Approximately 7,000 people marched through London at the annual March for Life event, keen to proclaim the value of human life, filling Parliament Square with a family friendly event. 

Parliament square is a fitting location for 40 Days for Life, outside a Parliament that has recently authorized repression of freedom of thought, freedom of assembly and freedom of speech by introducing a law including national buffer zones, while several leaders had been criminally charged with thoughtcrimes - this is an issue which has attracted widespread international interest, and multiple Orwellian analogies.

It is still at the time of writing not clear when such a law including thoughtcrimes will be brought into practice in the United Kingdom as the law has still not been implemented. Thoughtcrimes are unprecedented in British legal history and the implementation of buffer zones in the United Kingdom will not happen without considerable debate, discussion, controversy and an opportunity to evangelize the entire country about abortion.

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, local 40 Days for Life leader, spoke about her experience of being arrested outside an abortion centre and about the state of the pro-life movement in the UK. 

In the morning, a festival at the Emmanuel centre engaged people from all ages from children to adults. Religious leaders from all denominations attended.

The day was an opportunity for the pro-life movement to unite with many different organisations present under the same banner. The event has been happening for nearly 10 years now. This year there was a particular theme on apologetics with Scott Klusendorf speaking about how to make the pro-life case coherent and logical with dialogue and discussion.

A small congregation of protestors gathered to oppose the event from the pro-abortion lobby with pro-abortion chants and banners.

40 Days for Life was represented with Hungarian leaders travelling especially to the event, after the Budapest March for Life in June, and from leaders across the United Kingdom. Despite a national train strike, 40 Days for Life leaders attended from all around the country, from Scotland to Southampton. 

The event also provided an opportunity to connect, empower, inspire, attract and educate many new volunteers, new prospective leaders by speaking to hundreds of people during the festival prior to the March, this represented the grassroots of the pro-life movement at its best - an opportunity to reach new people, grow numbers and empower a new generation. 40 Days for Life spoke to hundreds of leaders and volunteers, inviting them to participate in the Autumn campaign in the midst of challenges over the freedom of speech, assembly and thought. 

The inspiring sunny day was a wonderful opportunity for evangelization and witness, full of hope for a better future for what God can do in and through believers through the power of personal belief.