Sunday marked the 39th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion in the United States. The weekend was marked with prayer and conferences. (And statements and announcements that reminded us that elections matter.) The annual March for Life on Washington, D.C., was held Monday; below are some photos I snapped along the way.

I have been going to the march for the better part of two decades and I cannot remember the last time I was this overwhelmed by the crowds — a wonderful thing. The weather was dark and cold, all too appropriately. But the witness of so many young people in particular, was a bright light of “radiant inspiration,” as New York’s Cardinal Designate Timothy Dolan put it at a Mass on Monday morning.

A special thanks to NRO readers and @kathrynlopez Twitter followers who stopped to say “hello” while on the march!

Getting a message across:

Faces along the way:

The Human Life Review was there:

Read my interview on The Debate Since Roe with Anne Conlon (right) here. 

As was Ed Mechmann:

Bookmark his Stepping Out of the Boat blog.

Remember her?

They came from Alabama:

And from Chicago:

They came from Connecticut:

And from Florida:

They came from Maine:

They came from Maryland:

They came from Missouri:

And from New York:

(From our late friend Dorothy McCartney’s home parish:)

They came from North Dakota:

They came from Ohio:

They came from Pennsylvania:

They came from Rhode Island:

They came from Tennessee:

They came from Texas:

They came from Virginia:

They came from Wisconsin:

@prayer:

They came from Notre Dame: 

(I caught up a little with law professor Carter Snead at the Ave Maria Law of Life Summit Saturday, emceed by Pat Castle of Life Runners, right before the South Carolina primary. He will head the Center for Ethics and Culture there, established by David Solomon, in the fall.)

They came from Yale:

They came from George Mason:

And from Princeton:

And from Columbia:

And from my Alma mater, the Catholic University of America:

Mother and child: