Three Republican politicians voiced their support for tens of thousands of anti-abortion advocates who rallied at the National Mall and walked to Capitol Hill Tuesday as part of the annual March for Life demonstration.
Members of AU Students for Life, an anti-abortion club on campus, attended the event along with other AU students.
The event, in its 34th year, protested the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. The theme of the demonstration this year was "building unity on the life principles throughout America." The life principles are a series of shared beliefs formally adopted by the March for Life organization, which coordinates the event. One of these principles is the belief that human life begins when a sperm cell ovulates an egg cell, according to the organization's Web site.
President Bush, who recorded a speech at the White House Tuesday morning that was broadcast at the march, was one of many who spoke of the importance of unity in the anti-abortion movement. Organizers played his speech for those gathered at the rally before the start of the march.
"I see faces that shine with a love for life," Bush said. "You understand that life needs to be protected, and I stand with you."
Nellie Gray, president of the March for Life, said that changing policy decisions in D.C. was a common goal of those gathered at the event.
"We have the job of educating top Washington leaders about life principles," Gray said.
AU Students for Life attend the rally every year. Young people are vital to the movement because they represent the future, said Laura Wolz, the AU club's vice president and a sophomore in the School of Communication.
"It's the youth that will inherit the movement," Wolz said.
Anti-abortion groups increasingly draw young people to the movement because of recruiting efforts on college campuses and evidence showing it is becoming more possible for fetuses to live outside the womb at younger ages, Wolz said.
Former Republican presidential candidate and Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback also praised young people at the rally.
"This is a young movement with strong legs and strong hearts," he said.
Some AU students said they doubted that young anti-abortionists are threatening the abortion rights movement.
"I think there is a presence of young people in the anti-abortion movement, but among my friends they have the belief that a woman should have the right to choose and the federal government should not decide for them," said Elizabeth Chrismer, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs.
Madison Junker, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said everyone she knows in her hometown of San Francisco, including young and older people, is for abortion rights.
Diversity was present at the March for Life as well.
Wolz said she was pleased to see different people at the event - conservative Christians, agnostics, anarchists and feminists.
Emily Biskup, a first-year graduate student in the School of International Service, said she marched with her mother.
"It was something we'd always done together," Biskup said.
Another noticeable trend at the rally was the large number of supporters of Republican presidential candidate and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who cheered when he decried abortion as a "moral crisis."
The March for Life was one of several anti-abortion events held over a three-day span earlier this week. A youth Mass was held at the Verizon Center early Tuesday, and the annual Students for Life of America conference was held at Catholic University Monday.
