March for Life 2023 will mark celebration, determination

Jack Dorcey, a landscape designer and member of St. Pius X in White Bear Lake, plans to go. So does Bill Dill, youth ministry events coordinator in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Office of Marriage, Family and Life.

At least 146 others from the archdiocese will join them Jan. 17-22 for the first post-Roe v. Wade March for Life in Washington, D.C. — a pro-life event that began in 1974 and protested the first anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in all 50 states.

March for Life draws tens of thousands of people to the streets of the U.S. capital every year.

With the high court overturning Roe v. Wade June 24, the Jan. 20 march and rallies, expositions and conferences surrounding it in Washington will have a decidedly celebratory flavor. But with the question of abortion back in the hands of federal and state lawmakers, there also is the reality that battling for the unborn — while spiritually and materially helping women who struggle with the decision to choose life — is not over.

“When we first started it was the (President Barack) Obama years,” Dorcey said, noting his first year at the March for Life in Washington was in 2011. “So, it was rather bleak. It felt like an insurmountable hill we were climbing.”

Yet Dorcey, others in the archdiocese and across the country persevered. At least on the U.S. Constitution front, the right to life has won.

“I always knew it would come,” Dorcey said. “I didn’t think it would come this fast.”

Dorcey has made every March since 2011, although community health concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic turned the 2021 March for Life into a mainly virtual event and prompted the archdiocese to instead hold a “Life: Youth and Family Conference” at several sites in St. Paul that drew more than 600 people.

Dill said he was camping with his family in the Colorado mountains when they got word from text messages that Roe v. Wade had been overturned.

“I just couldn’t believe it,” Dill said, even though word had leaked out that the high court might rule the way it did. “It was overwhelming. It was unbelievable, even though the report had leaked, that it could happen.”

“Having this reversed was a triumph of truth, even though we still have a long way to go,” Dill said. “Hitting that turning point, it was profound.”

As Dill and other organizers in the archdiocese get ready to fill buses this year, they also are considering staying home in the future, to help change hearts and minds among abortion rights forces in Minnesota. The success of the event in St. Paul in 2021 appears to demonstrate that approach is effective, he said.

While March for Life organizers plan to hold the annual march in Washington, D.C., this year and, at least for now, into the future, the focus on that team also is turning to the states. March for Life President Jeanne Mancini has said there is a new emphasis on statewide marches, an effort that began in her organization a few years ago.

The Archdiocese of Marriage, Family and Life, which is sponsoring the trip to Washington this year, just as it has since 2009 — when it was college students only,  has about 40 places left for high school students and their family members and for college students to sign up for the trip. People can learn more and register at archspm.org/marchforlife.

A special invitation is also going out this year to people who have made the trip in the past, Dill said.

The March for Life has been a critical part of pro-life efforts, Dill said. It brought the issue to the attention of the entire country, year after year. Speakers and conferences have helped give people — young people in particular — the wisdom, knowledge and words to engage people in respectful conversations about life — when it begins, and the reverence it needs to be given, he said.

“I’ve said this many times,” Dill said. “Many young people came on the trips intuitively pro-life, but they weren’t really sure why. When they came home, they knew why, and they could discuss it.”