The annual March for Life in Washington is in its 44th year.
SPRINGFIELD -- Anti-abortion activists and supporters will take to the streets in downtown Springfield Friday to highlight abortion-related issues and to stand in solidarity with those traveling to the annual March for Life in Washington D.C.
Springfield's Mini-March for Life, hosted by Pro-Life of Pioneer Valley, will kick off from St. Michael's Cathedral on State Street around 11:30 a.m.
The event is expected to last about 45 minutes, with marchers returning to the church, where they will be invited to attend a 12:15 p.m. mass at the Holy Spirit Chapel, according to organizers. Light refreshments will be served following the service at the Bishop Marshall Center.
Springfield's march, which is expected to draw around 40 participants, will come as thousands of advocates from Massachusetts and across the country are expected to descend on the nation's capital for the March for Life -- an annual event that marks the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision.
Tony Moran, the Pro-Life of Pioneer Valley treasurer, said the second annual local march will allow those who are unable to travel to Washington D.C. to lend their voice to the cause in Western Massachusetts.
"The purpose of this is to bring to the attention of people that the sanctity of life begins at conception and lasts until natural death," he said in an interview. "We want to proclaim or profess our belief and raise the issue of life to the general public."
Moran, who used to travel to the Washington march, further said he hopes the Springfield event will spark a local discussion around the issue of abortion.
"The life issue has been under the surface for the last 20 to 30 years, no one talks about it, but it's there," he said. "If you don't hear about it or talk about it, you don't think about it.
Mark E. Dupont, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, added that the local march is expected to bring together anti-abortion advocates from across different age groups, with Pope Francis High School students joining long-time activists.
"What I think is most interesting about this is the blending of two generations who have many differences in certain aspects," he said in an interview.
Peggy Bradford, the director of field operations for Massachusetts Citizens for Life, meanwhile, said she expects well over 1,000 Bay Staters to travel to the Washington D.C. event, noting that six buses carrying a total of 300-plus marchers are leaving from the western part of the state alone.
Buses will pick up marchers at St. Stanislaus Parish in Chicopee, as well as in Greenfield, North Adams, Adams, Williamstown, Pittsfield and Great Barrington late Thursday and return early Saturday.
Other buses, meanwhile, will carry marchers from Arlington, Burlington, Cape Cod, Framingham and Worcester to the Washington march.
Noting that Massachusetts residents have traveled to the event for more than four decades, Bradford offered that the 2017 march should strike a different tone than those in recent years given President Donald Trump and the Republican-led Congress' support for anti-abortion policies.
"We've already seen action from the president: he has worked toward defunding overseas abortions, he's also working on defunding Planned Parenthood," she said in an interview. "We are very confident we will see continued action. It's a good feeling going down to Washington knowing we have a pro-life president who has our back and a Congress that is overwhelmingly pro-life."
Upon taking office, Trump directed the secretary of state "to ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars do not fund organizations or programs that support or participate in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization."
Bradford said she hopes Trump and GOP leaders will focus on efforts to defund Planned Parenthood and instead give money to pregnancy help centers, adding that she'd also like to see the new president appoint a Supreme Court justice "who will heed by the Constitution and not by their own agenda."
Although the March for Life will come less than one week after 500,000-plus people took to the streets in Washington D.C. to protest Trump and several issues -- including those involving women's health -- Bradford said she believes the history of the event should speak for itself.
"It won't affect our march," she said. "We've been going down for 44 years regardless of the weather ... I think they have a right to do what they did because this is America and we have the right to assemble and a right to free speech, but I don't think we'll see that year after year like we go."
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Bradford further said she was "ashamed" that the Women's March sought to represent her gender, arguing that organizers denied anti-abortion supporters from joining the demonstration.
"It wasn't a controversy, it was a definite 'no;' they turned groups away," she said. "They had an agenda and it was not on target."
Moran, meanwhile, he said hopes the March for Life will receive more press attention in wake of the Women's March on Washington.
"I think it's really tragic that the media hasn't covered the March for Life for the last 43 years," he said. "A couple hundred thousand people marching and no coverage. We're going to see what happens with the march tomorrow."
The 44th March for Life will begin with an 11:45 a.m. rally on the National Mall in Washington D.C., featuring speeches from Vice President Mike Pence, Senior Counselor to President Trump Kellyanne Conway, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Baltimore Ravens Tight End Benjamin Watson and others.
It will be followed by a 1 p.m. march to the U.S. Supreme Court.