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Tens of thousands demonstrate for life in San Francisco
Contact: Eva Muntean
info@walkforlifewc.com/ (415) 658-1793.
Photo Credit: Jamil Dababneh/Walk for Life West Coast
San Francisco _Tens of thousands of prolife supporters rallied in the 21st annual Walk for Life West Coast Saturday, filling Civic Center Plaza and marching for more than a mile through the city’s center behind the Walk’s banner “Abortion hurts women.”
“We want all babies to have a future,” said Elizabeth of Young Adults for Christ of St. Elizabeth Church in Milpitas, who came with her husband, toddler and friends. “Babies are life. I have my baby—he is my everything,” she said.
“I am here to prevent abortion,” said Dylan, part of a group of young people from Sacred Heart Parish in Turlock. “These babies don’t have a voice, and they are being killed.”
California enshrined abortion until birth in its constitution in a statewide vote months after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturned Roe v. Wade.
Walk speaker Kelly Lester told the crowd the abortion industry’s goal is not choice. As an abortion clinic worker, she said: “We did everything to make sure the woman’s choice was abortion.” Lester was a ranked tennis player with a bright academic future whose abortion at 15 derailed her life. “I walked out and ran from everything good in my life.” Drugs, crime with a cartel, and work at an abortion clinic followed. Now a married mother of six, Lester works with an organization of former abortion workers, And Then There Were None, as well Pro-Love Ministries and Maps Global.
“If you turn to the Lord, he will heal you,” Lester said.
Speaker Ryan Bomberger, co-founder of The Radiance Foundation, told the crowd: “Life is everything. Without it we are literally nothing.” Conceived in rape and adopted into a large family, Bomberger’s organization is a life-affirming organization based on the belief that every human life has purpose. Bomberger said his birth mother’s choice brought “triumph out of tragedy.”
Also speaking was Sister Dede Byrne who talked about the dangers and evils of IVF.
The Walk’s final speaker was Walter Hoye, Black American pro-life activist and co-founder of Issues4Life Foundation. He rallied the crowd as they set out to walk along Market Street: “Now is the time to stand up for life. Now is the time to walk for life.”
This year’s St. Gianna Molla Award for Prolife Heroism was given to Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Military Affairs Joseph Coffey with an introduction by San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone.
More information at walkforlifewc.com