Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien, Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, will lead the 33rd Annual Maryland March for Life on Monday, March 12, 2012, at 6:30 p.m. at St. Mary’s Church, Annapolis. Cardinal O’Brien will be joined by bishops, priests and hundreds of pro-life Marylanders from the Archdioceses of Baltimore and Washington. Those in attendance will pray and call for the need for building a culture of life in Maryland, one of the most abortion-permissive states in the nation.
Participants will march to Lawyer’s Mall for a rally with members of the Maryland Senate and House of Delegates. The march will be preceded by a Mass at St. Mary’s at 5:15 p.m.
Maryland has some of the highest abortion rates in the nation. While the abortion rate declined 9 percent nationally between 2000 and 2005, the abortion rate in Maryland rose 8 percent during that same period. Maryland’s abortion rate is now 38 percent higher than the national rate, with more than one-in-four Maryland pregnancies ending in abortion. There were 37,590 abortions performed in Maryland in 2005, or nearly 103 per day, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute.
More details about the Maryland March for Life can be found at www.marylandmarchforlife.org.