Pro-life activists rally against abortion, Death with Dignity act

The Maryland March for Life has brought pro-life protesters to Annapolis for 41 years. But for many, this year carried extra weight.

Hundreds marched through downtown Monday night to push back against pending legislation.

While the march is largely focused on abortion, the focus of this year's event was also rallying against the End-of-Life Option Act, also known as "Death with Dignity." Cross-filed as House Bill 399 and Senate Bill 311, the act would make Maryland the seventh state to legalize physician-assisted suicide in the state.

Yellow, smiley face balloons with the words, "Smile, your mom chose life" floated above "Defund Planned Parenthood" signs, occasionally escaping into the night sky as the crowd left mass at St. Mary's and marched through downtown.

Lindsay Rupprecht, 39, of Pasadena, twirled her baton dressed as a pro-life Wonder Woman as she led the crowd down Main Street and toward General Assembly buildings.

A quote from the 2017 movie is printed on her shirt in gold letters: "I fight for those who can't fight for themselves."

"Last year I wore a shirt that said, 'Planned Parenthood, you're fired,'" she said before the march. "That was kind of in honor of (President Donald) Trump."

Rupprecht said she feels like it's harder to reach women who are considering abortion.

"I was born six years after Roe v. Wade. A lot of people in my age group feel we could have been aborted. So it is a personal cause," she said.

After Trump restored the global gag rule on abortion last year, allowing states to withhold family-planning funds to abortion providers like Planned Parenthood, Maryland passed its own legislation that would restore those funds with state money.

Speaker of the House Mike Busch withdrew an amendment proposal Thursday to add abortion rights to the state constitution but plans to repropose the amendment next year.

Kevin McBride, 65, came from Frederick for this year's Maryland March for Life. He attended a few pro-life rallies in the past, but said this is his first march in more than 30 years.

He remembers taking his daughter to her first March for Life when she was 2 years old. When she went to college, McBride said his daughter got pregnant and decided against abortion.

"She told me, 'How could I, dad? After all those marches you took me to.' You hear about planting a see, but you never know what kind of effect it will have."

He came back this year after hearing about proposed Virginia legislation to remove abortion restrictions and New York's newly passed Reproductive Health Act, which lets physicians assist patients seeking abortions without political interference.

The crowd walked with signs that read "Be a voice for the voiceless," "Stop abortion now" in the shape of a stop sign and a banner that read "respect life from conception to death," chanting "We love babies yes we do, we love babies how 'bout you," "pro-woman, pro-life," and "Hey hey, ho ho, Roe v. Wade has got to go."

As they passed the House Office Building, they marched by a group of men with signs that read "Democrats hate hunters" and "We will not comply." The group protesting House Bill 786, which would regulate shotguns and hunting rifles similarly to handguns, began to wave and cheer as the crowd chanting "no assisted suicide" passed.

"Come on, let's give them an audience," one of the men said, and the gun-rights protesters lined up along Bladen Street, whistling, clapping and yelling "Thank you."

As the first speaker of the night, Therese Hessler of the Maryland Catholic Conference told the crowd about her concerns of the Death with Dignity bill.

"The value of life is under attack in our state," she said. "There are many safeguards missing from this legislation."

Hessler said she's concerned about the lack of mental health checks and the fact that the prescription can be given by any two doctors, as well as the fact that a doctor does not need to be present at the time the drug is taken.

"You're taking a legalized prescription and overdose, and in a state where we have a very high overdose rate already, having more access to a drug that has been illegal in our state since 1970 is very concerning," she said before the march.

Death with Dignity advocate McShane Glover pushes back against Hessler's concerns.

"These issues about how we spend our lives and how we spend our deaths are always controversial. This is not a mandate. The law as at it is set up does not force anybody to do anything other than what they want to do," she said.

"This is not about choosing to kill yourself. You are dying, the question is how and when. People want to live, this is not something that they're forming a line outside the doctor's office to do. This is a difficult, complicated choice someone makes when their lives have reached a point that is very little joy."

Like leaders of the march, McBride is also angry about the Death with Dignity Act.

"Our world's upside down," he said. "It's gone from babies in the womb to this Death with Dignity assisted suicide. We've devalued life for everybody. We have to stop it."

Two days earlier, Planned Parenthood Maryland president Karen Nelson walked the same streets with activists holding "I stand with Planned Parenthood" signs at the Women's Unity March.

She thanked state legislators for protecting Planned Parenthood funding and spoke against the March for Life.

"You've got a right to free speech, but what you don't have a right to do is get in the way of someone else receiving health care, health education and making a decision that is personal and private to them," Nelson said.

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Credit: By Selene San Felice - [email protected] - twitter.com/selenecapgaz

Caption: The March for Life hits Main Street while walking to the State House in Annapolis on Monday evening.

photos by Joshua McKerrow / Capital Gazette