New vice president joins March for Life

Newly inaugurated Vice President Mike Pence became the highest-ranking US Government official to speak at the annual March for Life (pictured) in Washing­ton DC. The march, the 43rd such protest, is traditionally held on the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalising abortion.

“Life is winning in America and today is a celebration in that progress,” Pence told the crowd gathered on the National Mall. “We’ve come to a historic moment in the cause of life and we must approach it with compassion for every American. Life is winning in America because of you. Let this movement be known for love. Not anger. For compassion. Not confrontation.” The speakers included members of Congress, presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway, evangelical leader Eric Metaxas, Catholic bishops and other pro-life advocates.

Organisers anticipated a crowd of 50,000 but the appearance of the Vice President, announced at the last minute, may have swelled the numbers. The previous weekend, an estimated 500,000 people participated in a women’s march protesting against Donald Trump’s policies and as many as 800,000 people attended the presidential inauguration.

The night before the march, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, chairman of the bishops’ committee on pro-life activities, presided at Mass in the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Billed as an annual “state of the movement” address, but mindful of the executive orders on immigration issued that day by President Trump, the cardinal organised his homily around the theme of sanctuary – the sanctuary of the womb, of the family, and of America as a haven for immigrants and refugees – echoing the “seamless garment” approach to life issues advocated by the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. “We come together this evening in a church we call a sanctuary,” the cardinal said, “in a land historically termed a sanctuary ... to reclaim the belief that a mother’s womb is the primal sanctuary.” The applause that has greeted such sermons in the past was absent.

The Pope sent the “many thousands of young people from throughout America gathered for the March for Life ... the assurance of his closeness in prayer”.

A message signed by Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said: “As [Francis] has made clear, ‘so great is the value of a human life, so inalienable the right to life of an innocent child growing in the mother’s womb, that no alleged right ... can justify a decision to terminate that life’ (Amoris Laetitia, 83).”