In a challenge to those attending today’s 49th annual March For Life, pro-abortion rights messages were projected on the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception Thursday night.
Religious News Service reporter Jack Jenkins posted photos of the protest, which he said came during the basilica’s “prayer vigil for life” that was happening inside.
Images on his Twitter account included projections that “1 in 4 abortion patients is Catholic” and “pro-choice Catholics you are not alone.”
Another angle: pic.twitter.com/ceAq65MKln
— Jack Jenkins (@jackmjenkins) January 20, 2022
Thousands today are gathering in Washington, D.C., for the March for Life, the annual event to draw attention to the 1973 Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling granting a right to abortion. Anti-abortion advocates believe the conservative majority on the court could overturn Roe.
He’s now describing Hell.
Meanwhile, the protest continues. pic.twitter.com/Lu2eAdFsrD
— Jack Jenkins (@jackmjenkins) January 20, 2022
Jenkins indicated that there was a clash during the Catholics for Choice protest at Washington’s top Catholic church. He tweeted that a “man has now confronted the protesters, shouting ‘there is no such thing as a pro-choice Catholic’ and ‘pro-choice Catholics are going to Hell!'” Jenkins added: “Protesters quietly offer to pray for him, and he shouts ‘I don’t want your prayers … Why would I pray with you, you’re not Catholic!’”
This year’s March for Life has seen a new injection of politics because of President Joe Biden’s efforts to expand abortion protections and attack states trying to end it. Biden is Catholic and attends mass regularly.
He has come under fire from CatholicVote.org, which this week launched the “Catholic Accountability Project” to expose pro-abortion rights politicians and celebrities who are also Catholic.
The postings by Jenkins prompted the anti-abortion group to tweet, “The president of the United States is the most prominent Catholic in America. He must condemn this immediately. His implicit defiance of Catholic social teaching on life has fueled this division in our church that activists are now exploiting.”
It added, “Abortion is the greatest civil rights issue of our time. As in the past, there will be those who resist the forward march of justice. Whether they’re burning crosses or putting offensive messages on churches, we pray for their conversion. And we march on.”
