SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 24, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Tens of thousands of people walked down Market Street chanting "We are the pro-life generation" in the 11th annual Walk for Life West Coast Jan. 24.
"There is a war on women but we are not declaring war, we have come to set women free!' declared Walk for Life rally speaker Joy Pinto.
"The civil rights movement of this present age is the prolife movement and we are nearing our victory and we cannot compromise," declared Walk speaker Rev. Clenard Childress Jr., founder of Blackgenocide.org and a Baptist minister in Montclair, N.J.
As in previous years the hour-long noon rally at Civic Center in San Francisco and the 1.8 mile walk through the city's downtown drew a diverse group of teenagers and young adults as well as families, fathers carrying toddlers and even people in wheelchairs. A San Francisco news station estimated the massive crowd at 50,000.
The Walk is held on the Saturday closest to the anniversary of the Jan. 22, 1973 Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.
Many began the day at St. Mary's Cathedral for the 9:30 a.m. Walk for Life Mass where San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone told the standing room only crowd of nearly 5,000, "Our goal is not simply to make abortion illegal" but to "build a culture of life."
"My young people, you are the prolife generation," Archbishop Cordileone said.
Pope Francis' diplomatic representative to the United States Archbishop Carlos Maria Viganò addressed the Walk rally at Civic Center, saying: "My friends, thank you for your public witness."
Other speakers included Julia Holcomb, who told the story of her abortion during a relationship as a teenager with Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler, and Rebekah Buell who shared how a new technique allowed her to save her unborn baby even after taking the first RU486 pill. Joy Pinto and her husband Jim are hosts of EWTN shows and work with Her Choice Birmingham Women's Center in Alabama.
Among the tens of thousands rallying for life were 60 students from Wyoming Catholic College clad in blue shirts emblazoned with a cowboy boot and the motto "pro-life cowboys," 20 students from Stanford Pro-Life, and members of numerous Bay Area and California Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and other congregations.
Founded in 2005 by a group of Bay Area residents with the mission of changing the perception that abortion is the answer, the Walk for Life West Coast is the largest pro-life demonstration on the West Coast.
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SOURCE Walk for Life West Coast
