Senator Brownback and Rabbi Levin rally March for Lifers

D'Agostino, Joseph A

100,000 Gather to Protest Legal Abortion

On January 22, the 26th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion on demand, the annual "March for Life" drew an unusually large number of pro-life activists into Washington on a soggy day but fewer politicians than it has in recent years.

"You are fighting for the future of this great nation," Sen. Sam Brownback (R.-Kan.), the only U.S. senator to attend the rally, told the crowd. "Keep up the fight! Keep up the faith!" Comparing the protesters to those who fought for equal rights for black Americans, conservative champion Brownback called them "heroes in a battle of great consequence."

March organizers and the New York Times estimated the crowd's size at 100,000.

Numerous placards carried by marchers depicted the horror of partial-birth abortion. A ban on this gruesome procedure has passed both houses of Congress twice, only to be vetoed twice by President Clinton. A veto override vote failed in the Senate last year by just three votes.

Rep. Chris Smith (R.-N.J.) told the crowd, "Those who fashion themselves as advocates of children and prowomen while promoting or even acquiescing to abortion are either hypocrites or are living in an unhealthy state of denial. The scandals that have rocked the White House pale to near insignificance when compared to the antichild policies so methodically pursued by our abortion President and his administration."

Rep. Joseph Pitts (R.-Pa.) labeled abortion "the most violent form of death known to man" and a "holocaust."

Roman Catholic Cardinal John O'Connor of New York reiterated his promise to pay all the expenses of any pregnant woman who believes she cannot afford to have her child. Other Catholic bishops around the country had joined in his pledge "so that no woman anywhere need yield to the pressure of the destruction of her child," he said.

Smith, chairman of the House subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights, told HUMAN EVENTS after his speech that he intends to continue this year the kind of obstruction of abortion-funding legislation that has become his trademark. "Unfortunately, with our [congressional] leadership, it has always been an issue that dare not say its name," he said. "I would like there to be more of a boldness on the part of the party, and if there's not, people like myself and others, saving unborn children trumps partisanship....

Nazi-Like Research

"I and all the other pro-life congressmen stand ready to push the envelope in every way. I'm not worried about whether we are not perceived as being moderate or anything. You know, children are dying. There's a slaughter going on every day. And shame on us if we don't seize every opportunity and even make opportunities where they don't exist just by prayer and fasting and hard work."

He said that he plans to butt heads with Sen. Arlen Specter (R.-Pa.) and try to ban stem-cell research, which kills unborn embryos. "It's horrific to me, Nazi-like, that there are going to be embryos whose sole reason for being is experimentation," he said. About new House Speaker Dennis Hastert's (R.-IIL) pro-life inclinations, Smith said, "I have high hopes for Denny."

Smith also had high hopes for the future. "Despite having the most virulently pro-abortion President and First Lady and Vice President and Tipper, and an administration that never misses an opportunity to aggressively promote abortion," he said, "with God's help, I think we'll mitigate and eventually stop abortions in this country."

Rabbi Yehuda Levin of the Jewish Anti-Abortion League praised the crowd for its dedication, saying, "You are true friends because you spend all your time and money to defend the most defenseless among us." Afterward, asked why there are few Jews in the pro-life movement, he replied, "Well, it depends which Jews you're talking about. The religious Jews who've lost contact with the rudiments of their faith several generations ago, they've gorged down on a smorgasbord of Americana, of opportunities, and they just don't know the difference anymore between Jewish values and secular values....

"The Orthodox Jewish community is by far the fastest growing segment of the [Jewish] community. Within a couple of decades you'll see, I predict, about 30% of the Jewish community will be Orthodox."

While the pro-lifers were meeting before marching from the White House to the Capitol and Supreme Court, Hillary Clinton announced plans at a downtown hotel to spend $4.5 million of taxpayer money to install security systems at abortion clinics around the country.

"In the last 10 years there have been seven murders, 38 bombings, 146 cases of arson and 733 cases of vandalism," she said. "Wherever one stands on the issue of abortion, surely we should all agree that when doctors are murdered, clinics are bombed, splattered with acid or set on fire, this is not free expression. This is domestic terrorism and it's got to stop" She praised the Supreme Court's 26-year-old decision. "We should all take heart that despite many attempts to chip away at its guarantees, Roe is still the law of the land," she said.

The day after the march, about 100 people peacefully protested outside of Planned Parenthood's headquarters in downtown Washington.

Representatives Roscoe Bartlett (R.-Md.) and Todd Tiahrt (R.-Kan.), a featured speaker at the annual pro-life Rose Dinner that evening, also addressed the March for Life crowd.

Former Rep. Bob Dornan (R.-Calif.) gave a fiery speech, even criticizing the U.S. Catholic bishops for not doing more to promote pro-life issues. Many bishops stood behind him as he spoke. His criticisms prompted Nellie Gray, the March for Life organizer, to scuffle with him for the microphone. Doman won the scuffle and pronounced, "You can't handle the truth," before ending his speech. Afterward, he told reporters that he was especially angry that the bishops issued a pastoral letter that seemed to soften church teaching on homosexuality instead of doing more on abortion and other issues. "It's revolting," he said. "Homosexuality is a cross, not a gift from God."

The abortion protesters, who came from all over the country but predominately from the Eastern seaboard, were heavy with high school and college students. Even all-girls Wellesley College, Hillary Clinton's alma mater and a bastion of radical left-wing politics, had a contingent. Twentyone members of the largest pro-life group in France, Right to be Born, also attended.

For the first time in anyone's memory, a Vatican official came to the March for Life. Archbishop Custodio Pereira, vice president of the chapter of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, attended in a private capacity. In an interview and through an interpreter, the 83-year-old archbishop said that this was his first visit to the United States. "What will happen in the future in the United States is very difficult to predict" he said. "However, I can only hope it will be for life and against abortion. I am scared of consumerism, materialism.... I will pray for the United States."

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Feb 5, 1999
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