By Katy Schriner, intern, Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation
In Lancaster, PA on January 24th, Michael Ciccocioppo and I had the opportunity to be interviewed on Spotlight with WDAC’s Greg Barton. When I first stepped foot into the studio, there were so many rooms that I wanted to explore. From what I observed, on the first floor, the studio had 3 recording studios that consist of interviews, music, recordings and more. The style of each room was very old school-like. The wallpaper, equipment, tables and chairs brought up a feeling as if I had time traveled back to the 1970’s, which I enjoyed a lot. The topic of this podcast was the March for Life and Pro-Life issues in Pennsylvania.
I sadly could not attend the March for Life but Michael was able to go to Washington D.C., while I stayed back at the office and watched the rally with Maria Gallagher. I thought that the march overall was very moving for those who had never seen or attended the march before. I also thought it was interesting to hear all of the discussions between the news anchors and special guests. But hearing Michael’s experience is the FULL effect of the type of environment that he was in. He describes the atmosphere as “filled with joy” where everyone was friendly and loving towards one another. In addition, he believed there were more than 300,000 in attendance at the march. He emphasized that the March for Life is the largest and longest human rights demonstration in the world. There were several special guests that appeared at the rally before the march that included Ben Shapiro, Abby Johnson, Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen with a special video guest appearance by President Donald Trump.
Within that podcast with Greg, Michael and I also got to discuss some issues and some goals that we hope to achieve. Recently, we have heard that the new bill in New York will allow women to have an abortion up to the point where the baby is born, which is outrageous. In Pennsylvania, we have strong representation in the House and the Senate, lawmakers who are pro-life and who will restrict any type of pro-abortion bill that will come their way. The only issue that we may have is our governor, Tom Wolf, who is pro-abortion and has shown that he will not make any efforts to change his mind on switching to pro-life. There is also another bill that is expected to be re-introduced in Pennsylvania, which is the Down syndrome bill. The bill intends that you cannot have an abortion just because the baby has Down syndrome, to prevent a form of complete discrimination. We already have a bill in Pennsylvania which states that you can’t have an abortion because you do not like the sex of the baby.
This year is the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation’s 40th anniversary, Michael points out in the podcast. Since 1979, the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation has been the largest and the longest running pro-life organization in Pennsylvania, which has made it trustworthy. It has made great strides in reducing abortion in the Commonwealth. For instance, the latest update in 2017 from the Department of Health shows the numbers of abortions in Pennsylvania have dropped down to 30,000, which is the lowest that we have seen. With all our hard work and dedication for pushing forward for Pro-Life, this October there will be a banquet to remember and recognize all that we have done in Pennsylvania for the movement. It’s incredible that our efforts to end abortion have grown dramatically throughout the decade.
Before we ended the podcast, there was one question that stood out the most, which was if someday Roe vs. Wade will be gone. Michael and I both agree that someday that Roe vs. Wade will be a thing of the past but the next mission is to have those states that are pro-abortion such as New York get laws passed protecting preborn children and their mothers from harm.