Rain and cloudy skies didn’t stop hundreds of Ohioans from attending the fifth annual Ohio March for Life in Columbus Friday.
Faithful from dioceses across the Buckeye State gathered at the Ohio Statehouse for a concert, rally and march downtown at noon.
The day began earlier that morning with a Mass for Life held at Columbus St. Joseph Cathedral, located a couple of blocks from the statehouse. Celebrants included Bishop Earl Fernandes, Bishop Daniel Thomas of Toledo and Archbishop Robert Casey of Cincinnati, who preached at the Mass.
“It is shocking that one in four women have had an abortion by the age of 45 in the United States, and the abortion numbers in Ohio continue to grow,” said Mary Kristof, associate director for the diocese’s Office of Pro-Life Ministries.
“Celebrating the Mass for Life with bishops and lay people from across the state is a light in the darkness, bringing joy and renewed vigor for the prolife movement.”
The standing-room-only cathedral was filled with students from various Catholic schools, families and individuals ranging from infants to the elderly. The weather didn’t prevent them from demonstrating unwavering support for life from conception until natural death.
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Students traveled from Columbus St. Charles Preparatory School, Bishop Watterson, Bishop Hartley, Bishop Ready, Bishop Rosecrans and Cristo Rey Columbus high schools and Chesterton Academy of St. Benedict.
Students from Dublin St. Brigid of Kildare youth group, Worthington St. Michael the Archangel and Columbus Immaculate Conception and Hilliard St. Brendan the Navigator schools participated.
From outside of central Ohio, schools included Akron Archbishop Hoban High School; Sidney Lehman Catholic and Bishop Fenwick, near Middletown, located in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati; and Findlay St. Michael School and St. Michael the Archangel Chesterton Academy, part of the Diocese of Toledo.
Archbishop Casey, in his homily, reminded the congregation that, at the first moments of creation, God created life and declared it “good” (Genesis 1).
“So easily some of our brothers and sisters can fall prey to thinking that some life is not good and not worthy, their hearts growing sour as they view life in this world as something rancid and disposable,” the archbishop said.
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He encouraged the faithful to change the hearts and minds of their brothers and sisters akin to a culture of death.
Arcbishop Casey asked the congregation to accompany individuals who do not share the same beliefs or understanding, and work to guard and preserve the sacred gift of life.
Following Mass, Archbishop Casey and Bishops Fernandes and Thomas joined hundreds of laity, clergy and religious for a pre-march rally outside of the Ohio Statehouse. Several state and U.S. representatives and senators, individuals from pregnancy resource centers and organizations, and prolife advocates spoke.
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Aaron Baer, president at the Center for Christian Virtue located in Columbus, which equips and mobilizes Christians to engage in public policy, shared statistics on abortion in the Buckeye State.
In 2025, he said, a reported 25,135 lives were lost to abortion.
Baer likened many of the deaths to the easy access of mail-order abortion pills, which are accessible without an in-person doctor visit. He estimated the total number of abortions in Ohio–including those not reported–to be considerably higher.
Baer also shared data that an estimated 30,000 lives will end by abortion in 2026.
Many of the abortions are performed on women from outside of Ohio. Carrie Snyder, executive director at Ohio Right to Life, a statewide non-profit educational organization and state affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee, shared statistics that one out of five abortions in Ohio are from women out of state.
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She encouraged the audience to join the fight for the right to life.
The rally was followed by a march through the streets of downtown Columbus. Hundreds carried umbrellas, rosaries and signs, offering a witness to employees in high-rise buildings and construction workers on the streets.
Several seminarians for the Columbus diocese joined for the Mass and march. Charles Schoenlaub, in his second year of seminary, was glad to show support.
“It’s great to be here, just to be a representative of the Church, even though I’m not a priest yet,” he said. “It’s good to be a witness, … that this is a fundamental teaching of the Church that we are supporting.”
Schoenlaub, a parishioner at Junction City St. Patrick Church, part of the Perry Catholic Consortium of parishes, traced his prolife support back to middle school. He said he knew as a child abortion was wrong.
“It just was an inconceivable thought to me,” he said. “I was raised Catholic, always taught murder’s wrong, and then, I hear that people are just okay with killing their children. It’s been something that just deeply affected me, and it’s been something I’ve been very passionate about fighting against.”