LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
A real report on the March for Life
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe vs. Wade. On Jan. 25, hundreds of thousands of people marched in Washington, D.C. to protest the decision, like we do every year. This year’s March was the largest yet. March for Life organizers estimated that around 500,000 were in attendance — other sources estimated 650,000. Yet, one would be hard-pressed to find an accurate report of the March in any major news source. The New York Times hasn’t covered the March in years. But this year they did — to talk about gun control.
This should cause concern for anyone, not just those who are pro-life. If there are over half a million people protesting anything, especially if they do it year after year, most people want to know about it, even if they don’t agree with the protesters.
Those news sources that do briefly cover the March tend to speak of “thousands” or “tens of thousands” of people — clearly inaccurate estimates. At the same time, these sources try to exaggerate the number of people protesting in support of Roe vs. Wade. In reality, most people at the March don’t notice any pro-choice protesters, though there is always a handful around the steps of the Supreme Court — in the past three years I have never seen more than 20.
Finally, the demographics of the March reflected a group more diverse than many may think. As usual, the majority of people were young. Many college, high school and even middle school students attend every year. Men and women were represented equally. This year, eight members of MIT Pro-Life participated. Not everyone in the crowd was religious. Yes, many banners were from Catholic churches, but there were also protestant groups, Orthodox Jews, and a group with a banner saying “Secular Pro-Life: for the embryology textbook tells me so.”Many people also carried personal banners. Some thanked their mothers for gaving birth to them in difficult circumstances. Others read “I was conceived by rape and I love my life”, “I regret my lost fatherhood”, “I regret my abortion”.
Georgina Botka ’14
Vice-President
MIT Pro-Life