After attending the national March for Life, students from Trivium School in Lancaster said states should unite in abolishing abortion.
“If we have different laws, that doesn’t show that there’s one answer,” said senior Viola Townsend. “I would say that answer is: Every child has the right to life from the moment of conception.”
Trivium freshman Robert Kelly said the abortion issue reminds him of the slavery issue; “we couldn’t have some states that supported it and some that didn’t.”
Forty-eight marchers from Trivium rode one of two Worcester diocesan buses that left for the 50th annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., after a send-off Mass at St. Paul Cathedral Jan. 19.
Allison LeDoux, director of the Respect Life Office, who coordinates the trip, said the other bus had 28 people, including 14 people connected to Assumption University, and families and individuals, including Father Anthony J. Kazarnowicz, associate pastor of St. Joseph Basilica in Webster, a long-time pro-life advocate.
The original March for Life was held on the first anniversary of the Jan. 22, 1973 Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in all 50 states. The march was in opposition to that decision. Last June the Court overturned Roe in its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, saying that the U.S. Constitution does not confer a right to abortion, and returned the authority to regulate abortion to the states.
“Before I went, I wondered why we were marching in D.C. … because it seems the battle has moved to the states,” said Viola Townsend, 17. “Once we were there, it made sense it was on the national level.” People from different states came together to show that it’s “important that the states make one decision,” she said.
“It was a very moving experience to see thousands of people together for the same cause – fighting for the unborn,” Jacob Olson, 18, a first-time marcher, said. “I think it’s a testimony that God is constantly working in the world through all of us collectively.”
He said there was a large Catholic presence, and they sang hymns to the Blessed Mother.
“That was a way to bring our faith with us,” he said. “Our Lady was very much a part of the movement, as we were.”
Robert Kelly, also a first-time marcher, said he was surprised to see other Christians, as well as Muslims, there. While not united in religion, “we’re all unified to fight for life,” he said.
He thought it made sense to march despite the overturning of Roe; “we should get everything overturned” that allows for abortion.
One might not always think about the pro-life movement, but everybody should be made aware of it, and prayer is needed, said his classmate Thomas Guinee, 15, also a first-time marcher who was impressed with the number of people who came to support the right to life.
“It felt like the right place for me,” said Maryja Prytko, a Notre Dame Academy senior who rode to Washington on a diocesan bus with her father and boyfriend, all of them from Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish in Worcester.
“This is why I’m on this planet right now – to spread God’s word and (say), ‘Don’t kill babies,’” Maryja said.
Going to the march for the first time “made me feel stronger and grow more in my faith,” she said. “I’m not the only 17-year-old girl in the world who believes abortion is murder,” she said she learned.
“It was very heartening to see youth” from different states; “I didn’t have that myself, growing up … that faith,” said Katherine Dupuis, 68, of St. Boniface Parish in Lunenburg, who attended the march with her husband, Gregory, 71.
Mrs. Dupuis said she was pleased to see the youth learning about Jesus, appreciated the Mass in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and felt close to God.
“People were very nice,” she said. “It was a very peaceful march.”
“There were more young people than I’ve ever seen before – the Catholics, the Lutherans,” said Marla Zeneski, 66, of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Westminster who has been to the march about 10 times. She traveled on a Worcester diocesan bus and then marched with members of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod from around the country, she said.
Mrs. Zeneski, life coordinator for the LCMS New England district, said marches need to be held on the state level and she wants to help organize ones in New England states.
“Now is the time to take the battle to the states; we have to keep fighting until abortion is abolished,” said first-time marcher Scott Adams, 26, of St. John, Guardian of Our Lady Parish in Clinton. He had a shield-like sign reading, “Defend the unborn” and said he carried the “Don’t Tread on Me” American flag “because everyone has a right to life” that shouldn’t be trampled on.