Thousands of pro-life activists rallied Saturday on the National Mall, celebrating the primary anniversary of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and calling for tighter abortion restrictions.
“One year ago today, because of your work and because of your prayers, the Supreme Court of the United States sent Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history where it belongs,” former Vice President Mike Pence, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, advised a cheering crowd on the Lincoln Memorial.
Added Mr. Pence: “But as we celebrate the progress that we’ve made, we gather here knowing that we’ve not come to the end of this cause. We’ve come to the end of the beginning, and the work for life goes on.”
Participants braved muggy warmth to attend the primary National Celebrate Life Day, which ranged in tone from patriotic celebration to church service.
After singing the gospel protest music “We Shall Overcome” and the nationwide anthem, activists broke into spontaneous chants of “USA, USA, USA.”
“We’re here to celebrate,” mentioned Caitlyn Guajardo, a 32-year-old who traveled from Victoria, Texas together with her 16-year-old sister Elizabeth. “But now we’ve got 50 individual battles to fight.”
Last June 24, the Supreme Court dominated 6-3 within the landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health case to strike down Roe, returning jurisdiction over abortion to the states.
Since then, 25 states have moved to limit abortion at varied phases of being pregnant, whereas the opposite half have moved to develop entry.
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, a Republican, mentioned how she and different state officers introduced the “Mississippi Dobbs case” to the nation’s highest court docket.
“Now we all hoped, and we have prayed, that the justices would hear our very undeniable arguments that were so powerful to get them to the point to overturn Roe v. Wade,” Ms. Fitch advised the group.
Other rally audio system gave spiritual, authorized and scientific causes to push Congress for a federal abortion ban within the wake of Dobbs.
The ethical foundation for providing equal authorized safety to a fetus within the womb from the second of fertilization of an egg comes from “the fact that we are made in the image and likeness of God,” mentioned Michael Knowles, a political commentator on the conservative Daily Wire.
“I’m all for states’ rights,” Mr. Knowles advised the group. “But no state has the right to murder.”
Congressional Republicans are at odds over whether or not to push for a complete ban on all abortions floated by some members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus or a federal minimal normal at 15 weeks of gestation, with exceptions for rape, incest, and threats to the life and bodily well being of the mom.
Mr. Pence helps the latter, which Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, launched as a invoice final yr.
“Save the babies and we will save America,” Mr. Pence mentioned Saturday.
No pro-life invoice the GOP-led House passes appears more likely to move the Democrat-controlled Senate. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has additionally pledged to veto any abortion restrictions that make it to his desk.
Polling has persistently proven that almost all Americans favor a center floor on abortion, preserving it authorized as much as 15 weeks of being pregnant with some restrictions — and unlawful after that solely with some exceptions.
In addition, current polling suggests pro-choice voters are extra motivated than pro-life voters to help a candidate based mostly on abortion views a yr after Dobbs.
That didn’t matter to the younger activists who gathered Saturday on the Lincoln Memorial. They have known as on congressional Republicans to help extra federal abortion restrictions no matter what it prices them politically.
“We want a total ban on abortions,” mentioned Jenna Gibson, a 20-year-old rising junior who leads a chapter of Students for Life of America at Christopher Newport University in Virginia. “Everyone deserves a voice.”
Roughly 2,000 folks had been anticipated to attend the Lincoln Memorial rally, in line with estimates pro-life organizers supplied on their National Parks Service allow software.
On the opposite finish of the National Mall, the pro-choice Women’s March National Day of Action additionally obtained a parks service allow for two,000 folks to march from Columbus Circle to the Supreme Court at midday.
“The truth is that the overwhelming majority of Americans believe that people should have the freedom to decide what to do with their own bodies, how to make critical family planning decisions, to choose who we love and marry, the list goes on,” mentioned Rachel O’Leary Carmona, govt director of Women’s March.
Smaller teams of pro-life activists gathered earlier Saturday morning on the Supreme Court and for a day prayer and worship rally exterior the U.S. Capitol.
It’s unlikely Congress will get severe a couple of complete ban till House Republicans examine the unlawful late-term abortions that activists say occur routinely throughout the nation, mentioned Terrisa Bukovinac of the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, which organized the morning rally on the Supreme Court.
In March 2022, her group handed over 5 fetuses saved in a Capitol Hill residence to the Metropolitan Police Department, claiming they obtained them from a waste supply driver at a neighborhood abortion clinic.
Nearly 100 Republican members of Congress subsequently signed letters to Mayor Muriel Bowser, the police division and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to demand autopsies of the our bodies, with out success.
“I don’t know anyone in the pro-life movement who doesn’t want a total abortion ban,” Ms. Bukovinac advised The Washington Times. “Of course, it’s mobilizing the voter base on the other side. It’s not going to happen right away.”
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