PROVIDENCE — It was a cold, cloudy day in the nation’s capital during this year’s March for Life. But despite the dreary conditions, tens of thousands of pro-life demonstrators packed the streets of Washington, D.C. to show their support for the fight against abortion.
Among Catholic constituents of the pro-life movement, the number of attendants was in the thousands. Reports show that as many as 5,000 Catholics packed the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, which typically holds only 3,500 people, for a vigil service the night before the march.
The theme for this year’s march was: “Life: Why We March.” As articulated by the national March for Life, the movement seeks to “encourage pro-life advocates to draw renewed energy for this challenging moment in the movement by reflecting on the basic truth that inspires the pro-life cause: [that] every human life…is beautiful, has unique dignity, and [is] worthy of protection.”
What such a theme reflects is the reality that, in the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022, the pro-life movement lacks a singular federal policy or court decision against which to protest. Yet, the overturn of Roe did not, in and of itself, bring an end to abortion.
It is thus incumbent upon supporters of the pro-life movement to broaden their perspective: the pro-life movement is not merely an opposition to a series of specific laws or legal decisions; rather, the pro-life movement calls us to reflect upon those moral principles that inspire the pro-life movement, and to move forward in the fight against abortion with a greater level of enthusiasm for these principles.
In the absence of a singular, clearly definable set of obstacles that can serve as the rallying call of the movement,defenders of life must now focus their attention on the broader cultural, political and economic trends that lead people to support abortion or feel that it is necessary.
Attempts to tackle the issue of abortion in a post-Roe world is an ongoing question, one that is frequently taking on new forms as new issues arise. For some, the fight against abortion must take a grassroots approach. The only possible way to create a culture that values life is in meeting each person where they are.
“It’s a huge undertaking,” said Lisa Cooley, coordinator of the Office of Life and Family Ministry for the Diocese of Providence.
“You’re going out and talking person-to-person,” Cooley continued, noting how the duty to reach out to each person and inspire within them an unconditional respect for human life is incumbent upon both the clergy and the laity.
Such an endeavor is not easy, for it entails going against some of the more pronounced elements of our contemporary cultural climate.
“We’re here to go against the culture of death, and the only way you can do that is if you preach the truth,” Cooley noted.
The struggle to create a culture of life has both a definite legal element as well as a more personal, spiritual dynamic.
“There is no doubt that God has done a new thing in our nation. But we have not yet entered into the promised land,” said a letter sent out to members of the Rhode Island Right to Life on January 22, 2025.
“Our Supreme Court did not recognize the preborn human child as a person under the Constitution of the United States and thus protected thereunder. Some say it was a lack of courage, others argue it was political prudence, while some even believe it was premature to send the issue back to the states as the Court did in Dobbs, that the American people were not ready.”
These political struggles are particularly pronounced in the Ocean State, with the overwhelming majority of politicians advocating for a pro-choice position.
“Here in Rhode Island, we are still playing defense with respect to abortion and assisted suicide,” said Barth E. Bracy, the director of Rhode Island Right to Life.
While many have argued that the creation of a culture of life necessitates the reevaluation of certain legal concepts so as to extend legal protections to the unborn, many have also argued that these legal changes need to be coupled with attempts to communicate to the people what is at stake in the debates surrounding abortion, as well as helping to create a better understanding of what the Church teaches.
“After Roe V. Wade there is much education that needs to be done to change hearts and minds on the topic of the sanctity of human life,” Cooley asserted.
This attempt to educate people has been situated by some in the pro-life movement within the context of the need for personal conversion.
Dennis Sousa, the director of the Office of Family, Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Diocese of Providence, noted that the creation of a culture that respects life begins with each individual “being invited and enter[ing] into a personal relationship with Jesus, because it’s only in that we can change culture.”
“It’s really only one person at a time, one family at a time,” Sousa noted. “If we don’t know who we are, and whose we are, then we become the center of every choice we make, and not God. That is the fundamental issue that I see is being played out.”
To subscribe to the notion that personal autonomy can be supported to the point of undermining a respect for life, Sousa concluded, is to misunderstand the core of our identity and to overlook the fact that every life is of inestimable value precisely because it belongs to God.
The furtherance of the pro-life movement requires, therefore, not only political activism, but more specifically political activism born out of a renewed way of life and a way of viewing the world predicated upon the respect for life at all levels.
