Among the hundreds of thousands of young people who attended the 46th annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. on January 18 were seven City High students. Noah Kabat ‘20 attended the march for his second time, a tradition that he remembers his brother doing before him.

“It’s always been a thing to go to as a pro-lifer,” Kabat said.

Kabat went with 15 people from his church youth group as part of a larger group that took up four charter buses. The event began with a youth rally in Capital One arena.

“[The arena] was almost full of people all just being together and that was really cool,” Kabat said of the youth rally before the march.

There was then a full rally, with speakers such as Ben Shapiro, a video call from President Trump, and a surprise attendance from Mike Pence. After the rally, the group attended the march, which goes from the Washington Monument to the Supreme Court building. Teens were seen holding signs with terms such as, “choose love, choose life,” and “I am the pro-life generation.” Kabat said he especially enjoyed the march part of the event.

“It’s breathtaking, really, the amount of people who show up,” Kabat said. “I mean, there’s half a million kids and people from all over the US that come and then the march itself is really fun.”

Josh Poe ‘20, another student who attended the event, was amazed by the amount of people who were at the march.

“There were a lot more people than I thought there would be even though I had been there last year,” Poe said. “It was really powerful to see the turn out.”

Poe believes that the large turn-out is partially due to the pro-life white house officials that President Trump has appointed.

“People who support the movement are happy that it’s a pro-life whitehouse and that kind of encourages people,” Poe said.

Kabat hopes that by going to the march, the United States will get closer to not having legal abortions available.

“The hope is that abortion is abolished and the truth about it is uncovered,” Kabat said. “I mean it’s basically a big lie about around the country that it’s healthcare and just that we can show that it shouldn’t be a choice.”

Kabat believes that there are better options available other than abortions.

“I mean, adoption is a big option, there’s pregnancy centers around the country that can help,” Kabat said.

In addition to attending the March for Life event, Kabat and Poe often pray outside of Emma Goldman clinic, an abortion clinic in Iowa City. Poe strives to eliminate the stigma that the pro-life movement stems from religious beliefs, rather than being fact supported.

“There’s always exceptions but there’s science out. We know that the heartbeats start pretty early,” Poe said. “It’s a moving living thing and I mean there’s always exceptions but I just think the fetus is not necessarily a bunch of cells. We’re all a bunch of cells.”

Kabat wishes that there was less negativity surrounding the pro-life movement.

“I think if you could just let it be, I mean just show it for what it is and not try to negate any of what they’re trying to do. So I mean, it’s there so don’t try to destroy it in any way,” Kabat said.

Kabat believes a lot of this negativity stems from the media, as an example he points to  a video that was circulated of a teen from Covington Catholic.

“They took a short video against him to find any negativity they could. I think he was unrightfully attacked,” Kabat said. “They quickly jumped on something that could make us look bad and worse than it was and longer videos will show that he didn’t really do a whole lot wrong and he had a response anyone could have in that situation.”

In addition to the pro-life events, the group also took some time to walk around D.C. as tourists. .“We went sightseeing around Washington, D.C. and went to a bunch of the memorials at night and they were really cool, that was really fun,” Kabat said.

All in all, Poe and Kabat believe that this was a really impactful experience and hope to return in upcoming years.

“I keep attending to keep spreading the message. I don’t want to keep attending because the problem we’re attending for should be resolved, but until then, I intend to keep going,” Poe said.