By Barbara D. King(Southern Cross, January 29, 2009)

For five- month-old Mary Grace Morris this was her first march. For Prolife Anderson, 81, it was his 30th. The two joined Savannah Bishop J. Kevin Boland and tens of thousands of others in the March for Life in Washington, D.C. January 22.

A new seemingly abortion-friendly administration in Washington succeeded in almost doubling the number of Savannah area participants marking the 36th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade, requiring two buses instead of one, according to organizer Joan Hug.
“The anti-life stance taken by the new administration and the fact that during the election the Democratic Party obfuscated its position incensed a lot of people and many wanted to come here and express their displeasure,” Hug said. Three years ago she became the unofficial organizer of the group after she found housing for the participants closer to the march than the Maryland county where they were staying previously.

Besides Bishop Boland, three other diocesan priests—Mark Ross, Dan Firmin, and Mariusz
Fuks —joined the throngs who braved freezing temperatures as the march moved from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum to the U.S. Supreme Court building.

Lauren and Jeff Morris brought all eight of their children, including snowsuit-clad Mary Grace. Anderson, who had his first name legally changed from Charles in 1987, kept up his good humor throughout the arduous march, which he took in a wheelchair this year, and the round-trip bus ride from Savannah.

At the Supreme Court, instead of the justices, a retinue of grim-faced policemen greeted the marchers on the steps of the building.

The Savannah group, joined by a few folks who came up from Florida, added several side trips to their march. Many attended a standing room only Mass at the 16,000-person capacity Basilica of the Immaculate Conception the night before the march. Some went to lobby at meetings with Senators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson and Congressman Jack Kingston. A few attended a Mass celebrated by Bishop Boland, Fathers Firmin and Fuks and others at Saint Patrick Church.

After the Saint Patrick’s Mass, at an impromptu breakfast with CREED members, a young Catholics group from the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist, Bishop Boland elicited comments from the eight college students on why they made the march. Matt LaFonte was influenced by photos he saw at a Savannah College of Art and Design event of last year’s March for Life. Kelly Hupperich, who said she is the only one of her friends who is pro-life, felt that unlike stopping the horrors of the Holocaust or the killings in Darfur, participating in the march to defend life was a step she could accomplish.

African-American Chike Cole said he felt conflicted by the fact that President Barack Obama broke a color barrier with his election, yet the new president has espoused a pro-choice platform.

Jaclyn Mosling echoed the feelings of the group that the annual marches draw scant media attention. “Over 100,000 people attend this, but the only people who cover it are the BBC (British Broadcasting Company),” said Mosling, the charismatic leader of the students. She and the other marchers contrasted the two big events that took place in the nation’s capital
in one week—the inauguration and the prolife march—the one generating enormous media coverage, the other hardly any.

The march comes as Bishop Boland is urging south Georgia parishioners to participate in a postcard campaign directed at Senators Chambliss and Isakson and their representatives asking them not to join in any effort by Congress to pass a Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) that would “eliminate all the modest pro-life protections that are currently in place” in federal law.

The Diocesan Catholic Social Services Office has contacted all parishes in the diocese asking them to make the postcards available to their parishioners, according to director Sister Jackie Griffith.

On his third day in office President Obama signed an executive order reversing the Mexico
City policy, a move that clears the way for the federal government to provide aid to programs that promote or perform abortions overseas. Passing FOCA would be tougher because it would require approval by Congress.

Although FOCA had not yet been introduced in the 111th Congress as of January 20, many in the pro-life community fear that elements of it will be introduced and passed piecemeal as a way of gradually requiring American taxpayers to support abortion and contraceptives that cause abortion in more and more circumstances, according to a report from Catholic News
Service.

For the 95 or so folks in the Savannah group, despite the cold and the lack of media attention, most agreed the trip was worth it. As they filed off buses at 4:30 a.m. on January 23 back at the Saint James Parish parking lot, they cheerfully agreed to meet next year for the 37th annual March for Life demonstration in Washington, D.C.

Click here for photos from the March for Life

Bishop Boland Issues a letter regarding FOCA (Freedom of Choice Act). [PDF]