Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Washington last Friday from all over America. They were peaceful. They were polite. They were committed to the cause that brought them to Washington. And a significant percentage of them were young, in fact, most of them were of high school age.
They didn’t come for themselves. They didn’t come to advance their station in life. They weren’t critical of other people, and they cleaned up after themselves in our nation’s capital (not all marchers do.)
They came in peace. They came to march, and pray, and petition their elected representatives. And they came to pay homage to 61 million of their fellow Americans who, because of the Roe versus Wade case, were never born. And to the millions and millions of unborn babies, who will never be born in the future, because of that horrendous Supreme Court ruling.
Every year, these “March for Life” participants make a point of marching past the US Supreme Court, hoping that one day that court will overturn Roe versus Wade. And we may be getting close. The make up of the court is changing (I would argue for the better) since Donald Trump became president. That’s one reason this November‘s election is so important.
Now for the record, even without Roe versus Wade’s reversal, the pro-life movement has had some victories. Perhaps the most significant was passage of the Ban on Partial Birth Abortion Act, which passed the House, passed the Senate, was signed into law by President George W. Bush, and was upheld by US Supreme Court (I am pleased to have been the lead sponsor of the bill in the House.)
So back to the march. For many years now, I and the Representative of the neighboring congressional district, presently Congressman Brad Wenstrup, have met with Cincinnati students and families who have come to Washington, in the foyer of the Rayburn House Office Building, which is right across the street from the Capitol Building. Brad and I feed the hungry marchers (in recent years Chick-fil-A.) We have spoken to thousands and thousands of young people over the years, answered a lot of questions, and taken lots of pictures. I have to say, it’s one of my favorite events of the year.
Unfortunately, even though hundreds of thousands of mostly young people come to Washington every January, there is about zero press coverage. The one exception was last year, when a Covington Catholic student had a drum rudely banged in his face. And of course in that instance, many in the press falsely reported that the student was somehow at fault, even though he hadn’t done a thing wrong.
In my humble opinion, this many Americans coming to our nation’s capital, in an attempt to protect innocent unborn lives, ought to be a story. It ought to be covered by the mainstream press. Those little lives matter, and are worthy of recognition. Maybe next year. (But don’t count on it.)