Students Lead Protest Of Abortion Decision Washington Streets Jammed With New Generation

On the 25th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, a new generation of anti-abortion protesters jammed the streets of the nation’s capital to condemn the procedure.

Thousands stood just south of the White House on the Ellipse, bundled up in winter coats, scarves and mittens to attend Thursday’s “March for Life,’ and a large part of the crowd was high school and college students representing campus anti-abortion groups.

University of Dayton student Beth Schuller, 19, came with 13 other students from Ohio to “take a stand and be motivated with the rest of the pro-lifers around the country.”

Clinton Dick, 18, started an anti-abortion group at Peeples High School in his home town of Peeples, Ohio. He said his group has 11 members who work at a pregnancy crisis center to convince mothers to keep their babies.

He described the Roe v. Wade decision as a “big tragedy,” and said the participants did not realize how big an effect the decision would have on the country.

If abortion were outlawed, there would be more adoptions and people would take more responsibility in their actions. Thus, fewer people would have unwanted pregnancies and have abortions in the first place, he said.

Christine Weimer, 20, vice president of the Right to Life group at John Carroll University in Cleveland, has come to the march for the last 17 years.

Her group created a “cemetery of the innocent,” consisting of 340 crosses each representing more than 100,000 fetuses that died from abortions since 1973.

Asked about a woman’s right to choose, Weimer said, “Women inside the womb also have a right to life. They are smaller women, but they are women and are being killed.”

Mary Kielty, an elderly woman from Toledo, Ohio, said it was inspiring to see so many younger attendees at the annual march.

“I’ve known all my life it was wrong to kill babies. No one had to teach me. No one had to tell me,” Kielty said. “We’re just here shoulder to shoulder hoping they’ll notice that abortion hurts women and it hurts babies.”

After hearing speakers including Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, the crowd marched to the steps of the Supreme Court. The group shouted cheers of unity, and exhorted God to save the souls of the thousands of babies aborted since the 1973 landmark decision.

They came from all over the country, riding all night on buses from as far as Kansas and St. Louis, to support their cause.

An hour before the crowd gathered, 11 students from the University of Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s College in South Bend, Ind., formed a prayer circle.

A banner behind them proclaimed, “Irish Fighting for Life.”