About 50 students joined thousands of anti-abortion activists to call for a legal ban on abortion at the 32nd annual March for Life Monday.
The demonstrators marched nearly 18 blocks from the Ellipse to the Supreme Court. Many of the students belonged to Colonials for Life, a non-sectarian group founded in October 2003 that has about 150 members.
Students from other organizations such as the Newman Catholic Center and the Culture of Life Legal Society also attended the march, which the March for Life Education and Defense Fund organized. Last spring’s March for Women’s Lives, a demonstration that attracted thousands of pro-abortion activists, drew an estimated one million participants.
“The solution is not to kill the baby but to make the world accessible for the baby,” said Culture of Life Legal Society President Dave McAlpine. “Every one is a human being and nothing else.”
President Bush expressed support for the anti-abortion cause in a telephone address from St. Louis. He told demonstrators on the Ellipse that the administration is making progress toward fostering a “culture of life.”
The president told supporters he encourages abstinence education, crisis pregnancy programs and parental notification laws to “offer compassionate alternatives” to
abortion.
“In our time, respect for the right to life calls us to defend the sick and the dying, persons with disabilities and birth defects, and all who are weak and vulnerable,” he said. “And this self-evident truth calls us to value and to protect the lives of innocent children waiting to be born.”
Some members of the College Republicans attended the event, but the organization did not go as a group to the march.
“Historically, the stance of the College Republicans is not to take a position on a particular issue, but rather to bring in speakers or hold debates,” College Republicans President Chrissy Trotta said.
Trotta added that the College Republicans plan to sponsor a debate on abortion in its upcoming “controversy series.”
Monday’s marchers weren’t the only people making headlines about abortion this week. Also on Monday, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who is pro-abortion rights, called on both sides in the debate to reduce the number of abortions.
“There is an opportunity for people of good faith to find common ground in this debate,” Clinton said, according to the Associated Press. “We should be able to agree that we want every child born in this country to be wanted, cherished and loved.”
