By Kevin Cullen
The Catholic Moment
Newspaper of the Diocese of Lafayette in Indiana
WASHINGTON, D.C. — They came from Indiana and Maine, Colorado and Florida, Vermont and Tennessee. Together, Christians, Jews and non-believers formed a surging river of humanity that packed the broad sweep of Constitution Avenue for a mile.
At least 100,000 protesters, including many adults and teenagers from our Local Church, walked up Capitol Hill from the National Mall to the Supreme Court Building in the 35th annual March for Life on Jan. 22. They ignored a cold drizzle to condemn abortion and remember the 50 million unborn babies killed since it was legalized on Jan. 22, 1973.
“If this saves one baby’s life, it will be worth it,” said Diana Wells, a native of Atlanta, Ind., near Tipton. She wore a pin that read, “I Regret My Abortion” as she stood before the white marble steps of the Supreme Court Building.
The court’s 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision threw out most state restrictions on abortion. The companion Doe vs. Bolton decision, handed down the same day, permitted abortions through all nine months of pregnancy.
As a young unmarried woman, Wells had abortions in 1977 and 1978. They haunted her for years. She was in and out of psychiatric units. She wanted to die.
Counseling and Bible study have brought a sense of forgiveness and “the courage to tell others, ‘You don’t want this to happen to you,’” said Wells, now of Dillsburg, Pa. “When I renounced abortion, I began to get better.”