I don’t know anyone in America who didn’t watch TV last week. And because it has always been my childhood dream to show up on national television, I decided to head to D.C. and try my luck. My first day there, I happened to experience something really historic in the National Mall, in front of the Capitol Building – but it wasn’t on Tuesday.

It was on Thursday, when more than 300,000 people took time off of school and work to stand up for something they truly believed in: the defense of life at its most basic form in the March for Life. Some of those 300,000 people have been coming to D.C. every year for the last 36 years, since the day Roe vs. Wade was passed. Dozens of congressman, senators, rabbis, ministers, bishops, cardinals, secular leaders and even former abortionists inspired those assembled with touching messages, phenomenal musical performances and radical posters.

Hoping to fulfill my childhood dream, I joined this crowd and marched on the front lines of what I thought was going to be a shortcut to my well-awaited 15 minutes of fame. I eagerly approached every news anchor and journalist I could find, but unfortunately, I couldn’t find any way of legally getting on camera.

The only highly circulated newspaper that ran a cover story of this newsworthy gathering was the USA Today, Gannett Co., and they didn’t do the March justice. There was also a short paragraph about the anti-abortionists on page 26 of the The Washington Post, The Washington Post Co.. I was outraged. How can the popular media so blatantly ignore such a significant event?

I didn’t really have an opinion about abortion until I witnessed this rally. The devotion of such a sincere group of peaceful pacifists really made me think. People on both sides of this controversy have always seemed to feel like it was part of their civic duty to alienate anyone who disagreed with them. But the more time I spent with them, I realized that their efforts are pointless if their preferred method of evangelization is to propagandize. That night, I went home and thought about this issue that divides friends.

I obviously encountered extremely controversial exchanges about abortion but found almost every notable gynecologist claiming that they have encountered countless individuals whose lives have been irreparably harmed by the procedure involving the elimination of life. Abortion is not just the removal of a clump of useless cells, and it always results in the prevention of birth. It denies people like you and me from the most fundamental right to life. If our Constitution allows those responsible for the death of a pregnant mother to be charged with two counts of murder, why doesn’t it protect the lives of those who have no one to speak up for them?

I think that the consensus of a great deal of neonatologists and embryologists who acknowledge the existence of life from fertilization convinces me that I should be grateful that my parents didn’t decide to consider that me or any of my siblings were disposable clusters of cells. If the Freedom of Choice Act passes, instead of supporting infrastructure or economic development, our tax dollars would go to funding partial-birth abortions throughout the world without so much as parental consent.

In America, we have safe havens where infants can be “left” if their parents don’t want them. Having no excuse for preventing the entry of innocent life into this world, we shouldn’t let mere convenience dictate the future of our nation.

Ireland is the only country where abortion is illegal in all forms. And it’s kind of ironic how they are also the only European country that is not experiencing a shortage of youth entering the workforce, statistically significant “drops in creativity,” and even lower economic productivity.

Last Thursday, thousands of people united, despite diversity of religions, political allegiances and social backgrounds, to express solidarity in the common cause of life. President Obama said, “Nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.”

Let’s use our voices to defend those who don’t have one.