Last Saturday, 2 September 2023, an estimated seven thousand pro-lifers gathered in London for the annual UK March for Life. This year’s event saw a high turnout defending unborn babies’ “Freedom to Live”.
March for Life takes place in central London every year when thousands of pro-life men and women from across the nation unite in the heart of Westminster on behalf of the unborn.
SPUC staff and supporters joined them, representing the UK’s oldest and largest pro-life organisation, which also had a stall at the Emmanuel Center, where the day’s activities commenced.
Pro-lifers then marched peacefully through Westminster with banners and signs, including SPUC’s banner, “Making Abortion Unthinkable.”
The atmosphere was cheerful yet resolute. One of the speakers at Parliament Square was Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, recently arrested twice for praying silently outside an abortion facility.
Speaking to the thousands of pro-lifers outside Parliament, Vaughan Spruce slammed the UK government’s “offensive” efforts “to clamp down on those [pro-lifers] peacefully offering alternatives [to abortion] outside of abortion centres”.
Vaughan-Spruce also noted with disgust that unborn babies with a disability can still be aborted right up to birth. “We must not accept it… We must challenge it in every way… because every single human life matters.”
A young woman named Ellie bravely took to the stage and spoke about her abortion regret. “I think I can speak for every post-abortive woman stood here today that abortion didn’t grant us freedom but made us captives in one way or another”, she said.
Several clergymen also attended the march, including Rev Calvin Robinson and Catholic Bishop John Sherrington, who in a homily before the event prayed “that this witness will help to change hearts and minds and make women and men think again about the goodness of the dignity of unborn life in the womb…
“May the witness today communicate that mercy and witness to the God of human life, from conception to natural death.”
“Truly motivating… We are not alone”
Louise Grant, SPUC’s Youth Development Coordinator, who attended the event, said: “To see so many young people at this year’s March for Life, including at the stalls in the Emmanuel Centre, was truly motivating. I was able to chat with those who visited the SPUC stall and was delighted to hear that many young people are keen to join us at our next SPUC Youth Conference.
“It’s easy for many people to feel isolated in their pro-life beliefs, but March for Life proves that we are not alone. It encourages us to continue to stand up and be counted.”