Pro-life March

When I came to the University of Minnesota in the winter of 1980 a very unexpected pleasant surprise met me. On the campus of the University of Minnesota about 100 pro-life students held a pro-life march around the mall area every year at noon about one day before the anniversary date of Roe vs. Wade. They carried signs, a coffin, and a trashcan representing the deaths of the innocent unborn children.

I had been actively involved in pro-life work for many years and had even gone so far as to be arrested and spent six days in the Atlanta jail once for crawling on my hands and knees (so no policeman would think we were dangerous) and blocking the door to an abortion clinic. I have been ticketed, sued, and threatened. I saw pro-life work as the work of every Christian and still do.

Those who were part of our group and myself participated in the campus march every year for about five to eight years until the event seemed to die off for lack of interest or leadership. After the event missed a couple of years I attempted to organize and hold the event myself rather than letting it just fall by the wayside. We notified all the student groups and hoped that they would all turn out as in the past.

Instead of the big group as in the past, there were only about 20 people other than the ones of our group that showed up. We held the event anyways. We changed the format to a more solemn and peaceful one of simply walking slowly around the mall with only one sign in the front and one in the back while we sang amazing grace. The signs were no way inflammatory. We simply want to remember the unborn this way each year in the “village” of our influence.

Over the years the numbers have fallen off to one or two from other groups along with about 1/3 of the numbers that we used to turn out of our own group. But we have not quit. This year though was the first year in 25 that I have missed. I have the wedding of my first child coming up today and we held rehearsal and the customary dinner Friday when the march was scheduled. I had to make a choice of focus. I missed the memorial and felt a sense of loss.

We will continue to do this each year as long as I can still walk. This year it was in a blizzard. Other years it has been as cold as –15. But it is not the weather that makes me sad. It is the lack of interest and the lonely role of the faithful few. But we will not forget. 45 million have died.

That is bloodshed on an epic level. The anti war crowd still do not get it. The whole three state west coast could drop off into the ocean and it would not match the loss of life due to abortion. You could take all of the dead of all of the wars in our countries history and it would not match the loss of life due to abortion.

I used to think that I cared about all of the unborn that have died. I found out in Atlanta that I do not care as much as I thought. I never want to go to jail again.

It is mostly non-Christian children that are being killed but a significant number are from Christian families. I would go to jail again to stop the abortion of a child I know but my convictions do not run as deeply for others. I have to face this every time I look at my face in the mirror about this time of the year.

What does the future hold? Will there be laws to totally outlaw abortion? I don’t think so anymore. There will be restrictions but not elimination. It is always a lot harder to gain back territory that is lost than it is to win it in the first place. But yet there is hope.