An estimated 225,000 pro-lifers, the majority of them youth, from across America participated in the march for life in Washington D.C., to mark the 30th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion in the United States. Some schools sent eight to 20 buses filled with students to participate in the largest annual pro-life demonstration of the year. Leading the March were a large group of students from Florida. At one point the procession stopped briefly as Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King invited the marchers to join her in singing “We will overcome.”
President George W. Bush addressed the audience by telephone. He said, “We aspire to build a society where each one of us is welcomed in life and protected in law. We haven’t arrived, but we are making progress … As you give voice to the voiceless I ask you to take comfort from this: The hearts of the American people are good. Their minds are open to persuasion. And our history shows that a cause rooted in human dignity and appealing to the best instincts of the American people cannot fail. So take heart.”
