SAN FRANCISCO - Singing "Glory, glory, Halleluiah, the truth is marching on", hundreds of teens and twenty-somethings sang the Battle Hymn of the Republic as they led tens of thousands of pro-lifers along San Francisco's Market Street for the 14th Annual Walk for Life West Coast today.
"In this sanctuary city also known for bridge-building, we are all stating loudly that we want our neighbors to consider the womb a sanctuary for the unborn members of our human families," said Dr. John Bruchalski, founder of Tepeyac Family Center in Chantilly, VA, an ob-gyn practice named for the hill where Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to a poor Indian in 1531. The faith-based practice provides "excellent medicine" to women without regard to financial situation, belief or background.
Abortion does not just hurt women, and kill babies, "abortion also hurts the providers who provide that service," Bruchalski told the rally gathered at Civic Center in San Francisco. Bruchalski performed many abortions as a resident before realizing its harm, saying abortion darkened and hardened his heart before he was re-converted to his Catholic faith.
"I want all the young people here… as a doctor who knows that abortion hurts women—we need you. We need you to enter and return medicine back to the prolife movement. That's a practical way you can make a difference," Bruchalski said.
"We want our neighbors to consider the womb a sanctuary"
With California Senate Bill 320, requiring every state college and university student health center to stock RU486 on a fast track to passage, Walk co-chair Dolores Meehan urged all those at the walk to contact their legislator. "We don't want our centers of learning to become centers of killing," Meehan said.
Other speakers at the Walk included Terri Beatley of the Hosea Initiative dedicated to continuing the pro-life work of the deceased "father of the abortion movement" Dr. Bernard Nathanson; Joseph Scheidler, founder of Pro-Life Action League who received the Gianna Molla Award; and the traditional closing speaker for the Walk, Rev. Clenard Childress, who spoke at the first Walk and almost every one since.
Founded in 2005 by a group of San Francisco Bay Area residents, the Walk for Life West Coast's mission is to change the perceptions of a society that thinks abortion is an answer.
