Braving record-breaking blizzard and threats from D.C. officials to cancel their rally permit, thousands of Americans trooped to America's capital on Friday to join the 2016 March for Life on the anniversary of the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalising abortion.
Pro-lifers came out in force despite weather forecasts predicting a blizzard and three feet of snow, WND reported. But the crowds weren't quite as large as they've been in previous years as many bus routes had been cancelled due to bad weather.
The crowds chanted, "Hey, Obama your mama chose life!" and "Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Roe v Wade has got to go."
People caught sight of a group of barefoot monks who walked on icy roads to take a stand for the unborn.
Some mainstream media publications chose not to cover the event while others downplayed the size of the turnout, WND reported.
The participants began their march on the National Mall and proceeded to the Supreme Court where they held a rally to protest the legalisation of abortion on Jan. 22, 1973. This year's theme was "Pro-Life and Pro-Woman Go Hand-in-Hand," CBN News reported.
"I'm so thrilled with the theme of this year's march," Maureen Ferguson, senior policy advisor for The Catholic Association, told CBN News.
"It's so wild-timed because the pro-abortion side, of course, loves to use this as a political football and bandy around terms like 'the war on women.' But we know there's a war on women in the womb," she said. "Half of those babies aborted are little girls."
Catholic Association Senior Fellow Ashley Maguire noted that the earliest American feminists were pro-life.
"Starting with the suffragettes who were fighting against slavery and then fought for their own rights to vote—they were very pro-life," Maguire said. "And so the idea that women are by nature pro-choice is completely false."
"And we know that abortion sadly leaves a woman wounded, sometimes physically; emotionally scarred with a hole in her heart for the rest of her life," Ferguson added.
"A woman's capacity to be a mother is empowering and it's a beautiful gift that's a part of who she is as a person," Jeanne Mancini, who leads the March for Life, said.
Author Sue Ellen Browder, who used to be a pro-choice feminist working at Cosmopolitan, was one of the speakers in the March for Life rally. "To be pro-woman is to be pro-life, and of course that's true," she told CBN News. "You know, women want to have babies. Babies bring us joy, happiness, wonder."
