With thousands upon thousands in attendance, the 2020 National March for Life kicked off with probably as much if not more anticipation as any march in the movement’s 47-year history.
Not only was it the first March for Life to be attended by a president of the United States, it’s also a moment in time in which there is much speculation about the future of abortion rights in the U.S.
With the U.S. Supreme Court set to hear its first abortion-related case since two Trump-appointed justices were confirmed to the bench, the tone of the gathering was seemingly more optimistic than it was four years ago during the last year of President Barack Obama’s administration.
In the following pages are 5 notable things that happened at the 2020 March for Life, the largest pro-life human rights demonstration in the world.
President Trump, who many pro-lifers call the “most pro-life president,” made history by becoming the first sitting president to speak in-person at the annual march launched the year after the Supreme Court made abortion a national right in 1973 with its Roe v. Wade ruling.
Trump, who has addressed the March for Life rally by video in the past, highlighted his pro-life accomplishments throughout his three years in office. Adoring fans cheered as they held up signs that read, “Most Pro-Life President Ever” and “I Vote Pro-Life First.”
As he has at other pro-life gatherings, Trump bashed congressional Democrats for their support of late-term abortion.
“Together we are the voice for the voiceless,” Trump told the crowd. “When it comes to abortion, Democrats … have embraced the most radical and extreme position taken and seen in this country for years and decades and you could even say for centuries. Nearly every top Democrat in Congress supports taxpayer abortion up until the moment of birth.”
Trump assured that “every child is a precious and sacred gift from God.”
“Together we must protect, cherish, and defend the dignity and the sanctity of every human life,” he said. “When we see the image of a baby in the womb, we glimpse the majesty of God’s creation. When we hold a newborn in our arms, we know the endless love that each child brings to a family.”
Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, also addressed the march via video after meeting with Pope Francis in Rome. As the March for Life has always been a Catholic-majority movement, the Pences thanked Catholics for their advocacy on the abortion issue.
“To all the people of faith who are marching here today, we want to thank you for your witness and thank you for your compassion and thank you for standing for life,” Karen Pence said. “Your prayers have sustained this important movement for nearly 50 years. We cannot be more proud to be on this journey with you.”
Highly respected Southern Baptist megachurch pastor David Platt gave the closing prayer for the pep rally before the official start of the march.
Platt is the former head of the SBC’s International Mission Board, an author and lead pastor at McLean Bible Church in Vienna, Virginia.
Platt, who is not really seen as a political pastor, made headlines last year when he prayed for the president after he showed up at one of the McLean church services.
Before beginning his prayer, Platt told the crowd that his family is growing.
“One year ago, God used this march along with a variety of other means for my wife and me to begin the process of adoption,” he explained, followed by cheers from the crowd. “So we have adopted two of our four kids. We thought our family was complete but God felt different. So we began praying for a child not knowing if we would adopt a boy or a girl.”
“Our kids decided that until we met this child, we would just call him or her ‘Wonderfully Made’ because this is what God calls them in Psalm 39,” Platt, 40, said. “We prayed month-after-month over the last year for ‘Wonderfully Made’ until we were matched with a 3-year-old little boy. Next week, he will officially become part of our family.”
Platt told CP before going on stage that the adoption is international but could not yet disclose what country “Wonderfully Made” is from.
“I share this because I praise God for a mom, a woman who is herself wonderfully made, who chose to give life to a precious boy I will soon call my son,” Platt told the crowd. “As we pray, let’s pray that God would use this not as a memorable experience or political event but as a means by which more lives wonderfully made by Him might be saved.”
The popular Irish Christian worship band We Are Messengers performed the hour-long pre-rally concert.
In between songs, frontman Darren Mulligan declared that the band is unapologetically pro-life, even if it does cost them some fans.
He explained that the band took a risk by attending the event because there are many who oppose the band’s decision to perform at the march.
“When I get home tonight, I am going to get thousands of emails slamming me for taking this stance,” Mulligan said. “And, I don’t give one iota because I am a free man and nobody can tell me who I can love and who I cannot.”
Mulligan, who now lives in Tennessee, was critical of where he sees America’s priorities lying.
“America, if you are going to be obsessed with plastic straws and what bathroom people can use, then you are missing the big picture,” he warned.
He recalled his family’s own story. Mulligan said he was a “bad man” who found Christ thanks to his wife 11 years ago. But because she struggled with an eating disorder, they were told by doctors that they might never be able to have children because of the damage done to her body.
However, he said that God “had different ideas.”
“He is the author of life and He is the creator of life,” he said in his thick Irish accent. “He is the one who gives and takes away. So He has given us four of the most incredible gifts.”
“I look [at my kids] and they tell me it is just a fetus,” he continued in disgust. “Go away with that nonsense. That is not just a fetus. That is baby boys and baby girls.”
Mulligan said that when people are “walking around dead,” they “try to convince everybody else that is OK.”
Mulligan went on to criticize the people of his home country, who in 2018 legalized abortion by a democratic vote.
“I am ashamed of that,” Mulligan said. “We don’t get to choose who lives and who dies. It is not our right to do that.”
Mulligan also called on those who say they are pro-life to be active in the lives of mothers who give birth rather than abort and their children.
“We are pro-life, pro-baby. But we are also pro-woman,” Mulligan said. “Don’t go telling someone they can’t have an abortion if you are not willing to take care of them and if you are not going to sew your time and your energy and your money and your passion.”
“America, you do a lot of talking sometimes and not a lot of doing,” he added. “It is time to put your money where your mouth is. If you are going to march here today, you better be sure tomorrow that in [your heart] you are marching as well and giving everything you got.”
Mulligan praised care clinics in inner cities that are on the “frontlines that are counseling young girls considering abortion because they don’t believe they have a choice.”
He apologized on behalf of men to the women in the audience who have had abortions because they felt they had no other choice.
SOURCE: Christian Post, Samuel Smith
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