Walk for Life West Coast will celebrate its 10th Anniversary tomorrow, January 25!

The Walk for Life West Coast is expected to draw upwards of 50,000 marchers on Saturday as the event marks its 10th anniversary. The San Francisco demonstration, like its sister march in Washington, D.C., marks the anniversary of the Jan. 22, 1973, Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.

Starting in 2005, with 7,500 participants, the West Coast Walk has grown in both attendance and diversity each year, until it is now the second largest pro-life event in the United States, after the D.C. march, which this year was held on Jan. 22.

Last year’s attendance in San Francisco was estimated as high as 50,000 people.

The rally begins Saturday at 12:30 p.m. and participants will walk down San Francisco’s main artery, Market Street, ending at Justin Herman Plaza. Seventeen Catholic bishops, led by San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, and two Anglican bishops will be in attendance. 

The Walk has grown despite ongoing opposition from San Francisco’s city government. That opposition began with the first Walk in 2005 and continues to this day. Last week, Supervisor David Campos, joined by six of his colleagues, introduced a resolution opposing the banners inviting San Franciscans to the Walk. The banners proclaimed the Walk’s message: “Abortion Hurts Women.” Several of this year’s speakers, and the Walk’s accompanying Silent No More rally, will testify to the truth of that statement.

Speakers include: Shari Rigby, actress and post-abortive woman, whose Film/TV credits include: October Baby, The Bold and the Beautiful; The Young and the Restless; Grace Dulaney, founder of Agnes Dei Foundation/Lamb of God Ranch, a home for women who are choosing to place their unborn children with adoptive parents; Monica Snyder, spokeswoman for Secular Pro-Life, a group founded in 2009 which seeks to unite all pro-lifers regardless of religious beliefs or lack thereof; and the Rev. Clenard Childress Jr., the founder of LEARN. Anglican Bishop Eric Menees of the diocese of San Joaquin, California, will give the invocation and Georgette Forney, co-founder of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign for post-abortive women, will receive the Walk’s St. Gianna Molla Award.

The Walk for Life West Coast was started by a group of San Franciscans in 2005 to affirm the right to life from conception to natural death and particularly to change hearts hurt by the violence of abortion. While most of the organizers and a large proportion of the participants are people of faith, the Walk is a non-sectarian and non-denominational event that openly expresses belief in God but welcomes all who share a respect for life. (K.N.)

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On the Net:

For complete details about the Walk for Life and all related pro-life events, please visit: www.walkforlifewc.com