Estimating the impact of a march

Maybe you had to be there in order to appreciate the full magnitude of the 42nd March for Life in Washington last week. Fortunately, hundreds of thousands were there to experience it in person.

I know that with abortion all things are controversial, even the crowd estimates at this annual march. Some news outlets report "thousands" - an insult, in my view - while organizers say at least 300,000 packed the capital to peacefully protest the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion. It was a decision that led to more than 56 million legal abortions nationwide since then. That's a lot of missing Americans.

Having been there, I'll go with the larger crowd estimates. Consider that there were 71 busloads from 59 parishes in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia alone. Many other people from this area, like me, drove to Washington to express our support for the fundamental right to life. Those thousands joined many others that morning at a Mass for the Philly "pilgrims," said by Archbishop Charles Chaput in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. It was standing room only. The basilica's upper church seats can hold as many as 6,000. During his homily, Chaput noted that 4,000 marchers came from Philadelphia.

After the Mass, the throngs packed the Metro en route to the National Mall, where we joined hundreds of thousands of marchers from across the United States.

Most of the march itself was bittersweet. Bitter because of the millions of lives lost to abortion. The sweet comes from watching how those missing children are commemorated, especially by the energetic high-school- and college-aged marchers. This "there but for the grace of God" crowd gets it. They should. Their first baby pictures were sonograms.

The signs that some of these teens and young adults carried were telling. One young woman bore a placard with an ultrasound picture of an embryo that was labeled "Future Sister." Another carried a poster proclaiming "I Mourn My Aborted Sibling." The banner for the organization Students for Life of America, and its chanting marchers, declared, "We are the Pro-Life Generation."

Members of the group Silent No More moved me the most when I first attended the March for Life, in 2003. These women stood in front of the Supreme Court holding black-and-white signs that read "I Regret My Abortion." One by one, they broke the silence around this issue and told stories of how profoundly - and negatively - abortion affected their lives. A couple of years later, I noticed that the women were joined by a few men bearing signs that said "I Regret Lost Fatherhood." They told their stories, too. This year, I noticed others with signs saying "I Regret Providing Abortions" and "I Regret Performing Abortions."

Still, despite the mourning that comes with this issue, the marchers' support for the cause could not be denied, and nothing was going to sour their spirits. Some tried. There were provocations from a small crew carrying "Abortion on Demand Without Apology" signs. There were attempts to delay the march by a group of attention-craving counterprotesters who wore white pants with red stains strategically placed on their crotches. And their was even disappointing news from inside the Capitol, where House Republicans failed that day to reach agreement on a bill to ban abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy because of the possibility of pain felt by the fetus during the procedure.

Still, we marched, Catholics and thousands of others from across the country.

One group in particular, Secular Pro-Life, caught my eye when the march ended at the Supreme Court because it is a reminder that this is not just an issue for people of faith. The group provides support for women with unplanned pregnancies; educates the public on subjects like fetal development, abortion risks, and alternatives like adoption; and seeks legal restrictions on abortion. Most of its strategies are the same as or similar to those of many other pro-life groups, including local nonprofits like the faith-based Pro-Life Union of Greater Philadelphia and the nonsectarian educational organization Pennsylvanians for Human Life.

That work goes on every day, far from the spotlight of a march on the National Mall. But for one day each year, we gather - yes, by the hundreds of thousands. We pray, we mourn, we support each other in our work, and we remind the millions who agree with us - and polls suggest our numbers are growing - that they are not alone.