Just back from giving a pro-life talk in Cleveland on Saturday, I packed another overnight back and flew from Dayton, Ohio, to Peoria, Illinois on Tuesday, headed to the state capital, Springfield, for the Illinois March for Life. The airline I use doesn’t fly into the small airport in Springfield so after a smooth landing in Peoria, I settled in for an hour-long Uber ride to the March.
Once there, my activism moved from X (formerly Twitter) to the streets of Illinois, one of the most abortion-friendly states in the country, with the state’s Department of Public Health announcing just this week that it will spend $2 million in taxpayer funding to train abortionists in the deadly procedure. Billionaire Gov. Jay Pritzker is spending millions of dollars of his own money – his family owns the Hyatt hotel chain – to back abortion amendments in several states and fund campaigns of abortion-loving Democrats in other states.
In August 2023, Pritzker announced the state would spend $23 million to make sure abortion businesses were equipped to handle the influx of out-of-state patients.
Pro-lifers in the state have their work cut out for them and I was honored to be in their midst to march for the most important cause in our nation – saving the unborn from a brutal death by abortion. Thousands of people attended this second annual statewide march, which evolved from the Chicago March for Life. The national March for Life Education Fund and Illinois Right to Life sponsored this year’s event. Several women carried signs from the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, declaring that women regret abortion. Priests for Life was among several national pro-life groups represented at the March. Others included Students for Life, Turning Point USA and the Knights of Columbus.
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Thousands show up in Illinois to March for Life. Incredible. pic.twitter.com/fX5Xvtvi8L
— Jeanne F. Mancini (@jeannemfl) April 17, 2024
Illinois pro-lifers Ann Scheidler and her late husband, Joe Scheidler, have long been heroes of mine. After becoming involved in the pro-life movement in 1972 – the year before the catastrophe of Roe v. Wade – they founded the Pro-Life Action League in 1980 in Chicago. Joe Scheidler – the godfather of the pro-life movement – was a bare-knuckle brawler whose ingenuity was matched only by his courage. Before the march stepped off, I ran into Ann and her granddaughters, including Hope Miller, who started the organization Simply ProLife to encourage ordinary Americans to do something small to advance the cause of life every day, like fund-raising for a pregnancy resource center or wearing pro-life t-shirts. Hearing about Hope’s work assured me her grandparents’ legacy is in good hands.
The rally featured a line of dynamic speakers and among the most moving were from a student pro-life group called We Dignify that actually led the march. Based in Champaign, IL, the group mentors college students to turn them into energetic and eloquent spokesmen for life.
Bishop Thomas Paprocki was an invited speaker, and I was grateful to have a chance to catch up with him before the event got started. He is a true leader for life, having declared that Catholic politicians who supported the state’s extreme Reproductive Health Act, which was signed into law in 2019, were no longer welcome to receive communion.
On my way back to the airport, I thought about abortion’s very strong foothold in Illinois. It is certainly a challenge to overcome, but the abundance of youth at the march, and the commitment and passion of everyone I saw, gives me hope for the future of pro-life efforts in the state and in our nation.
Monday I will be in another pro-abortion state, California, marching for life in Sacramento with another group of pro-life heroes. It will be an honor to be with them, as it was my privilege to be with Illinois pro-lifers today.
LifeNews Note: Bryan Kemper is the youth outreach and street activism director for Priests for Life and the founder of its youth outreach, Stand True. He is the author of Social Justice Begins in the Womb and Pro-life is the New Punk Rock.
