About 3,000 St. Louis area pro-life supporters piled onto dozens of charter buses this week to make the distant trek to attend today’s “March for Life” in Washington, D.C. The event annually commemorates the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision on January 22, 1973 – legalizing abortions in the United States. Today’s march marks the 45th year of the event.
Brian Miller, executive director of the Catholic Youth Apostolate of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, tells Missourinet young people are the dominant force of his group and the march.
“I have a lot of hope for this generation. We look around at the March for Life and you see so many young people who are on fire with the love of Jesus, who are on fire with the pro-life cause, they are really willing to live that pro-life message every single day. We know that we are not going to change laws in this country until we change hearts,” says Miller.
About 500,000 people participated in the roughly two-mile walk from the Washington Monument, down Constitution Avenue, to the U.S. Supreme Court building.
Miller says his group is emphasizing the need to end the division that exists in communities, especially his.
“One is the racism we see so much in St. Louis. If we want to be consistently pro-life, we have to love everyone, we have to love our brothers and sisters in all parts of our community. They suffer so much, too. That’s really a big part of our pro-life message this year.”
President Donald Trump, R, spoke to the crowd – the first time in the event’s history that a sitting president has addressed participants live through a video feed.
Meanwhile, about two weeks ago, pro-choice backers began organizing the St. Louis Women’s March to advocate for things like the rights women have to make their own health and pregnancy decisions. Roughly 8,000 people are expected to attend tomorrow’s event.
The march begins at 10 a.m. in downtown St. Louis. Several special guests will also speak.