On Monday Jan. 24, close to 25 St. John’s students headed down to Washington D.C. to take part in the 38 annual March for Life.

The March for Life is held every year on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. On that day in 1973 the Supreme Court made it legal for any woman in the United States to end her pregnancy. People of all religions against this decision have made it their duty to head down to the capital to express displeasure with the Supreme Court’s decision in hopes that one day it’ll be reversed.

Junior Elizabeth Vujanovich, the president of Students for Life, took a bus load of St. John’s and Holy Cross High School students to show their support for the cause.

“This is our big political aspect of the organization so we’ve been planning it for quite a while. We started in August trying to get around red tape and get everything we needed ready,” Vujanovich said.

The journey to the capital started bright and early for the students.

Usually, the group leaves from St. John’s around 6 a.m. This year, however, the bus left from campus at two in the morning. The students made it to Catholic University at seven for the morning mass.

“It was a great start to the event. The priests and speakers were so great at getting everybody hyped up,” Vujanovich said.

Junior Patty Salgado said that attending the mass, something the Students for Life hasn’t done before, gave her a better appreciation for how many people believed in the cause.

“There were speakers from around the world and it was sobering to see how far they came from to be here,” she said.  

“The homilist was able to connect how before Our Lady of Guadalupe came to Juan Diego there was a part of Mexico that made human and infant sacrifices. After the apparition, people learned of the sanctity of life. It was really nice to see how he could connect that to what we’re going through now,” said Salgado.

The students then headed over to the National Mall where the rally was held. “With there being four times the amount of Pro-Life representatives, there were so many people who had a lot to say.”

“It got the crowd riled up but unfortunately a lot of it got repetitive at the end.” Vujanovich said.

Salgado feels that it needs to stop being more of a political debate and more of a spiritual one.

“Even if Roe v. Wade gets over turned society has still put these pressures on women who might not know what to do when they find themselves pregnant,” Salgado said. “We need to look at how we can help them.”

Thousands then proceeded to march from the Capitol with signs and chants in order to send a message to the White House. “We had a lot of people complaining about the cold and their feet hurting but we were still very enthusiastic about it. It was all worth it in the end,” Vujanovich said.

After all the walking, the students headed back onto the bus. Although they went there for the political aspect of the event, many students agreed that the service held at Catholic University was the most awe-inspiring part of the trip.

“So many people were talking about how beautiful the service was and how they were touched the most by it,” Vujanovich said.