As you know, because of Covid restrictions, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen large crowds of people on our city streets marching in support of life, but this month, we were back with a bang!
CitizenGO was delighted to represent the many thousands of you at the first in-person March for Life in the United Kingdom for two years and we did our best to make up for lost time!
I’ve been to many of these marches over the past few years and this one was the best yet! I don’t think I’ve ever seen quite as many young people! It was a far cry from the ageist narrative of the abortion industry who try to claim that pro-lifers are all white men in their late fifties or older. The crowd was dominated by young people, particularly women, from all walks of life and many different cultures.
Click here to see our video of the day.
The day began at the Emmanuel Centre where we joined other pro-life organisations showcasing their work and encouraged many people to join our campaigns to make abortion a thing of the past.
It was wonderful to welcome so many new members as well as meet with familiar friends and faces. Our t-shirts certainly proved popular - they flew off the stall and were proudly worn by many of the participants on the march, spreading the message far and wide ‘keep calm and choose life’!
Our stall set up and ready for action!
After the morning session we joined thousands of others, processing with banners, placards, flags and slogans, through Whitehall, past Downing Street, up to Trafalgar Square and back to Parliament Square, opposite the Houses of Commons and Big Ben, to listen to the pro-life speakers.
Despite the fact that traffic had needed to be held up or diverted in order to allow the march to proceed along the route, far from being annoyed, many motorists and passers-by seemed curious and many others were caught up in the joyful mood, joining in with the singing and music and giving words of encouragement.
As I walked past the ‘Extinction Rebellion’ climate-change protestors at Trafalgar Square, I noticed that far from being aggressive or abusive they were interested and engaged by our message. One photographer from the press corp remarked on the demographics of our march, with plenty of young people and families and commented on what a ‘wholesome picture’ we made, by comparison with other recent protests.
A handful of pro-abortion protestors doubtless concerned by the huge crowd (one policeman estimated the numbers as 4,000 people) attempted to scream offensive and abusive slogans but quickly realised that they were vastly outnumbered and moved on.
The crowd listened to a moving and traumatic testimony from a young woman who expressed her physical hurt and emotional pain after being pressured into a home abortion. She implored the crowd to stand up so that no other woman or their unborn child should have to go through such a terrible experience. It made the pro-aborts' cries of “pro-life that’s a lie, you don’t care if women die” ring hollow and it was at this point, that their voices fell silent.
The Bishpo of Lancaster gave a stirring speech asking “over fifty years ago we abolished the death penalty for the guilty. Why do we still have it for the innocent”.
As he gave the crowd the final blessing, the bishop told us of an African saying he had learned while in the missions, about the river being full of tiny drops of rain.
It was a reminder that every single action, every single signature on a petition, no matter how inconsequential it may seem, matters. Together we will make a difference and change the culture. Judging by the articles written by the pro-abort activists reflecting on Saturday’s UK March for Life, they know that change is in the air.
CitizenGO were centre stage
More and more of us are confidently standing up for life and as I marched, I held each and every single member of CitizenGO from every single country across the world, in my thoughts and prayers, along with all of the mothers and unborn babies.
It was an honour and a privilege to represent you and take your voice onto the streets of London as we demonstrated that Abortion is the number one issue!
If you’d like to see more photos from the day, they can be found here: