UPDATED: revised agenda for 2022 New Hampshire March for Life January 15

UPDATED and edited 1/14/22 with announcement from New Hampshire Right to Life:

“Schedule Change for NH March for Life on Sat, January 15!! Due to the extreme cold [forecast], we will meet DIRECTLY at Christ the King Parish Hall (72 S Main St, Concord, NH) at 11:30 AM, rather than meeting and marching from the State House. The memorial service at the Concord Landfill at 9 am and the 10 am Mass will continue as planned.”

Below is a portion of my original post about the 2022 March in Concord.

The annual New Hampshire March for Life will take place in Concord on Saturday, January 15. As usual, the day will feature multiple events. Full details are on the New Hampshire Right to Life website, nhrtl.org.

I have no quarrel with anyone who chooses to avoid crowds as pandemic (perhaps now endemic?) Covid persists. On the other hand, I masked up to attend a life-issue outdoor rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court a month ago, amid about 2000 people. Whether one attends a march or not, there is ample pro-life work to be done aside from public witness.

Virtual March for Life and Related Events

In lieu of the usual March for Life in Washington this year, the national March for Life team has scheduled several online events. Other groups whose gatherings usually coincide with the March are doing likewise. Some require registration for online viewing. All times listed are Eastern Standard Time.

March for Life Education & Defense Fund

Thursday, January 28: Capitol Hill 101. A free seminar about lobbying elected representatives at federal, state, and local levels. At the time of this post, openings were still available for viewings at noon and 5 p.m. Register here.

Friday, January 29, noon: Virtual March for Life Rally. The rally will be live-streamed. RSVP for a link to the coverage.

Friday, January 29, 7 p.m.: Rose Dinner Gala, with keynote speaker Tim Tebow. Fix your own dinner, & enjoy the speakers online. Tickets are $25.

Alternatives to the “side rallies”

During my last three trips to the national March for Life, I skipped the main rally in favor of the New Wave Feminists gathering in front of the Air and Space Museum. I meet people I don’t ordinarily hear from, who have experiences very different from mine. All we have in common is that we’re pro-life human beings. I’ll miss them this year. I’m guessing – but this isn’t a sure thing – that NWF and some other groups will have something going on via Facebook at midday on the 29th. Pages: New Wave Feminists, Democrats for Life of America, Rehumanize International, Secular Pro-Life.

Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life

This annual event is the nation’s largest student-run pro-life event, thanks to the work of students at Georgetown University in Washington. It will take place online via Zoom on Saturday, January 30 with keynote speaker Aimee Murphy of Rehumanize International. Panelists include Reggie Littlejohn of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers and Sister Deidre Byrne, among other distinguished activists.

Registration for the Zoom conference costs $10. Best deal you’ll find all day.

Be sure to check out the Conference’s Facebook page, which already has some speakers’ videos posted.

I wrote about the 2018 O’Connor conference with some impressions of the day.

National Review Institute: Reframing End-of-Life Care During COVID

Wednesday, January 27 at 6 p.m., the National Review Institute and the Catholic Information Center will host an online panel discussion of what moderator Kathryn Jean Lopez calls “the need for a revolution of love in end-of-life care.” For more information and registration (free) go to the event page at cicdc.org.

40 Days for Life Sign-Up Day

The next 40 Days for Life campaign begins on February 17. National 40DFL leadership is observing the virtual March for Life by declaring January 29 “Sign-Up Day” and encouraging people to spend part of the day in peaceful witness outside an abortion facility.

New Hampshire will have campaigns in four locations: Manchester, Concord, Greenland, and Keene. For more information, go to 40daysforlife.com and search for the location nearest you.

An Alternative Pilgrimage

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester has released Pilgrims for Life: a digital guide for prayer and advocacy, which “offers ideas and resources for us to continue our strong, Pro-Life advocacy even though we won’t be boarding busses [sic] to D.C. this coming January.”

Some of us have wondered whether COVID concerns might affect diocesan-sponsored transportation to the January March for Life in Washington DC. Now we know. I’m a little sad, but not surprised. I’ve been on some of those diocesan pilgrimages to past Marches, and “social distancing” is at best an amusing notion in that environment.

The March goes on

The national March for Life itself is still scheduled for January 29, 2021, regardless of how scarce bus transportation might be. The Roe v. Wade decision will be 48 years old on January 22, and it still needs to be challenged socially as well as judicially. There’s no word yet about New Hampshire’s own 2021 pro-life rally and march in Concord, which is usually scheduled and managed by New Hampshire Right to Life independent of the national event.

While the annual diocesan bus caravan has always carried hundreds of people to the national March, it’s not the only way to get to Washington. Some faith communities arrange their own bus or carpool. I’ve taken the train from Boston to Washington, overnight both ways. I’ve flown down and back in a day, when I’ve found deep-discount airfares. There’s always I-95. If you want to get to the March for Life, you have options.

Pray, Advocate, Unite

The Pilgrims for Life program is not a virtual march. (I like it already.) It is intended to be an ongoing program of prayer, advocacy, and unity leading up to the March, to “build up a culture of life in New Hampshire and beyond.” To summarize briefly the 13-page guide:

Prayer will include special services at churches throughout the diocese in mid to late January.

Advocacy includes taking action on relevant public policy issues, including life-issue bills in Concord.

Unity – “unit[ing] our intentions, prayers, and actions around the same cause” – includes a suggestion to take the money one would otherwise have spent on a trip to Washington and donating it instead to a pro-life cause. I love that idea. A DC trip for me, even a one-day down-and-back sprint, is easily $200. That includes a couple of bucks for an indispensable hot pretzel purchased from a vendor on the National Mall. (I travel in style.)

The guide has many more ideas for your consideration.

What’s your plan?

If your own church or community group decides to head down to the March, let me know. I’d like to hear about your experience. If you typically make the trip but decide to forgo it in 2021, I’d like to know if you decide to participate in a local effort instead.

I still haven’t decided on whether to travel to Washington for the March. It is an extraordinary opportunity to meet and learn from people from different backgrounds with different pro-life ministries. If I go, I’ll cover it for my readers as usual. If I skip the trip, I’m confident there will be plenty to write about here at home.

For more information: Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester, Respect Life and Pilgrims for Life

On the March in D.C.

The 2020 March for Life in Washington will go down in the books as the first one ever addressed in person by the President of the United States. (You can see the video and read the transcript here, courtesy of the Susan B. Anthony List.) He brought more news coverage to the event – possibly just to cover his speech, but I’d like to think the March itself got more coverage as well.

I don’t need anyone to tell me how significant was the President’s presence. The March has gone on every year since 1974, and not even Ronald Reagan ever came in person. Yet I hope President Trump understands something: he has more to learn from the pro-life movement than the pro-life movement has to learn from him.

I did not go to the mainstage rally at the March. Many of the names on the schedule were already familiar to me. I was happy to yield my place on the Mall to someone who was hearing them – not to mention seeing the President – for the first time.

I went to a side rally. More like a meetup. We were all in sync as far as being pro-life, and beyond that we had all kinds of differences. (And that’s fine.) I met new people, heard their stories, learned new things. And then we marched.

Photo in post header: my view from the middle of the March. Photo by Ellen Kolb.

Notes For Your 2020 Calendar

This is a short list of a few pro-life-related events coming up in New Hampshire (plus one down in DC). I hope this inspires you to pencil in a few things on your calendar. The list is incomplete, but I hope you’ll find something useful. (One frequently-updated source of information is the @nhprolifevents page on Facebook.) I close out this final post of 2019 with a few words about the 2020 elections in New Hampshire.

January 4, Saturday: Epiphany vigil outside Planned Parenthood at 24 Pennacook Street in Manchester, 2:00-3:30 p.m., organized by the Manchester 40 Days for Life team. Bring gifts of diapers, wipes, and baby items for the Pennacook Pregnancy Center. A gathering at the pregnancy center will follow a vigil of prayer and hymns.

January 11, Saturday: New Hampshire March for Life, Concord. The march itself begins at the State House at 11:45 a.m., but that’s only one part of the event. Check out New Hampshire Right to Life’s web page with all the details.

January 18, Saturday: If the abortion advocacy of the New Hampshire Women’s March makes no sense to you, you’re not alone. Pro-lifers had a presence at last year’s march, and a similar gathering is planned for 1/18/20 in Concord.

January 24, Friday: National March for Life in Washington, DC. If you’re going, I hope I’ll see you there. If you’re not, I hope you’ll watch for my report from the march, probably including a brief Facebook Live update.

February 26 (Ash Wednesday) to April 5 (Palm Sunday): the next 40 Days for Life campaign, in three New Hampshire locations: Manchester, Concord, Greenland. Watch this blog’s Facebook page for shared updates from the campaign teams.

Elections: They’re Everywhere

Do you live in Hooksett? Do you know that there’s a special election being held to fill a state rep seat from your town? Well, there is. A three way Republican primary will be held on January 21 (Democrats fielded only one candidate), and the general election will be on March 10. You could ask the candidates something simple like “will you vote for a bill to protect children who survive attempted abortion?”

The New Hampshire First-in-the-Nation presidential primary is coming up on February 11, 2020. It’s no secret that there are lots of Democrats running. You might be surprised to know that a slew of Republicans are running as well. Check with your town clerk for information on sample ballots, absentee voting, and your eligibility to vote.

Your town and school district elections will be in the spring, with dates varying among towns. Don’t neglect these races. Among other things, the people who win in town elections often decide to run for higher office later. They show their form first at the local level. Pay attention.

Every state elective office, from state rep to state senator to Governor and Executive Councilor, PLUS a U.S. Senate seat, will be up for grabs in November, with the primaries for those races to be held in September. Have you ever wished that the New Hampshire House had more pro-life members? Well then, have you considered running? It’s a big decision and not one to take lightly. Don’t let that scare you. The filing period for candidates is in June.

With that thought, I’ll see you in the new year. Make it a good one.