‘It was awe-inspiring and exhilarating’: two female students share their thoughts on the March for Life

Maddy, a senior and the president of the Pro-Life Club at The Ohio State University, and Megan, a freshman and general member of the same club, attended the March for Life in Washington D.C. last Friday. I recently had the chance to sit down with them and talk about their experiences at the march and about what it was like to be involved in this historic event.

Why did you march? What was it like?

Maddy: I have been to the march for several years now. We really just want to bring validity to the fact that the pro-life movement is all about respecting all life in all stages, so it is both a celebration of life and a rallying cry to call people to step up more in order to advance our society in regard to the dignity that we extend to human life.

Megan: I had never been to the March for Life, so this was my first experience and it was almost overwhelming. I was surprised how many people there were because you don’t really hear much about crowds. It was insane just trying to get into the rally. It’s so nice to be surrounded by people who understand why we love what we love and why this is so important. The speakers were so great – Mia Love had me in tears – and it was so inspirational. There were lots of old people marching, lots of kids, lots of high schools…it is such a diverse group – just people from every single population are there together and it was amazing. It was awe-inspiring and exhilarating.

Maddy: As positive an atmosphere it is to be in, it also can bring a pretty heavy heart upon you. You know, we’re sitting here and we’re talking about a topic that’s heartbreaking. I’m rejuvenated to continue fighting for the movement.

Megan: It’s nice to finally–especially coming from college where there is a lot on the pro-choice stance–be surrounded by people who are of the same mindset. And there weren’t many people from the opposition that I saw. They were definitely there, but not like I expected.

When Donald Trump talked to ABC, he stated that the event would unfortunately not be covered by media. Was there media coverage?

Maddy: There was a very minimal amount of coverage. Of course social media brings things to a whole new level than 40 years ago, but that has been a consistent issue. EWTN is a popular Christian news station – they’re there – and CNN and FOX will be there, but it never is really given the validity that it deserves. There consistently half a million people there and that’s just the one in D.C. There are also [marches] going on all across the country as well as marches in other countries. The media doesn’t pick it up. I’ve had experiences where I would see media following the march that had as many pictures of protestors of the march as pro-life people that were there and it diminishes the extremely vast number of people who were there – it diminishes the peace – and I think that’s just how media is. You pick up a story of the “crazies,” but it’s not representative of the majority and what it’s like to actually be there.

Megan: I totally agree with that. I thought it was really calm. There are people in the rally area with strollers and little babies, lots of people have signs – there’s still police men and still areas blocked off, but there were no arrests. So much is going on and nobody knows about it – unless you live in D.C. and it is interrupting your daily life, you wouldn’t necessarily hear about it.

Last weekend, many women marched on Washington who were pro-choice and supporters of organizations like Planned Parenthood. Was this march a response to that?

Maddy: No – this march has been going on since 1974, the first year after Roe v. Wade was passed and it has consistently happened the same weekend in January. This was not a response to the Women’s March, but I do think you can see a correlation. A couple of pro-life groups that wanted to come on as official sponsors and supporters of the Women’s March were asked to stay out. Despite the fact that they are a feminist group and they openly opposed Trump as president, they were not included in the Women’s March at an official level which goes to show that it was less of a goal of being against misogyny in general than, more than anything, trying to stop the legislature from defunding Planned Parenthood. By no means was everyone at the Women’s March pro-choice, but that was a lot of what the signage was. It was a majority. I actually had several friends attend the march to engage in conversation about how you can be pro-life and a feminist and how being anti-abortion is actually much more in line with all of the core tenants of feminism than being pro-choice is. Of course they got a lot of backlash, but they also had a surprising amount of people say, “Hey, I agree with you. Thanks for being here today.”

Donald Trump just proposed a bill regarding cutting funding to organizations that performed abortions. Do you think the march will have an effect on the bill coming into law? Do you think the march will impact the rest of Trump’s presidency?

Maddy: Every person has a responsibility to lean into issues rather than choose ignorance and apathy. At the same time, I recognize that, especially with an issue that’s been a problem for over forty years, there’s not a legislator on Capitol Hill that doesn’t know where they stand on abortion and I don’t know if they would be influenced by seeing all these people. I don’t think any legislation will pass that wouldn’t have passed if we didn’t have the march. I think the true importance of it is to stand up because our other option is silence.