For a half century, the national March for Life was held on or close to January 22nd, the date of the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.
It was a logical date, one that no one really had to think about — no matter how fickle the winter weather in Washington, D.C. Organizers would hard, in particular, to pick a day convenient for the thousands of students — most of them girls and young women — who would arrive at the event in buses from Christian colleges and universities or vans from local churches.
Here’s a question for editors and reporters who are looking ahead: When will the march be next year? Maybe one more march linked to January 22nd, as a kind of memorial? Or will it move to June 24th, the now calendar-worthy date for the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision?
Whatever happens, journalists will need to start thinking about how to cover that event and the counter-protests that are sure to accompany it. I doubt that journalists will have trouble thinking of feature-worthy leaders to profile and interview on the abortion-rights side of things, starting with the vice president and, it would appear likely, the minority leader of the House of Representatives.
But who gets the nod among the March for Life allies? This leads me to a short, but useful, think piece that ran recently at USA Today (here’s a link to a Yahoo! News copy without a paywall) about the women — past and present — who worked the hardest to defeat Roe.
This op-ed was written by Southern Baptist scribe Daniel Darling, who journalists may remember as the National Religious Broadcasters spokesman who was sacked for writing a column (and going on MSNBC to promote it) about why, as an evangelical, to chose to get the COVID-19 vaccine shot (see this Richard Ostling post about this mini-media storm). Darling is now director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, in Fort Worth, Tex.
Far too often, writes Darling, journalists see abortion policy debates as “a binary choice between men who want to see abortion restricted and women who favor its access.” However, this is a strange framing device, since surveys “by Pew and Gallup show little gender gap on the issue of abortion. In fact, the surveys find that more women than men identify as ‘pro-life.’
Looking back, journalists may want to consider writing about the legacy of a symbolic pioneer:
The March for Life … was launched on the first anniversary of Roe by a former federal government attorney, Nellie Gray.
So incensed by the legalization of abortion, she vowed to return every year until Roe was reversed and she did, committing the rest of her life to the cause.
Gray died in 2012. It’s safe to say she will be remembered — big time — at the next march.
In addition to some logical women in state governments and on Capitol Hill, Darling suggested another symbolic choice for recognition and, I would say, press profiles. The contents of Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion and the votes to support it were “reflective of the … efforts of women, including Mississippi's first female attorney general, Lynn Fitch. Fitch argued before the court on behalf of her state’s 15-week abortion ban and in favor of Roe’s reversal.”
In my own national column this week, I noted two other women who have played major roles in current debates — Louisiana State Sen. Katrina Jackson, the African-American Democrat who sponsored that state’s trigger bill that includes potential 10-year prison sentences for those who perform abortions. And also Kristen Day, leader of the national Democrats for Life organization.
Meanwhile, here is one more bite of Darling commentary for reporters working at the local level:
It’s not an overestimation to say that the movement's energy, appeal and passion are fueled by women. … You’ll see this if you visit one of the thousands of pregnancy resource centers around the country, where mostly female staff and volunteers meet women in crisis with compassion, counseling and care, offering them both alternatives to abortion and a community ready to help them parent their child.
You’ll see it online, with awareness and education led by folks such as Lila Rose, who began Live Action in 2003 as a 15-year-old anti-abortion activist. The organization's viral videos have educated a new generation on the emerging science around fetal development.
This is not a long piece, but it contains other names and ideas for flashback profiles and research at the local, state and regional level. It will not hurt for religion-beat journalists to start thinking ahead, especially since — alas — many political-desk pros seem to have thin files when it comes to contact information about logal, valid female voices on this side of the abortion debates.
FIRST IMAGE: The late Nellie Gray, speaking at the 2011 national March for Life, covered by C-SPAN.