March for Life 2013

This year’s March for Life on the 40th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade was especially poignant.

It was quite cold out.

We stood near the head of the column, waiting for the signal to step off. It was hallowed ground, here at the beginning, just behind the area reserved for those brave enough to carry black and white signs with a stark message: “I regret my abortion,” and “I regret lost fatherhood.” My friend and I mostly silent, choking an swallowing back tears at the sight.

At the implication.

Fifty-five million people lost is a number too large to comprehend, but the pain etched on the silent witnesses carrying those black and white signs was tangible enough to bring the reality home. The reality of why we all come, every year, to stand in the cold with half-a-million others.

Abortion hurts.

Then, I saw the Polish ladies. Grandmothers, middle-aged women, in traditional costume marching behind the Polish flag, gripping a picture of Polish Pope, John Paul II. Carrying the black and white sign.

Juxtaposed against the colorful costumes, it was a stark reminder that even in Eastern Europe and Russia, where abortion is birth control, the pain is real. Under the joyful, jolly surface lurks a punishing reality.

Abortion hurts.