL – which last week said that “we must follow the guiding principle that Roe is the floor, not the ceiling for the vision we hold for this country” – will seek to capitalize on their newfound discovery alliance with the White House.

But regardless of the change in the political landscape in 2021, a message on Friday will remain as consistent as it has been for almost half a century.

“Presidential administrations come and go,” said Hawkins, “but we always remain.”

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