March for Life (1)

What a fantastic day!

So much to report...

Liz

The first thing I attended was the workshop run by Life's wonderful counsellor, Liz, and Clare, one of the Education Officers.  They described Life's strategy of reaching women before they get on the abortion treadmill, by maintaining a strong online presence, and using analytics to understand what search terms women are searching for, and making sure Life's name comes up when they do.

This is proving extraordinarily successful: Liz shared some stats, demonstrating how this has greatly increased LIfe's reach - and at that crucial stage.  She also shared some of the stories (changed and anonymised to protect confidentiality) of clients, and how LIfe's counselling and support has enabled so many to keep their babies.  Clare also reported on how the education work goes hand-in-hand with this outreach. All in all, a very inspiring presentation.

Clare

Next up was a workshop by the Alliance of Pro-Life Students. This is a wonderful initiative, ensuring that the pro-life voice is heard on increasingly-hostile campuses, and that there is support, guidance and training for students wishing to establish a pro-life presence in their university.  The workshop was on having pro-life conversations, and the essence was: be brave and be kind. 

I missed some of the other talks as I was collared to hand out leaflets about Life's new campaign to STOP abortion on demand. This is incredibly important: the abortion industry have been lining this up for years - to exempt them from any proper legal framework...

The march itself was vibrant: lots of singing, chanting and camaraderie.  There was a small and vociferous counter-protest, but nothing could dent the good humour of the thousands marching for Life.

More follows...