The March for Life weekend was a boon for us.
I wrapped up the March for Life weekend on Sunday. It was exhausting but incredibly productive. I attended a networking event on Thursday; the Rehumanize meetup, March for Life, and MFL Rose Dinner on Friday; National Pro-Life Summit followed by dinner with Equal Rights Institute on Saturday; and another collaborative breakfast on Sunday before heading to the airport.
I had a chance to talk with the following organizations (a partial list):
AAPLOG
Americans United for Life
And Then There Were None
California Family Council
Choose Life Marketing
Democrats for Life of America
Equal Rights Institute
Feminists For Life
Heartbeat International
Life Advancement Group
Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising
Pro-Life Action League
Pro-Life San Francisco
Protect Life Michigan
Rainbow Pro-Life Alliance
Rehumanize International
Reprotection
Students for Life of America
Susan B Anthony List
Vitae Foundation
Importantly, not only did I get to meet with many people (old and new), but I was the one introducing people to each other much of the weekend. I love the idea of Secular Pro-Life helping build connections between different kinds of pro-life groups. Our movement needs more coordination.
There were also quite a few unaffiliated individuals, especially college students, who came up to me throughout the events to say they followed Secular Pro-Life and enjoyed our content (most commonly TikTok). Particularly touching to me was Anna, an agnostic who came with some Catholic friends to the March, knowing it would be a largely Christian endeavor. She wanted to signal that there’s room for other pro-lifers as well, hence her sign:
I handed her my card and said we should talk more, but she said she already follows Secular Pro-Life and was really hoping to see me at the March! I told her I was delighted to see her too, and that I was so glad she made this specific sign, since it made it easy to find her. This is the importance of identifying ourselves!
These encounters are one of my favorite parts of working for Secular Pro-Life. We’re making space for each other and encouraging more people to join.
I also very much enjoyed giving my speech at the Rehumanize meetup. Every year that meetup is a great gathering point for what I think of as the “alt” (alternative) pro-life groups: the leftists and queers and secularists and anyone else who is looking to push in and make some space. I think a lot of the organizations recurrently involved have come to see each other as unofficial “sister” groups, and even though in many ways we’re all quite different, I feel united with them in our desires to make the larger pro-life movement more welcoming to and representative of the general American public, and to draw our naturally more pro-choice social circles into the discussion.
You can see my speech from the meetup here:
Thank you so much to our supporters who sponsored this trip! One of the major components of our organizational mission is to build interfaith coalitions of people interested in opposing abortion, and another is to make space for non-religious people to do pro-life work. This weekend we made a lot of strides toward both ends. We laid the groundwork for stronger alliances and new projects. The work continues.
