This weekend, Washington, D.C., saw two very different political protests. On Friday, I joined hundreds of thousands of pro-life activists in the 46th annual March for Life. On Saturday, about 10,000 men and women took to the streets in the 3rd annual Women’s March. This video gives a good snapshot of the size of the March for Life.
The 2019 March for Life was a great success! People from across the country, and the world, met in D.C. to march for the rights of the preborn! We are the Pro-Life Generation and we will abolish abortion!
Posted by Students for Life of America on Friday, January 18, 2019
The two marches had many important differences that help explain the crowd size differential.
1. One central issue.
Pro-life activists from all across the country have trekked to Washington, D.C., in mid-January, trudging through snow, rain, sleet, and just darn cold weather. This year was a comparatively balmy 38 degrees, but I’ve experienced far worse. Each year, protesters are motivated by one driving issue: voicing their opposition to the barbaric practice of abortion.
By contrast, the Women’s March is about everything and nothing. The central uniting factor seems to be opposition to President Donald Trump, but activists march for every liberal issue under the sun.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) snapped a photo of a sign reading, “Stop pretending your racism is patriotism.”
"Stop pretending your racism is patriotism." This sign from today's #WomensMarch2019 is how I feel when individual-1 talks about the wall. pic.twitter.com/5Kj33PiMnA
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) January 19, 2019
Other signs praised unions, with the message, “Union women are powerful women.” Are non-union women not powerful?
Union women are powerful women. ✊🏾
Standing strong with @lizshuler at the #WomensMarch2019 in DC. pic.twitter.com/pBehlPXkF3— Bonnie Castillo (@NNUBonnie) January 19, 2019
Many seemed content to scream invectives at Trump. One sign simply read, “It’s Mueller time, baby!” with the image of a baby’s head and a Trump-style toupee. This sign insulted Trump, but seemed to carry no political message, merely suggesting that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will find evidence against the president.
As women take to the streets, we’re gathering the most powerful and poignant signs from the #WomensMarch2019: https://t.co/IGOAcHQUC4
📸: Reuters, Associated Press pic.twitter.com/XMRYpKXS2c
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) January 19, 2019
One group of protesters dressed up as a wall, mocking Trump’s proposal to build a wall on America’s southern border.
That’ll show Trump .. 🤣🤣🤣 #WomensMarch2019 pic.twitter.com/cFujTXuGnQ
— Stephanie Hamill (@STEPHMHAMILL) January 20, 2019
Some young men held emasculating signs reading “Boys will be boys feminists.” The signs clearly attacked the idea of excusing violent or sexually aggressive behavior with the phrase “boys will be boys,” but these signs come off as almost misandrist, suggesting that it is not okay for boys to be male human beings.
hold men accountable for their actions #WomensMarch2019 pic.twitter.com/dwhE7rQMTJ
— grant landis ☁️ (@grantlandis) January 19, 2019
Other activists lumped together “Racial Justice, Safety for Women, LGBTQ+ Rights, Immigrant Justice, Reproductive Justice, [and] Equal Pay.” Only three of those issues are directly related to women only. Indeed, many feminists have vehemently opposed transgender activism.
#WomensMarch2019
We march for:✊🏾 Racial Justice
💗 Safety for Women
🌈 LGBTQ+ Rights
🦋 Immigrant Justice
🏥 Reproductive Justice
💵 Equal Pay pic.twitter.com/UGu5Q1Vmo6— celeste (@arodcel) January 20, 2019
In Vancouver, the protest pivoted to pipelines for some reason…
After covering the #WomensMarch2019 in Vancouver today I’m left wondering when pipelines became a women’s rights issue. Several speakers shouted ‘no consent, no pipelines’. What about women who support pipelines? Were their voices not welcome? pic.twitter.com/8RdYgBQtpE
— Jill Bennett (@jillreports) January 20, 2019
Some marched with signs reading, “If Hillary were president, we’d be at a brunch right now.”
lol @ whoever still thinks this is not at all shameful#WomensMarch2019 pic.twitter.com/nrfTjSxNS0
— Midwest Unrest (@MW_Unrest) January 19, 2019
That says it all.
2. Beyond politics.
While many men and women at the Women’s March might not be marching if Trump had never won the 2016 election, the activists at the March for Life will keep marching until the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade (1973) is overturned.
The March for Life transcends politics in a way that the Women’s March does not. The March for Life continued under Republican and Democratic presidents, pro-life and pro-choice presidents. When Trump was elected, pro-life activists still took to the streets, because our cause is still an issue.
Although the Democratic Party seems bent on exiling any pro-life politician from its ranks, two pro-life Democrats attended the March for Life. Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) attacked his party for rejecting pro-life candidates. Louisiana State House Rep. Katrina Jackson told National Review that her district is 90 percent pro-life, and 60 percent Democrat.
Protesters had many clever signs with different themes, but all surrounded abortion and the dignity of human life in the womb. One of the most common signs played off of Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again!” Marchers carried signs reading, “Make Unborn Babies Great Again!”
March for Life sign. Photo credit: Tyler O’Neil.
Others focused on religious messages.
March for Life sign. Photo credit: Tyler O’Neil.
Both men and women marched with signs expressing regret over abortion. These brave women admitted that they had their babies killed in the womb, and they feel a deep regret over their “choice.” In an interesting change from the slight misandry of the Women’s March, this group included a man with the sign “Men Regret Lost Fatherhood,” expressing the emotional toll abortion takes on men who would otherwise be fathers.
March for Life sign about abortion regret. Photo credit: Tyler O’Neil.
The March for Life is arguably unique among political events, in that protesters are marching entirely for other people rather than for themselves. That should resonate beyond politics, and it does.
Meanwhile, the Women’s March issues all align with the Democratic Party.
3. A uniting message.
Perhaps most importantly, the March for Life has a far more uniting message than the Women’s March. Not only did the organizers exclude pro-life women from the Women’s March, but a protester actually shouted at a pro-life woman nearby, “We hope you get raped!”
Women’s March leaders have refused to dissociate themselves from notorious anti-Semite Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, and a devastating Tablet exposé claimed that these women blamed Jews for the slave trade. The Democratic National Committee (DNC), the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and other mainstream liberal groups have distanced themselves from the march, and even many who choose not to do so refused to justify their decision to PJ Media.
The Women’s March seems a liberal movement searching for a calling, and the liberal activists at its helm can’t even keep Democrats and liberals on board.
Meanwhile, liberals and people of all races and religions join the March for Life. As I arrived at the march this year, I ran into a group of high school students from the Bronx who marched for life, health care, rent control, gun control, and immigration.
Liberal student group from the Bronx at the March for Life. Photo credit: Tyler O’Neil.
Roman Catholics always come out in force to the March for Life, but Americans of all faith and no faith are welcome. As an Anglican, I was glad to see Anglicans for Life out in force.
Anglicans at the March for Life. Photo credit: Tyler O’Neil.
Ben Shapiro, an Orthodox Jew, spoke at the rally before the event. Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King, Jr., also addressed the crowd. She has decried abortion as a scourge against the black community, and its abolition as a vital civil rights issue.
While I personally did not see any marchers with the group Secular Pro-Life this year, they have been a staple at every other march I attended. The group was out in force yet again this year, and their presence demonstrates that Americans of all faiths and none march for the lives of the unborn. I have long said that science, even more than faith, argues for the uniqueness of human life at conception, and a vast portion of Americans agree.
Secular Pro-Life volunteers joined a few hundred thousand of our closest friends to protest Roe v. Wade. We also…
Posted by Secular Pro-Life on Sunday, January 20, 2019
Contrary to the fears of pro-abortion activists, overturning Roe v. Wade will not make abortion illegal in every state. Rather, overturning that decision will merely allow the states to make their own laws on abortion, something 65 percent of Americans favor.
While the mainstream media seemed to latch on to a fake news story about “bigots” in MAGA hats, the real story from this past weekend in Washington, D.C., is that a protest against Roe v. Wade had about ten times more turnout than a protest driven by Trump derangement syndrome. The March for Life was strongest yet in its 46th year, while the Women’s March was struggling in its third.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
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