Pro-lifers participating in the seventh annual International Gift of Life Walk NYC were forced to endure harassment from counter-protestors who threw garbage in the street in an attempt to deter the marchers from their path.
According to the Catholic News Agency, approximately 300 pro-lifers gathered in the cold rain for the one-mile walk, as they attempted to bring attention to the pro-life cause. A heavy police presence separated the marchers from roughly 30 abortion advocates, who shouted at the pro-lifers and rang cowbells to distract from the pro-lifers’ prayers. The pro-abortion protestors also piled garbage along the marchers’ path.
Bernadette Patel, a pro-lifer from New York, told CNA that the pro-abortion presence at this year’s march was much more disruptive than last year’s — a sentiment echoed by Father Lawerence Schroedel, CFR, who noted that there wasn’t “any opposition” at last year’s march. However, Fr. Schroedel called these counterprotesters a “non-issue,” in spite of their attempts to slow down the marchers.
“There were actually so much more of us than them, it really made us seem all the bigger,” he said.
Dawn Eskew is president and founder of Personhood Education New York, the organization responsible for leading the event. She called the walk a win, particularly because the counter-protestors were not successful in their attempts to slow down the pro-lifers. This is despite the fact that some abortion advocates advertised the event ahead of time on social media platforms in the hopes of gathering a large disruptive crowd.
“We did what we were called to do. That in itself is a success — the whole point was to make awareness,” she said.
Pro-lifers in NYC are relatively used to dealing with violent and disruptive abortion activists, as abortion supporters have harassed pro-lifers throughout the city in a number of instances. In August 2022, five abortion supporters were arrested after they disrupted a monthly prayer walk to a Planned Parenthood abortion facility, and in June 2022, the same procession was mobbed by abortion supporters.
