On Jan. 25, six students from Naperville Central High School traveled to Washington D.C. to participate in the March for Life, an annual march that peacefully protests the “Roe v. Wade” supreme court decision of 1973 that legalized abortion nationwide.

The march was held on Friday, Jan. 27, five days after the anniversary of “Roe v. Wade.” It began with a pep rally, which started at noon. The march began at 1 p.m. on Constitution Avenue and ended approximately two hours later outside the U.S. Supreme Court.  Roughly 600,000 people attend the march every year.

Sophomore Michael Amberg went on the trip in 2016, but didn’t take part in the march due to a heavy snowstorm.

“It was sad, because we only got to be [in D.C.] for one day, and it was a long drive,” Amberg said.

However, to Amberg, the best part of the trip was the pep rally.

“At certain times, you feel like, ‘Oh, am I the only one who believes this?’ and if you go there, you can see that there are a couple hundred people who are right on the same page as you, which is awesome,” Amberg said.

Sophomore Emilie Mineo also went on the 2016 trip, and she enjoyed it, even though she didn’t get to march.

“It was still really fun,” Mineo said. “I thought the pep rally was really cool. [There was] a lot of energy, and everyone was getting pumped for the march.”

Amberg and Mineo spent the morning of the rally at a mass at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The students traveling this year will attend a Mass for Life at the same location.

“My sisters, who have been [to the marches] a lot more, would sometimes not sit in the mass [due to the amount of people],” Amberg said. “It’s a really cool experience and all, but a lot of times, there’s too many people there.”

This year, the theme of the march centered on The Power of One, or, according to the March for Life website, the proof that “one person can make a difference in the world, whether in the life of one person or many.”

Senior Joanna McCormack and sophomore Marina McCormack went to the march for the first time this year. Marina McCormack also went to the Chicago March for Life, which is smaller than the one in Washington D.C.

“[The Chicago March] is a lot like the march [in Washington],” Marina McCormack said. “We just went to downtown Chicago, and there was a bunch of speakers, some with their own personal experiences on why they’re [anti-abortion]. There were other speakers who were explaining what the point of all this is. There were some congressmen.”

Both of the McCormack sisters were looking forward to the march as a way to express their beliefs.

“The biggest thing for me is representing the people who aren’t represented,” Marina McCormack said. “To me, unborn babies are still people, and they deserve the same rights that [all] people [have].”

Both believe that abortion is not a good choice for women to make.

“We’re not against women in any way,” Joanna McCormack said. “Even if they say that holding a baby in the womb is going to ruin their chances to live a normal life, if that’s not what they were going for, if it was an accident, the traumas that come with abortion will actually hurt them more.”

The sisters acknowledge that although this was what they were raised to believe, they would never change their belief.

“We’re from a big family and believe in the importance of life,” Joanna Mccormack said. “We’re [anti-abortion] because of my family, but I wouldn’t change my opinion at all.”