---
title: '"Right to Life" demonstration, at White House and Capitol'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/right-to-life-abortion-is-murder-1978/
description: Marchers on the fifth anniversary of Roe v. Wade carry hand-lettered signs reading "Abortion is murder / Save my life / I want to live", with a fetal…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[!["Right to Life" demonstration, at White House and Capitol](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/right-to-life-abortion-is-murder-1978.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/right-to-life-abortion-is-murder-1978.jpg)

# "Right to Life" demonstration, at White House and Capitol

Marchers on the fifth anniversary of Roe v. Wade carry hand-lettered signs reading "Abortion is murder / Save my life / I want to live", with a fetal photograph captioned "Life" and "Death", and "Abortion clinics breed death". The signs speak in the first person for the fetus and set the movement's key word, life, against death. The march itself is open, attributed advocacy; the glittering-generalities tag refers to the slogan wording, which states the movement's moral conclusion rather than a testable claim.

- **Date:** January 23, 1978
- **Period:** [Cold War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=cold-war)
- **Made by:** Anti-abortion demonstrators at the annual March for Life, Washington, D.C.
- **Region:** [North America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=north-america)
- **Country:** [United States](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-states)
- **Medium:** [Photograph](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=photograph)
- **Issuer type:** [Movement](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=movement)
- **Regime:** [Carter Administration](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=carter-administration)
- **Leader:** [Jimmy Carter](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=jimmy-carter)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Themes:** [Health](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=health), [Elections and party politics](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=elections-party-politics)
- **Event:** [March for Life](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=march-for-life)
- **Techniques:** [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2016646416/), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (USN&WR photo collection; LoC: No known restrictions on publication) Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
ABORTION IS
MURDER
SAVE MY
LIFE
I WANT TO LIVE

[photo captions on the same sign:] Life   Death

ABORTION
CLINICS
BREED
DEATH

AMERICA
PROTECTS
EVERYTHING
[illegible]
BABIES
```

Crowd photo with dozens of hand-lettered signs; only the largest, clearest, unobstructed ones are transcribed. Several more are visible (e.g. 'Connecticut Right to Life', a cross symbol, a partly-legible sign about the unborn, a flag reading '...DOPT' with an adoption symbol) but are too small, angled, or hidden behind other signs to transcribe reliably, and are omitted rather than guessed. The 'AMERICA PROTECTS EVERYTHING...BABIES' sign has one word obscured by a sign in front of it.

[← We asked four leading crooks for their opinion on gun control](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/four-leading-crooks-gun-control-1977/) [Payam: Ay Iraniyan (Message: O Iranians): Iraqi armed forces notice with image of Imam Ali →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/iraq-notice-to-iranians-imam-ali-1980/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Gold solidus of Constantine I, reverse RESTITVTORI LIBERTATIS](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-constantine-i-restitutori-libertatis-0313/) (0313 · Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Trois Tetes sous l'meme bonnet (three heads under the same cap)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/trois-tetes-sous-le-meme-bonnet-1789/) (1789 · Plain folks, Glittering generalities)
- [Proclamation by the Queen in Council, to the Princes, Chiefs, and People of India (printed sheet, Allahabad, 1 November 1858)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/queens-proclamation-to-the-people-of-india-1858/) (Nov 1, 1858 · Glittering generalities, Scapegoating)
- [The Great Battle of Ansong Ford: The Valor of Captain Matsuzaki](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ansong-ford-toshikata-1894/) (1894 · Glittering generalities)
- ['The Congress Cross or "Swastik"' (Pickings from the Hindi Punch, Bombay, February 1896)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hindi-punch-congress-swastik-1896/) (Feb 1896 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Un combate en el río Zapote (A Fight on the Zapote River), Blanco y Negro](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/un-combate-en-el-rio-zapote-1898/) (Jul 9, 1898 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)