With great sadness, pro-lifers around the world watched as Ireland voted against love and life by repealing its Eighth Amendment. Although it is devastating to consider the deadly consequences of this decision, worldwide efforts to build a universal culture of life remain a powerful force for good.
If the pro-life movement in America since Roe v. Wade is any indicator, Ireland’s own pro-life movement will only grow stronger now that the door to legalized abortion has been opened.
Every year in January, near the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, it is my honor and privilege to welcome over 100,000 participants to our nation’s capital for the annual March for Life. These young, passionate activists march — in wind, rain, or snow — to peacefully protest the violence of abortion against women and unborn children. The March for Life has grown into the largest annual human rights demonstration in the world, and our participants continue to win hearts and minds with our message that love saves lives.
But the pro-life movement doesn’t end at our shore. We are marching around the globe in defense of the unborn. This year we have already seen a number of other nations organize Marches for Life: Pro-life activists have gathered in the United Kingdom, Peru, Colombia, Italy, and Canada to spread the truth that life is a universal human right.
Each march is as unique as the culture that holds it. Bagpipers and Irish dancing accompany the march in Dublin, while a LifeFest event takes place in London. Peru’s march features concerts and dancing. Though the styles of these events differ, they all inspire attendees to stand up and speak out for life.
These international pro-life marches help participants create a global culture of life. The marches serve not just as a witness for life; they also bring people together to exchange ideas about how to best serve women, babies, and families in participants’ own communities. As Ben Thatcher, one of the directors of March for Life U.K., explained, the international pro-life movement “is one family — a united voice in different countries across the world. We can help each other, we can learn from each other, and we can achieve more together.”
Roughly 15,000 people joined the March for Life in the Netherlands last year; in Prague — where the Soviets legalized elective abortion in 1957 — more than 5,000 participants marched for life; and in Tokyo, where the first March for Life in 2014 had just one participant, 150 joined last year.
One of the most remarkable aspects of these countries following our example in holding peaceful pro-life marches is that the laws governing abortion procedures in these nations aren’t nearly as permissive as those in America.
Take Poland, for example. In the 1990s, Poland reversed legislation from the Soviet era that permitted most abortions to ban the procedure in all but extraordinary circumstances. Though the country has taken a legal stand against the violence of abortion, at the 2016 March for the Sanctity of Life in Warsaw, Archbishop Henryk Hoser of Warsaw-Praga called attending the march “an act of bravery.” Marches for life now take place in 140 cities, and last year about 200,000 Polish people marched to affirm the inherent value of each and every human life.
Even in France, where elective abortions are limited to the first 12 weeks of pregnancy (like many European countries), a large and joyful crowd of 50,000 people gathered in Paris last year to march for a culture of life.
But here in the United States, pro-abortion activists paint the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban elective abortion after 20 weeks, as extreme, even though a majority of American voters and a majority of American women support such legislation. In fact, the United States is one of just seven nations — a group that also includes China and North Korea — that permit elective abortion beyond 20 weeks gestation. Who is it that is truly extreme?
Just as these countries learned from our example about ways in which to peacefully protest abortion, we should learn from their example and implement common-sense restrictions on abortion that most Americans support, which are already in place in most of the developed world.
Jeanne Mancini is president of the March for Life.
