Students attending the annual March for Life Friday in Washington, D.C., said this year’s event will be the last before the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, and they are preparing to fight against abortion in a new legal landscape.
The prospect of overturning the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion nationwide loomed large in the minds of student attendees, many of whom traveled long distances to attend the event. The court heard arguments last month in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which could see the justices overturn the decades-old case.
“I believe this will be the last March for Life that will have Roe still instated,” Jamie Scherbin, a senior at Winona State University in Minnesota, told the Washington Examiner. “I believe at next year’s march, we will have the reversal of Roe, and we will be fighting from a completely different aspect.”
Scherbin’s optimism that the court will overturn Roe was echoed by Lili North, a senior at San Diego State University, who said, “We’re so close to overturning Roe.”
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“This [march] is almost like a celebration because we believe that this is the last anniversary of Roe,” North said, adding that the reversal of the case will require a renewed commitment to educating people about the realities of abortion.
In addition to educating people about those realities, Freeman Marshall, a junior at Montana State University, noted that the reversal of Roe will require anti-abortion activists to recommit to serving students on campuses facing unexpected pregnancies.
“We’re going to need to be active in our pregnancy resource centers. We’re going to be active in reminding students of their rights on campus as pregnant and parenting students and supporting them in any way we can,” Marshall said.
Scherbin, North, and Marshall all serve as student representatives for Students for Life of America, a nonprofit organization that organizes collegiate activism for anti-abortion causes.
Students for Life plays a significant role in mobilizing college students nationwide to attend the March for Life. The organization maintains campus chapters at universities across the country, as well as numerous high schools.
With college campuses often serving as a major battleground for hot-button cultural problems, Students for Life chapters are known for making public displays drawing attention to their goal of abortion abolition. But they also have several initiatives meant to help student parents “embrace both their children and their education,” which the three students who spoke with the Washington Examiner constantly reiterated.
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“I just want to bring joy, love, compassion to my university and to these people who are clearly hurting,” said Scherbin, who is the president of the Winona State Students for Life chapter. “Someone has to stand up and someone has to do it, and I’m more than honored and blessed to be able to lead a group of 30 students to share this honest interest.”
