By Lois Rogers | Features Editor

Biting winds and below freezing temperatures couldn’t chill the spirits of several hundred hardy folks from around the state who rallied in support of life on the steps of the New Jersey State House in Trenton  Jan. 22, the 40th anniversary of the infamous Roe v Wade Supreme Court Decision legalizing abortion.

View photo gallery: Rally for Life - New Jersey State House

Many had walked from the cathedral to the State House, about four city blocks including student groups from Delbarton School and Villa Walsh Academy, both Morristown and soon joined ranks with students from Bishop Ahr High School, Edison and supporters of life from conception to natural death from around the state.

 Whether gathered on the State House steps, the mall in front of the building or directly across the street in the sunny location many have begun to refer to as “the amphitheater,” the multi-generational crowd kept their focus on the 22 speakers.

They included legislators from around the state, leaders of pro-life groups and ministries and clergy of various faith traditions. A choir of students from Koinonia Academy, Plainfield, sang several selections that highlighted the respect for life focus of the day including “When You Believe,” “I want to Live” and “Heal Our Land.”

Rally organizer Marie Tasy, executive director of New Jersey Right to Life, said the change in date of the Washington march because of the inauguration, freed a number of advocates scheduled to speak in Washington, including Christopher H. Bell, founder of Good Counsel Homes crisis pregnancy centers, and Lana Rose Diaz who witnesses on her own abortion experience, to also speak in the state capital.

And indeed, many at the rally, including Father Stanley Krzyston, pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Parish, Yardville, who offered the invocation, and Robin Weaver, musical director in Sacred Heart Parish, South Amboy, found their testimonies extremely compelling.

Both Father Krzyston, who called this “an important anniversary to remember” and Weaver, attending her first such rally, were taken with the courage and commitment of Diaz who has made it her mission to tell the story of how she had an abortion so as not to change her plans for graduate school and a career and how she and her boyfriend at the time – now husband – came to sorely regret the decision.

Weaver spoke of the surprise she felt when Diaz began to speak of her own experience. “We obviously knew there would be pro-life people at the rally,” Weaver said. “It was nice to have someone speak about what (abortion) did to her and that life doesn’t always turn out the way you plan it … I thought it was pretty surprising.”

Diaz, a member of Holy Rosary Parish, Jersey City, shared the reason she chose to go public with her story, first in “private and then in a larger sense.”

“The main reason I began telling my story is because I have over 20 nieces and nephews. It was important to me that none of them ever feel choosing abortion is appropriate or that they didn’t have anyone to talk to about it,” said Diaz who shares her witness on her Facebook site.

She and her husband, Christian, who was at the Trenton rally with their daughter, Francesca, were to share their story in Washington Jan. 25.

“He will be speaking out on his side of the story. We went through the experience together and we speak on behalf of the life we lost in vain.”

Bell, who established a Good Counsel home in Riverside, energized the gathering by asking a series of challenging questions on the universal right to life and drew positive responses each time he answered with an example of lives that had been saved through his agency’s help.

“Do you have enough love for another baby in the world,” he began as those present roared yes in response.

Then he told how, in July, a woman named Natalie called Good Counsel Homes for help and “we took her in and she had a healthy baby boy and she’s working… do you have enough room for another mother who has been abused and do you have enough room for a woman who has been told her baby will have a genetic defect?”

Again and again, the answer was yes.

At the conclusion of the rally, John Scott, a member of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, Whiting, who traveled to Trenton on a bus with several fellow parishioners, said everyone was happy they had braved the weather to go.

“It was very important.  Was it cold, yes,” Scott said, “but it didn’t matter. The (public) witness moved me. People spoke from their hearts about how abortion has affected their lives,” he said of the speakers.

It was good, he said, to hear their message in the public square.