On January 27 two Houghton students, Elizabeth Clark and Gabrielle Kettinger, followed their interest in pro-life activism to the movement’s most iconic gathering: the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. According to the March’s official website, the March first took place in January of 1974, and has continued as a peaceful demonstration to encourage lawmakers to end abortion.
Before the march, Clark and Kettinger attended a rally that featured speakers like Vice President, Mike Pence, and Bishop Vincent Mathews. Particularly moving to both Clark and Kettinger was the testimony of Ludmya “Mia” Love, a U.S. Representative from Utah and the first female black Republican in Congress, whose immigrant parents elected not to have an abortion. “Never would they have thought that their daughter who they decided to have would be standing in front of all these people,” Clark said.
Neither student considers herself an activist. Clark shared with a laugh that this was her “first time doing anything like this,” but both are passionate about deepening their understanding. Both women left the march with a newfound dedication to advocacy and conviction about the power of public demonstration, due in part to the event’s explicitly activist tone. “They said that we would be the pro-life generation,” reminisced Kettinger. “The generation that would end abortion.”
“Half of it is about being a witness,” Clark shared the experience. “We the people care about this issue and want to see it change. But it’s also very educational and reaffirming. It’s very popular, especially among people my age, to see only the grey areas and not think of anything as concrete. Reaffirming my belief that certain things are not okay was definitely very good for me.”
Though media attention sometimes profiled the March for Life in opposition to the Women’s March that had previously taken to the same streets, both Clark and Kettinger were adamant about the “women-focused” attitude they had seen in the crowd. “A lot of the women who were marching had had abortions,” Clark said. “It’s not coming from a place of ignorance. They know exactly how this system works. It’s a side of this issue that is ignored, that it can be very damaging to have an abortion.”
Smiling, Kettinger recalled walking down the street and seeing groups of monks or nuns march past. In keeping with the religious tone of the event, Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s address drew parallels between the Christian church and the “sanctuary of the womb” while also urging listeners to care for the environment and embrace refugees.
Dolan’s comprehensive ideology and doctrine of tolerance was reflected in the crowd. “They didn’t even want to call it a protest,” Kettinger said. “It was such a joyful, loving celebration of life.” Clark agreed, adding that there was “no violence, no yelling, just seeing the beautiful things in life and trying to protect life.” Both women were also heartened by the event’s broad definition of “life,” which embraced discussions of domestic violence, care for the elderly, and the Black Lives Matter movement. “It’s not just anti-abortion,” Clark said. “It’s about having an abundant, fulfilling life.”