March draws activists together to protest 'Roe v. Wade' decision

Robert Henry Becker Arizona Daily Wildcat Anti-abortion advocates walk part of their 3.4-mile trek from SS. Peter and Paul Church to Holy Hope Cemetery Saturday. A memorial service was held at the cemetery to recall the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.

Roe v. Wade was the court decision that legalized abortion-on-demand for all nine months of pregnancy.

The third annual March for Life, sponsored by the Diocese of Tucson Catholic Cemeteries and Friends for Life, began with a rally at the church where both the young and old were able to collect anti-abortion literature and converse with others about the issue.

The march ended with a memorial service at the cemetery, where abortion victims were honored by placing 24 roses on the Memorial to Victims of Abortion.

Rosie Smith said she attended the march to pray for forgiveness for the country's sins.

"If this activity will just influence one person and a life is saved, this will be worth the effort," she said.

Smith said she hoped the event would increase the public's awareness of human life.

Landon Stropko, 14, said he was also there to show his support for the anti-abortion movement.

"Respect needs to start with those who need the most protection," he said. "I am here to mourn the children and the mothers that had to go through an abortion."

The participants who gathered in the church's Gramer Hall prayed and listened to three speakers prior the 3.6-mile walk to the cemetery.

Regis Flaherty, the director of the Diocese of Tucson Catholic Cemeteries and march founder, told listeners his goal for the afternoon was to give prayerful witness to the abortion act and to have an attitude of prayer.

"I look at this as a pro-life day of recollection," he said. "Today we tell the Lord this is important to us."

The few University of Arizona students who attended the event said abortion is an important issue in the life of a college student.

Flaherty's daughter, Bridget, management information systems junior, said her anti-abortion views were strengthened when she became pregnant and was forced to deal with the choice of abortion.

"I have a 4 1/2-month daughter, and ever since I had her, being pro-life became more important to me," she said. "I wasn't with anyone, so I had to face whether I was pro-life or not."

Bridget Flaherty said she realized the fetus was a life when she could feel the baby inside of her.

"At 14 weeks I could tell that the baby was not just a piece of tissue," she said.

Patricia Rodriguez, molecular and cellular biology senior, said she participated because she wanted to fight for life.

"I became pro-life when I realized an embryo is a human being," she said.

Rodriguez said college students tend to be more liberal and do not really know the meaning behind being anti-abortion.

"A fetus is a human," she said.

Sarah Morris, a psychology and biology sophomore who did not attend the march, said she believes some of the anti-abortion views are wrong.

"I am pro-choice because I believe in a woman's right to choose what to do with a life," she said. "I don't think that if a woman was raped or if she has 10 children already that she should be forced to have her baby."

Morris said she did not believe abortion is a big issue with college students when it is compared with other concerns.

"Everyone is more concerned with birth control, getting AIDS, or contracting hepatitis than actually getting pregnant," she said.

Julianne Steers, an ecology and evolutionary biology sophomore, said it is important to keep abortion legal because of safety issues.

"People are going to do it anyway," she said. "It is safer to legalize it than to have people getting it done in a dark alley somewhere."

Rodriguez estimated that 10 to 15 UA students attended the march and the rally.

This student turnout, which was lower than in past years, was thought to be due to the march's timing, said Father Albert Felice-Pace, pastor and director of the Newman Catholic Student Center.

"Last year we had a group of 25 to 30 students," he said. "But because of winter break this year, we could not get a group together."

Although Felice-Pace did not attend the march, he said he thought it was important to raise people's awareness.

"People will say what abortion is about whether or not we agree, and we should certainly try to bring this (abortion) up to the people," he said.