Retired Abbot Matthew Leavy, O.S.B., Andrew Fellows, and 19 students took a coach bus down to Washington D.C. on Thursday, Jan. 26 to attend the March for Life. Saint Anselm Campus Ministry annually conducts a March for Life trip.

“The March for Life began in Washington, D.C., as a small demonstration and rapidly grew to be the largest pro-life event in the world” states the march’s website. The march was attended by White House adviser Kellyanne Conway and  Vice President Mike Pence. CNN reports that Pence “is the highest ranking public official to ever address the March for Life rally personally.”

The Anselmians were hosted overnight in a monestary in Washington D.C. which was opened to them by a graduate of Saint Anselm College and friend of Abbot Matthew. They attended mass at the basilica of Catholic University and visited the Holocaust Museum. Abbot Matthew said there was a “powerful parallel” between Hitler’s ethnic cleansing through sterilization and the effects of mass abortion.

The Saint A’s group then attended the March for Life. Abbot Matthew stated that “it was a wonderful witness to what we believe in about the beauty of life and our responsibility to protect it”.

The trip also hosted evening reflections which Abbot Matthew stated “caused many, even those who were not deeply involved with the pro-life movement to question”. He said he hopes many more Anselmians join this trip in the future to learn and question this movement.

Abbot Matthew also lauded the civic engagement this trip inspired in the students. He told the students they were “You are voting with your feet by marching”.

Abigail Konig, ’17 English and Politics Major was one of the students on this trip. She said the trip “was like nothing I’d ever experienced. It was powerful. You walk to the Supreme Court. That’s the institution we are trying to make a point to” She has never attended a protest before but loved the feeling of people standing in solidarity for the same cause. She described the March for Life as “the most peaceful thing I’ve ever been  part of”.

Konig told The Crier she attended the March for Life because she is pro life. “For me pro-life is not just about the unborn, its about all life. When I say I’m pro-life I mean I’m pro human including refugees, immigrants, the unborn, those able bodied and those not.”, stated Konig.

Konig told the Crier she believes there is a lot of misconception surrounding the pro-life movement. She said “People believe the pro-life movement to be a bunch of old white men taking away women rights, but it’s not; it’s diverse. She said that the march was made up mostly of young people, high school and college aged. She explained that “there were young people because this issue has effected them directly. One third of our [millennial] generation was eliminated by abortion.”

Konig emphasized that “being pro-life is standing up for the oppressed, the refugees, the unborn; it’s all life.

The  pro life movement is also supported on campus by the Knight of Columbus chapter led by Grand Knight Andrew Cilento. The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic fraternal organization.

He told The Crier that the Knights were not able to send a group to the March for Life with Campus Ministry this year but they have many times in the past.

Cilento said that the Knights “protect the lives of the most vulnerable from womb to tomb.”. The Anselmian chapter of the Knights of Columbus have participated in and hosted pro life events. This year during Fall Semester the group invited the Saint Anselm Community to pray the rosary with a pro-life intention at the Mary Grotto. About 30 community members attended the event.

Cilento also told The Crier the Saint Anselm chapter “do have knights go to a Planned Parenthood in Manchester and walk in front praying the rosary”.

He also said that “we had 9 knights and 6 people from a club on campus called Unhooked attend the New Hampshire Right to Life benefit and dinner.

Saint Anselm College is currently displaying activism in the pro-life movement which coincides with the U.S. leadership’s increasing support and action against abortion.

Last month President Trump signed the executive order known as “the Mexico City Policy”. BBC reports that this order will “ban federal money going to international groups which perform or provide information on abortions.”