Washington DC: Thousands in March for Life

Thousands took part in the March for Life in Washington DC on Friday. The March was preceded year by a prayer vigil at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. On Friday morning, Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond of New Orleans was the primary celebrant at the Closing Mass for the Vigil.

Participants in this year's march were encouraged by the election of Donald Trump who has vowed to end taxpayer-funded abortion at home and abroad. Vice President Mike Pence, a longtime supporter of the anti-abortion movement, was the most senior government official to speak at Friday's rally. "Life is winning again in America," Pence told the demonstrators.

The number of abortions in the US has fallen to a record low. The Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health and rights organisation, said last week that it dropped below 1 million in 2013 for the first time since 1975.

The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin issued the following message on behalf of Pope Francis:

His Holiness Pope Francis sends warm greetings and the assurance of his closeness in prayer to the many thousands of young people from throughout America gathered in the Archdiocese of Washington and the Diocese of Arlington for the annual March for Life. His Holiness is profoundly grateful for this impressive testimony to the sacredness of every human life. As he has made clear, "so great is the value of a human life, and 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).

He trusts that this event, in which so many American citizens speak out on behalf of the most defenseless of our brothers and sisters, will contribute to a mobilisation of conscience in defense of the right to life and effective measures to ensure its adequate legal protection. To all present the Holy Father cordially imparts his Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of strength and peace in the Lord.

Source: Fides