At rallies, marches, hearings, pro-lifers urge protection for unborn, other vulnerable lives

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (OSV News) -- Nearly five months after Marylanders overwhelmingly voted to enshrine abortion in the state Constitution -- and just weeks after Maryland lawmakers agreed to use a $25 million fund to help pay for abortions -- hundreds of unwavering pro-life advocates took to the streets of Annapolis March 27 for the 46th annual Maryland March for Life.

Led by three motorcyclists from the Knights of Columbus, the marchers advanced through the state capital, carrying signs with messages such as "Defund Planned Parenthood" and "God's Gift. God's Plan."

Across the country in California two days earlier, despite the objections raised by the California Catholic Conference and pro-life witnesses at a hearing, a bill that would prioritize abortion as an emergency room treatment for women experiencing pregnancy complications passed unanimously out of the California Assembly Health Committee in Sacramento.

Elsewhere, the state of Delaware moved one step closer to protecting a right to abortion and reproductive care in its state constitution with Senate passage March 11 of a bill to do just that. In Wisconsin, pro-lifers are awaiting the state Supreme Court's decision that will determine the legality of abortion in the state. The court heard oral arguments in November in a challenge to the state's 1849 law banning abortion. The 1849 ban went into effect following the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022.

In Annapolis, pro-life marchers met with some cheers from supporters, but also encountered hostility. As they passed a popular downtown restaurant, several diners glared at them through large windows, flashing thumbs-down gestures. Outside, a woman mockingly shouted that she was on her way to undergo her fifth abortion.

Father Mark Bialek, pastor of St. John in Westminster and St. Joseph in Taneytown, said no matter the reaction, the witness to the dignity of human life from conception to natural death was "imperative." That's especially important in a state where more than 75% of voters favored last year's constitutional amendment on abortion, he said.

"Every life has dignity, every life has value and every life is worth marching for until abortion and other threats to life are unthinkable," said Father Bialek, who accompanied a group of 30 parishioners and other supporters from Carroll County.

At a rally outside the State House, speakers encouraged pro-life supporters to stay committed despite setbacks. Erin Getz, state march program director for the National March for Life, urged them to focus on the "long-term battle," emphasizing that real change happens through one-on-one conversations in homes, schools, churches and communities.

Jeffrey S. Trimbath, president of the Maryland Family Institute, pointed to some victories including the continued failure of physician-assisted suicide legislation to gain traction in the General Assembly. This year marked the eighth time pro-life advocates successfully helped block the measure, he said.

Trimbath urged pro-life supporters to contact their lawmakers and ask them to vote against a bill now under consideration that he said would require hospitals to perform "emergency abortions."

Many marchers were concerned about the proposal to expand abortion access with funding from $25 million collected from a surcharge on insurance plans sold under the Affordable Care Act. Both the Senate and House of Delegates approved versions of the proposal, which is expected to reach Gov. Wes Moore's desk.

Maureen Stansell, a parishioner of St. John the Evangelist in Severna Park who has been attending the Maryland March for Life for decades, believes that money should be directed to help women in crisis pregnancies.

"I think they should be supporting women, supporting women so that women can choose life," she told the Catholic Review, Baltimore's archdiocesan news outlet. "So many women say they have an abortion because they don't have a choice. They feel like they're pressured into having an abortion -- and because maybe their finances aren't good or whatever. So a lot of that money could be used to help these women in necessary ways."

The march, which included the Archdiocese of Baltimore as a sponsor, began with a youth rally in the parking lot of St. Mary Church. Baltimore Auxiliary Bishop Bruce A. Lewandowski celebrated a Respect Life Mass inside the church, with a Christian prayer service offered in the hall.

In California, Walk for Life co-chair and board-certified nurse practitioner Dolores Meehan traveled from San Francisco to Sacramento to testify before the California Assembly Health Committee against AB 40, the now-passed bill that would prioritize abortion as an ER treatment for women experiencing pregnancy complications.

"When a pregnant woman presents to the ER, standard of care dictates that two patients are considered -- the pregnant patient and the fetal patient. The AB 40 language does not include consideration for the fetal patient which is in direct opposition to EMTALA," Meehan said March 25. The EMTALA is the acronym for the U.S. Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act.

The proposed legislation goes even farther, by requiring abortion to be considered priority emergency room treatment, rather than the standard medical practice of treating both the mother and her unborn child as patients.

"When a pregnant mother is in a medical crisis, almost always she is carrying a wanted child and is not seeking an abortion, she is seeking lifesaving medical care for both she and her unborn child," said Meehan, sitting at a table next to three abortion advocates, including the bill's sponsor, Assembly Member Mia Bonta, a Democrat, who is also chair of the committee.

"Redefining emergency health services to include abortion will force emergency rooms to prioritize abortion over caring for both mom and baby. Doctors and emergency departments must be allowed to use their best clinical judgment to help their patients," the California Catholic Conference said in an action alert on the measure.

"We believe in nonviolent solutions to the challenges women face during pregnancy. Women deserve excellent, life-affirming medical care, especially when facing medical challenges," the conference said.

In her own testimony to the committee, Bonta said that "abortion is health care," and asserted the bill was a "simple" bill to make sure a woman in need of care was not turned away.

Meehan emphasized in her testimony that "direct abortion, which has as its primary aim the demise of the fetal patient, is not emergency health care."

In Delaware, after a passionate discussion, the state Senate voted 15-6 to enshrine a so-called right to abortion in the state constitution. The vote was one more than the minimum two-thirds necessary for a constitutional amendment, and was along party lines.

The bill has been sent to the House of Representatives, where it must pass with two-thirds of the vote. If that happens, the legislation would need to pass both houses in the next General Assembly, also by a two-thirds margin in both chambers.

Two amendments, both proposed by Republican Sen. Bryant Richardson, were unsuccessful. The first would have required that an abortion provided to protect a woman's mental health be indicated by both a health care professional and a mental health professional. The second amendment would have mandated that a woman seeking an abortion get a second doctor's opinion. He acknowledged that there are conditions that would require an emergency procedure, but they are rare.

As the month of March began, Wisconsin pro-lifers gathered in Madison near the steps of the Capitol of a state waiting for its highest court to render a ruling that could enshrine abortion in its constitution.

"We know that all life is sacred. We know that life begins at conception and that the Lord has inscribed on our heart the prohibition 'Thou shalt not kill,'" Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison told the March 1 gathering. Other speakers included Barbara Sella, executive director of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference, and Laura Karlen from Vigil for Life Madison.

"The converse of that commandment is to nurture and love and respect life. Every human life is a participation in the life of God. Every human life is a direct act of the Father's will," the bishop added.

"Those in favor of abortion must always speak in euphemisms, manipulate language and change the meaning of things," he continued. "We, on the contrary, can simply speak the truth unvarnished without any sense of trying to complicate it. We can simply say human life is sacred, human life is good, and that human life from conception onwards, is worthy of our respect and protection."

As the last week of March drew to a close, Maine's Joint Standing Committee on Judiciary held an all-day public hearing March 28 on seven abortion bills. The measures range from a proposal to regulate medication abortions to one that would make abortion completely illegal in the state of Maine.

Still awaiting a vote from the full Maine House is a proposal to enshrine a right to abortion in that state's constitution.