By Valerie Schmalz, OSV News
SAN FRANCISCO (OSV News) — Tens of thousands of pro-life supporters rallied in the 21st annual Walk for Life West Coast Jan. 25, filling the plaza in front of City Hall and marching for more than a mile through one of the most pro-abortion cities in the country, behind the walk’s banner “Abortion hurts women.”
“We want all babies to have a future,” said Elizabeth, who gave only her first name. A member of Young Adults for Christ of St. Elizabeth de Portugal Church in Milpitas, she came with her husband, toddler and friends. “Babies are life. I have my baby — he is my everything,” she said.
The Walk for Life West Coast was founded in 2005 by a small group of Bay Area young adults to demonstrate that the culture of life means helping pregnant women and families as well as offering healing after abortion.
The outlook for life in California is worse now than it was then. California enshrined abortion until birth in its constitution in a statewide vote months after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturned Roe v. Wade, and the state is pouring billions of dollars into support for abortion.
For those who came by bus, by car and by public transport from around the state and from San Francisco, the day was one of joyful connection with fellow believers in the sacred right of every human being to life, from conception to natural death.
“I am here to prevent abortion,” said Dylan, who gave only his first name. He was part of a group of teens from Sacred Heart Parish in Turlock in the San Joaquin Valley. “These babies don’t have a voice, and they are being killed.”
The walk’s speakers said the abortion industry cloaks evil in the garb of false compassion, and they called for hope, for healing and courage.
Walk speaker Kelly Lester said as an abortion clinic worker, “we did everything to make sure the woman’s choice was abortion.” Lester was a ranked tennis player with a bright academic future whose abortion at 15 upended her life. “I walked out and ran from everything good in my life.” Drugs, crime with a cartel, more abortions and work at an abortion clinic followed.
Now a married mother of six, Lester works with an organization of former abortion workers, And Then There Were None, as well Pro-Love Ministries and Maps Global.
“If you turn to the Lord, he will heal you,” Lester said.
Speaker Ryan Bomberger, who is African American and the co-founder of The Radiance Foundation, told the crowd: “Life is everything. Without it we are literally nothing.” Conceived in rape and adopted into a large family, Bomberger’s organization is a life-affirming organization based on the belief that every human life has purpose. Bomberger said his birth mother’s choice brought “triumph out of tragedy.”
“Our opposition doesn’t want us to speak up. Our opposition doesn’t want us to stand up. But who will speak up and stand up for the innocent here?” Bomberger asked a cheering crowd. “Don’t let the enemy derail you.”
Also speaking was Sister Deirdre “Dede” Byrne, a former Army surgeon and member of the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, who talked about the dangers and evils of in vitro fertilization.
The walk’s final speaker was Walter Hoye, also a Black pro-life activist, pastor and co-founder of Issues4Life Foundation. He rallied the crowd as they set out to walk along Market Street: “Now is the time to stand up for life. Now is the time to walk for life.”
The walk draws people largely from Northern California, but participants also travel in from the south and from neighboring states. Bishops in the Monterey and San Jose dioceses offer Walk for Life Masses. The day before, Hoye always leads a Stand4Life rally in Oakland focused on abortion against Black babies.
This year’s Oakland rally in front of City Hall came about a week before a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the largest Planned Parenthood facility in the U.S., which opened Dec. 17. The ribbon-cutting is scheduled for Feb. 1.
“We are taking a bold stand for life. We realize the negative impact abortion has had on the Black community. Thousands upon thousands of babies have been killed in the Black community,” Hoye said. “The number one cause of death is by abortion, and Planned Parenthood leads the way.”
In San Francisco, on the eve of the Walk for Life West Coast, a prayer vigil is held at St. Dominic Church in San Francisco where this year the celebrant and homilist was EWTN host Father Mark Mary, a Franciscan Missionary of the Eternal Word. The day always begins with the Walk for Life Mass at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption.
In his homily at the packed Walk for Life Mass that morning, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone said the narrative of support for abortion has devolved from ‘necessary evil’ until now abortion is celebrated as a positive good, “to the point that anyone who would hold the opposite opinion is subject to a sort of persecution.” But the deceptive ’empowerment’ mantras are hollow, he said, and trust in God is crucial.
“We do this for love of God and love of neighbor: mothers, their babies, and all those who are neediest and most vulnerable among us. If you want to do this for worldly credit, to receive accolades from society and kudos from the influencers of popular culture, forget it. The true heroes do this knowing that, for the most part, people will not hear about it. But God knows, and our greatest — and, really, only — concern should be to please him,” Archbishop Cordileone said.
“It is important that we try to be witnesses to the Gospel of Life and that we do that in a joyful, courageous way,” said Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto, who has participated in the walk almost every year along with thousands from his diocese. He joined his brother bishop, Archbishop Cordileone, as well as Santa Rosa Bishop Robert Vasa and Auxiliary Bishop Joseph L. Coffey of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, at the Walk for Life Mass that morning.
“Doing this walk in the city of St. Francis, we bring a joyful noise into the city,” Bishop Soto told OSV News. “Our presence here, we are pilgrims of hope.”
Valerie Schmalz writes for OSV News from San Francisco.
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