While most people in Washington will spend Friday hunkering down for the east coast blizzard, hundreds of thousands of pro-life activists will take part in the annual March for Life, calling for respect for both women and babies and vowing to stop Hillary Clinton from becoming the next president.
The March for Life marks 43 years since the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions that legalized abortion in the United States. Estimates show 58 million unborn children have been killed by abortion since that day.
With this year’s march coming in a presidential election year, pro-life groups say defeating Clinton is at the very top of this year’s agenda. Not only do they want a pro-life president but they say Clinton is promising to be even more aggressive as a pro-choice president. That’s because after being endorsed by Planned Parenthood, Clinton vowed to take aim at a pro-life law on the book since the 1970’s.
“She said she would move to end the Hyde Amendment, which is longstanding bipartisan legislation that stops our taxpayer dollars from going to pay for abortion on demand,” said Susan B. Anthony List Communications Director Mallory Quigley. “This is really quite a radical move. She’s moving to the left even of President Obama on this.”
While Quigley is horrified at the idea of Clinton taking aim at the Hyde Amendment, she thinks it could be a political advantage for the pro-life side.
“If she wants to use her presidential campaign to go to war with these common ground policies like Hyde, that’s really at her own risk. We’re confident that voters are going to reject that level of abortion extremism at the ballot box,” said Quigley.
She says recent poll numbers bear that out.
“A majority of Americans support the legislative initiatives that the pro-life movement is pushing, including keeping taxpayer dollars out of the abortion business, protecting babies and moms at five months, right to know legislation for women so that they understand the health risks of abortion,” said Quigley.
“The groundswell of support that we’re seeing for out legislative initiatives really don’t bode well for any candidate that’s going to be vocally pro-abortion and sees that as a key to winning their campaign,” said Quigley.
The March for Life itself stands as a strong contrast to the message Clinton has been espousing on abortion. The theme this year is “Pro-Life and Pro-Woman Go Hand in Hand.”
“That is highlighting an element of the pro-life movement that has always been there and that’s the acknowledgement that women and children are inextricably linked and that abortion harms them both. To solve this problem of abortion in our country, it needs to start with loving both the mother and the child,” said Quigley.
She says it’s a direct refutation of the pro-choice argument that to be pro-woman requires embracing abortion rights.
“This is a mistake that the other side makes thinking that in order to build up the rights of women, you need to accept a violent act like abortion and you need to pit women against their children. This is really a false choice,” said Quigley.
To illustrate the point, the march will mention the women’s suffrage movement and link it to the efforts of pro-life women today.
The march goes from the White House to the Supreme Court. One of the most emotional moments each year is when women who have had abortions stand up in front of the court and discuss the pain and regret they feel even years later.
“When you hear those women and the suffering they have gone through, and the firm desire that they have that they had chosen life instead of abortion. It really changes your perspective,” said Quigley.
Quigley says 2015 was a year of progress for pro-lifers, getting further than ever before on an abortion ban after 20 weeks and getting a bill to President Obama’s desk that would have defunded Planned Parenthood. The 20-week ban died in the Senate and Obama vetoed the defunding effort, but Quigley says the template is there for major success if 2016 turns out the way she hopes.
“That was a huge breakthrough in terms of creating a pathway to when we have a pro-life president, hopefully in January 2017. Top of mind for 2016, of course, is electing a pro-life president,” said Quigley.
