On Tuesday, the March for Life announced their theme for the upcoming annual event on January 19, 2018. Jeannie Mancini billed the march as “the largest annual human rights demonstration,” regarding abortion as “the single most significant and horrific human rights abuse of today.” Since Roe v. Wade was decided in January 1973, over 59 million Americans have been aborted. The event also thinks of the mothers, too, who have suffered from their abortions.
In this way, the themes seek to reach out to describe the humanity of both mother and child. This upcoming march will be “Love Saves Lives.” Mancini described choosing the theme “as a beautiful opportunity for this particular community. An opportunity for educating, for providing tools, for refreshing and equipping people who want to end abortion.”
The theme is chosen based on what the group believes “is most needed,” with recent themes being about adoption, about every life being a gift, including for those with disabilities.
In the theme’s release, Mancini invited the audience to “let that sink in” about the theme, since “our culture needs love, real, sacrificial, heroic love more than anything else right now.” She continued to speak about how love and sacrifice go together, especially in choosing life, which she Mancini acknowledged is not always easy, though it is selfless.
Mancini mentioned examples of a family who adopted four children from foster care; of a woman who joined the Sisters of Life to assist women facing unplanned pregnancies; of a couple who opened a maternity home in their daughter’s name a year after they lost her due to a fatal fetal abnormality. She called such stories “the DNA of the pro-life community.”
Specifically, maternity homes and pregnancy centers are the face of what “Love Saves Lives” means.
To those who may disagree with such a message, Mancini pointed out that “you don’t solve one problem by creating another,” meaning an abortion does not cure the reason a woman sought out the procedure in the first place. “We believe abortion will never be a solution to these issues,” Mancini emphasized, when it comes to issues such as poverty and healthcare, which she also acknowledged are right for society to work to address.
The release also featured speakers who explained what the theme meant to them. One particularly touching story of Alison Howard Centofante of Alliance Defending Freedom, shared how she discovered at a young age that her father had been left in a hotel room by his mother when she was an infant. Alison and her father, however, were able to see his mother’s decision as an act of life, since she chose life for him and left him where she knew he would be found.
Alison often wonders about who talked to her father’s mother, and if she could have dinner with one person, it would be the one who talked to her grandmother, and convinced her to choose life. She says this person “advocates for what is good in society,” and that she wants to be like this person who helps women choose life.
She referred to pregnancy resource centers and the employees there, as “the little angels, the heroes who talk to people like my grandmother every day.”
Mancini closed the event by asking the audience and viewers to think about what they can sacrifice as a way to express love and thus change lives.
The upcoming March for Life will be the 45th year to take place, as it has occurred every year since 1974, a year after Roe v. Wade was decided. The U.S. Supreme Court decision legalized abortion throughout all 50 states.