(LifeSiteNews) — The fifth annual California March for Life featured prayers in front of a Planned Parenthood business, a spirited rally with pro-life speakers, and thousands of sign-waving advocates for unborn babies marching around Capitol Park in Sacramento.

The March 31 event was hosted by California Family Council (CFC) and the national March for Life, which has held the world’s largest pro-life march in Washington, D.C., every January since 1974.

Monday’s event began with a breakfast for Christian church pastors who traveled to Sacramento from across California. Next up was the Love Life Prayer Walk to the Planned Parenthood clinic located near the State Capitol.

Love Life was founded in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2016 and today holds regular prayer walks outside abortion centers across the country. Nearly 200 people gathered in front of the Planned Parenthood facility, which was closed thanks to Cesar Chavez Day.

READ: Cesar Chavez Day commemorations should highlight the labor leader’s Catholic faith

The Love Life team led attendees in intercessory prayer for everyone involved in the abortion industry and asked God to “raise up the next Abby Johnson,” referring to the former Planned Parenthood worker who is now a leader in the pro-life movement. Prayers were offered also for the conversion of California’s radically pro-abortion Governor Gavin Newsom.

A popular hand-held sign at the march read “Defund Planned Parenthood”, and President Donald Trump and Republican congressional leaders are moving in that direction. Trump has frozen nearly $30 million in federal funding to the organization while his administration reviews its compliance with existing immigration laws and his new anti-DEI directives. Trump has also promised to “look into” the illegal sale of aborted baby body parts by Planned Parenthood.

After the prayer walk, Concerned Women for America and California Will be Saved led a praise and worship concert on the West Steps of the Capitol. Some attendees waved their arms to the uplifting music while others browsed the 20 or so information booths set up by a range of pro-life groups.

The speeches began at noon with Jackie Turner, the campus minister at Acres of Hope, a residential facility for homeless mothers and their children. She told the crowd that the non-profit organization provides a vital alternative to abortion for pregnant women “who need a home for those babies when they come into the world.”

“At Acres of Hope, when Mom comes home with her baby, she comes home to a Welcome Home sign on the front gate,” Turner said. “She comes home to other mothers cheering for her. She comes home with a key to turn the lock to open the door to her home, and she places her baby in the bassinette.”

Acres of Hope recognizes that telling homeless pregnant women “to be warm and well-fed but to offer them no hope, and to take no action … only leads them to doors we were hoping they wouldn’t go through,” said Turner, gesturing in the direction of the Planned Parenthood clinic.

CFC Outreach Director Sophia Lorey then called directors and staff members from six pro-life pregnancy centers in both Northern and Southern California to the stage. She said that in 2022 alone, the state’s pregnancy centers provided 40,545 pregnancy tests and 33,073 ultrasounds. The centers also distributed 329,000 packs of diapers, 207,000 baby outfits, and 12,000 containers of baby formula.

All goods and services were provided at no charge, a fact Lorey called “proof that the pro-life movement is driven by compassion in action.”

Melissa Ohden, founder and CEO of The Abortion Survivors Network, was the keynote speaker. Ohden survived a saline infusion abortion in 1977 at 31-weeks gestation and was adopted by a Christian family. She described later meeting the NICU nurse who saved her life as well as her birth mother, Ruth, who as a 19-year-old was forced into seeking an abortion.

“Our society has pitted women like Ruth against babies like me, and we are here today to say, ‘o more. We are not enemies!’,” Ohden said. She added that “much to the chagrin of the abortion industry and their lobby,” there are likely tens of thousands of abortion survivors worldwide. “Each survivor is a reminder to us of the humanity of every preborn child.”

CFC President Jonathan Keller concluded the California March for Life rally by telling attendees they are “on the front lines of the pro-life movement in the United States,” which is “needed more here in California than in any other state.”

Keller acknowledged that some in the audience might be considering moving to conservative states with laws against abortion. “But if the Lord has you here, we need to get down to business. God bless you all, and let’s go march!”

The day’s march around Capitol Park covered 40 acres and 12 city blocks.

Recordings of the speakers at Monday’s march are available at CFC’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Robert Jenkins is a pseudonym for a Catholic writer living in Sacramento, California.