Walk for Life West Coast, OneLife LA both walk for life on January 20th
The 20th annual Walk for Life West Coast will be held Saturday, January 20, 2024, beginning with a 12:30 p.m. rally at Civic Center Plaza. After the rally, walkers proceed on an 1.8-mile walk down Market Street the Embarcadero Plaza. The event will be preceded by a 9:30 a.m. pro-life Mass celebrated by San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone at St. Mary’s Cathedral, which is located near Civic Center Plaza. The purpose of the event, according to the Walk website, is to “[stand] for the littlest and most vulnerable among us [the unborn], and 20 years of fearlessly asserting that Abortion Hurts Women.”
The Walk comes the day after the annual March for Life in Washington, DC, on January 19th; it is, after the March, the nation’s second largest pro-life walk. It began in 2005 with 7,000 participants, and grew to over 50,000 by 2020. The numbers dipped during the COVID years, but have since been growing. While the Walk is open to all, it is organized, presented and predominantly attended by Catholics, including bishops and priests. Archbishop Cordileone, for example, is among the Walk’s biggest supporters, and has participated since before becoming archbishop of San Francisco.
Companion events to the Walk for Life West Coast include a Silent No More Awareness Campaign, 10:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. in Civic Center Plaza. Led by Georgette Forney and Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, Silent No More features testimonies of women directly harmed by abortion. There will also be an information faire at Civic Center Plaza offering information from many different pro-life organizations.