Why is it Important to Support/Attend the March for Life? By: Tina Dubyoski, CHA co-founder

Some of you may wonder why CHA participates in the March for Life each year. Just in case you never noticed, one of the core tenets of the CHA Faith Statement, which all families sign every year they attend, states:
“We believe that human life is sacred and we profess a pro-life worldview.”
We choose to march because we envision a future world where the beauty and dignity of every human life are valued and protected. It is important to encourage our middle and high school students to get involved and participate because they are the future of this country. We are shaping their minds and their opinions on this topic and it is very important to have conversations about it because our culture definitely does not value human life and often treats babies in the womb as an inconvenience and something that can be disposed of.
For those of you who may be unaware of what The March for Life is all about, here is some history. The March for Life is an annual rally in Washington, D.C., either on or around the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, a decision legalizing abortion nationwide, which was issued on January 22, 1973 by the United States Supreme Court. Nellie Gray organized the first March for Life on the one-year anniversary of Roe v. Wade being passed into law. What grew as a small demonstration in 1974 in Washington, D.C., quickly grew into the largest annual pro-life event in the country. Hundreds of thousands of people participate in the national march every January, many of them young people in high school and college. The goal of the March for Life is to not only change laws at the state and federal level, but to change the culture to ultimately make abortion unthinkable. Currently, with the role of the states being more important, there is also a big push to grow strong state march for life initiatives quickly; however, the March for Life organization will continue to march every January at the national level until a culture of life is restored. Pro-life Americans gather, not only to challenge abortion, but also to celebrate the beauty of life, beginning from the moment of conception.
It is easy to believe that people who espouse pro-life views are in the minority if all we do is listen to many of the people around us in our current culture. The amazing thing about attending the March for Life in DC is that you see hundreds of thousands of other people who believe very strongly about the sanctity of life and protecting the unborn babies who are murdered with each abortion performed. To give you an idea of the scope of the problem, more than 60 million abortions have been performed since 1973, when Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in this country. This number only includes those performed in clinics, hospitals or physicians’ offices, or those that make use of abortion pills dispensed from certified facilities such as clinics or physicians’ offices. It does not account for the use of abortion pills that were obtained outside of clinical settings.
Here are a few more statistics concerning abortion:

• In 2020, approximately 20% of U.S. pregnancies (excluding spontaneous miscarriages) ended in abortion. According to the Guttmacher Institute, the primary reason for these women having an abortion was listed as “not feeling ready for a child.” The second-most popular reason was that “they can’t afford a baby” and sadly, the third reason listed was that they were done having children. 
  
• Based on available state-level data, approximately 977,000 abortions took place in the US in 2021.
  
• Among white women, 11% of 2020 pregnancies (excluding spontaneous miscarriages) ended in abortion. 
  
• Among black women, 30% of 2020 pregnancies ended in abortion (CDC). 
  
• Medical abortions (non-surgical using RU486 pills) made up approximately 54% of all abortions in 2020.
  
• Unmarried women accounted for 86% of all abortions.
  
• Over 57% of the women electing to have an abortion were in their 20’s, 31% were in their 30’s and 8.5% were between 15-19.
  

I strongly encourage every family at CHA to attend the March for Life in Washington D.C. so that you can experience it for yourselves. Please consider taking your children, especially middle and high school students, although many bring their younger children too. It really is a life-changing experience, especially when there is an opportunity to listen to some of the speeches given, which can include abortion survivors. God is using the miracle of their survival in powerful ways. It truly is a life-changing experience to be there, surrounded by so many other people peacefully expressing their feelings about this topic of abortion.
If anyone has questions about the March for Life or the particulars of attending, please reach out to me. I would be happy to answer your questions.
You can reach Tina by email at: [email protected]. This is part of the Board Bits: Tips, Tricks, and Hacks series. Is there a question about CHA or homeschool that you would like answered? Submit inquiries to Tracey at [email protected]