Thousands of people flooded to Washington, D.C., on Saturday to participate in the March for Our Lives. The protest was organized in the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., and primarily advocated that the life of children is more important than the ability to own a gun.

However, were participants and organizers of the event truly concerned about the lives of children? In an effort to answer that question, let me tell you about another hypothetical march:

Thousands of people have discovered that approximately 1,820 children will be killed in the United States today. These children are defenseless, and it seems that their murders are justified by politicians and political groups across the country. Therefore, a group of young students rise up, gain the attention of the media, and encourage thousands to flock to Washington, D.C., to march for these innocent lives.

After descending upon Washington, the marchers begin to tell stories in an effort to evoke change. They speak about the children that were killed simply because they had mental disorders, or because their parents thought they already had too many kids. They talk about the scared single mothers who decided to kill their children because they did not want to be parenting alone.

The marchers point to the legislation that allows for such murder and the money that flows in support of it. They then begin to condemn the murderers and demand that the weapons used for this mass destruction be made illegal.

Maybe you are confused, assuming that the hypothetical march I depicted is simply the detailed account of the March for Our Lives. After all, the details do sound astoundingly similar. However, most of you probably started to catch on that the motivation for the event I described is to end abortion in the United States. Both use eerily similar rhetoric and actions.

We could argue all day long about gun rights, legislation, and whether or not banning guns would actually end school shootings. However, the question still stands: Were the participants and organizers of the March for Our Lives actually concerned about the lives of all children?

I think the answer would have to be no.

School shootings are certainly horrific events, and we should all be concerned for children across the country. However, how can something be called “pro-child” if it ignores the slaughter of thousands upon thousands of helpless children? Or if it is funded by Planned Parenthood?

In the March for Our Lives, thousands of lost lives are being ignored, and that is inexcusable.

Photo credit: Lorie Shaull via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0