The March for Life takes place Friday, a massive demonstration in Washington, D.C., against abortion, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision. This is the 40th anniversary of that infamous ruling and the 40th march. Hundreds of thousands of people will march through the streets of our nation’s capital.
I know quite a few people who will be there, including folks from our church. If you join the march, please tell us about it this weekend in the comments.
From 40th annual March for Life expected to attract record crowd – WTOP.com:
The streets are clear of inaugural participants, but hundreds of thousands of visitors are heading back to the National Mall Friday for an entirely different event.
Anti-abortion activists from across the nation will take to D.C.’s streets for the 40th annual March for Life, a march that commemorates the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. Organizers say they hope the crowd will surpass the march’s record of 400,000 demonstrators, and even the attendance of 1 million people at the inauguration.
“It would be fantastic if the numbers topped those of the inauguration,” says Jeanne Monahan, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund. “However, it would be an act of God — it would be a miracle if that happened.”
The National Park Service used to estimate an official count of march participants, but stopped giving estimates after Million Man March organizers threatened to sue in 1995 for what they claimed was an underestimate.
“(How many marchers will be there) is the million-dollar question, and we don’t have a formal or really an informal estimate,” Monahan says, adding that an unaffiliated group plans to oversee a formal estimate this year.
Monahan says she expects large crowds because hotel rooms that organizers reserved downtown sold out a month in advance — something that has never happened before.
The march is also expected to draw crowds because the march’s founder, Nellie Gray, died in August at age 88, and supporters may attend in her honor.
“We are anticipating a somewhat larger crowd not only because it’s the 40th anniversary, but because Nellie Gray died last year,” says National Park Service spokeswoman Carol Johnson.
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