Chicago City Wire

Life is a pilgrimage to Chicago Bears co-owner and author Pat McCaskey. It is a pilgrimage, he says, that for some is terminated tragically and unnaturally by abortion.

“We are all on a pilgrimage to heaven,” McCaskey told Chicago City Wire. “And that pilgrimage starts with conception and should end with a natural death.”

McCaskey is scheduled to speak—more accurately, to recite one of his pro-life poems—at the 2019 Chicago March for Life on Sunday. The appearance will mark his sixth straight year speaking at the pro-life event, which is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. on Federal Plaza. The march typically draws about 6,000.

Last year, McCaskey's speech included: “God, give us friends who are March for Life friends, who will march for the right we adore," and “We must follow the voice of Jesus Christ from conception through a natural death.”

Among the slated speakers are Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago; Ryan Bomberger, founder of the Radiance Foundation, and an adopted child of rape; and Rev. Dr. Matthew Harrison, president of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

“It’s our pleasure to join the diverse and growing number of citizens who realize it is irrational to kill babies just because they have not been born," Harrison wrote in an email. “We defend the right of every American to speak and act publicly to protest injustice. The most profound right guaranteed in the founding documents of our nation is life itself.”

The official theme of this year's march is “Unique from Day One: Pro-Life is Pro-Science.”

“Science proves that embryonic humans are unique individuals, each deserving full protection of the law,” Rita Lowery Gitchell, former president of the National Lawyers Association and Thomas More Society special counsel, said in a statement.

“Today there are observable scientific facts known about differences in the behavior and composition of individual cells in human embryos prior to the 8-cell stage of development and prior to implantation in the womb. As human beings, human embryos are protected under the 13th Amendment. These human embryos are human lives at an identifiable stage of human development with full potential until death—not potential life, as some have erroneously reported.”

Other speakers scheduled for Sunday are Kevin Grillot, vice president of March for Life Chicago; Right Rev. Paul (Gassios), bishop of Chicago and the Midwest, Orthodox Church in America; Aid for Women; Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life; and weDignify.

The national March for Life will take place just a few days later, on Jan. 18, in Washington, D.C. The national March was first held on Jan. 22, 1974, the one-year anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.