WASHINGTON — It wasn’t just the mainstream media that ignored the March for Life — Internet media sources like the Drudge Report ignored it too.

And it wasn’t just the March for Life in Washington they ignored. Jan. 22 was the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion in all nine months of pregnancy. In what may be the great social movement of our time, pro-life Americans protested and attended Masses in cathedrals from coast to coast.

Here are some of the statistics of the day.

While the March for Life Jan. 22 drew an estimated 200,000 to the National Mall in Washington, its ripples were being felt throughout the rest of the country.

On a day that featured pounding rain in Dallas, 9-degree temperatures in Lincoln, Neb., and raw cold in the nation’s capital, the numbers reflected that the pro-life movement is steadily growing.

San Francisco In just three short years, Walk for Life West in San Francisco has grown to a sizable wave. In 2006, 15,000 people took to the streets on the Saturday before the annual Washington march that marks the anniversary of the legalization of abortion in the United States. According to Walk for Life West’s Co-Chairwoman Eva Muntean, this year’s event grew to between 20,000 and 25,000 people.

Via Vigil, program coordinator for the social concerns office for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, which is a co-sponsor of the walk, pointed out that more younger people are attending, and buses are bringing participants from nearby states.

Before the walk, 3,500 people filled St. Mary’s Cathedral. Four bishops joined Archbishop George Neiderauer, who addressed the participants and was present for the walk.

A pro-abortion protester infiltrated the rally holding her sign up. But when one of the speakers was detailing the effects of her abortion, “the sign went down calmly and slowly,” said Muntean. “That person was affected by her story.”

Boston Back in Boston, a rally took place at Faneuil Hall, the 18th-century building where Son of Liberty Samuel Adams spoke out against the injustices the British inflicted on the colonies. Nearly 200 people came to hear speakers like Raymond Flynn, former mayor of Boston and U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. Massachusetts Citizens for Life Executive Director Marie Sturgis said the second annual Respect Life Mass in nearby Arlington on Sunday packed St. Agnes Church, which holds upwards of 700 people.

“There was not a seat to be had,” she said.

Atlanta In Atlanta, another 700 people crowded downtown’s Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for the Mass for the Unborn. Observed archdiocesan pro-life director Mary Boyert, “The church was filled and people were out the doors.”

After Mass, everyone joined the silent walk to the state Capitol nearby, swelling the ranks that included members of Georgia Right to Life to an estimated 4,000 people.

New York In Manhattan, Sister Marie Regina of the Sisters of Life, the coordinator for the archdiocesan respect life office, reported that more than 3,000 people filled St. Patrick’s Cathedral for Sunday’s pro-life Mass celebrated by Cardinal Edward Egan and sponsored by the state’s Knights of Columbus. Other observances happened in many parishes, including a two-county event upstate.

Detroit In the Detroit Archdiocese, different parish events included 60 people taking part in the Dearborn Right to Life-sponsored prayer vigil at St. Barbara Church in Dearborn, followed by a walk to pray at an abortion business in town. Right to Life-Lifespan hosted a rally at Madonna University in Livonia that drew about 100 people.

Chicago Youth outreach coordinator in the archdiocesan respect life office Mitch Striedl said this year marked the second annual Chicago March for Life that began with Mass at Holy Name Cathedral. Afterwards, nearly 200 people walked to a prayer service at Water Tower Place.

St. Paul and Minneapolis The 20th annual ecumenical prayer service on the anniversary, sponsored through the St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese’s respect life office and led by Archbishop Harry Flynn at the Cathedral of St. Paul, attracted 2,800 pro-life supporters.

The prayer service “set the tone for the day,” said Sonya Flomo in the respect life office. The majority join the walk to the Capitol, “especially now that we have a lot of high school students who participate.”

Phoenix In Phoenix, Bishop Thomas Olmsted presided at a Mass Jan. 20 before 1,000 people at St. Francis Xavier Church. The previous Friday, the bishop spoke at a youth rally at Arizona State University and then led a Eucharistic procession of 300 people up “A” mountain.

According to Michael Phelan, director of the diocesan pro-life office, “The bishop prayed over the city holding the monstrance,” and the procession was followed by prayers for the unborn and for the end of the culture of death, capped by all-night adoration.

Denver In Denver, 800-1,000 people gathered for the annual Respect Life Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. In Las Vegas, about 2,000 people went to Guardian Angel Cathedral in Las Vegas as part of the Nevada Diocese’s weekend for the sanctity of human life.

Florida In the Diocese of St. Augustine, Fla., more than 500 people participated in the March for Life in St. Augustine. Lorraine Allaire, diocesan respect life coordinator, noted the extra significance: “They marched from the Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche, the spot of the first Mass said in the country, to the cathedral-basilica.”

She said another major diocesan event in Jacksonville saw more than 200 families and children standing for life around the federal courthouse.

Farther south in Miami, Kathy Weissinger, program coordinator for the archdiocese’s Sunset respect for life office, reported that “a few hundred” people attended the outdoor Mass celebrated by Bishop John Noonan and the annual Walk for Life around St. John Vianney Seminary to witness to life and raise funds for the area’s crisis pregnancy center.

“We’re beginning to see more and more young people involved in pro-life work,” she said.

Ohio According to Keith Berube, director of the diocesan pro-life office in Columbus, St. Joseph Cathedral was packed for the pro-life Mass celebrated by Bishop Fred Campbell.

Cleveland Right to Life’s Executive Director Molly Smith said this year’s rally downtown drew less than the usual 500 participants because many decided to head to Washington. Still, she said, “we had over 100 students in the bitter cold,” primarily from Catholic schools, but some Evangelical schools “and a fair number of home schoolers support us.”

Many pro-life coordinators in the Northeast admitted their numbers were less because they joined the throng in Washington.

Nebraska In the heartland of Nebraska in the Lincoln Diocese, Father Jeffrey Eickhoff, who heads the pro-life office, said numbers for the Nebraska Right to Life annual Walk for Life by the state Capitol usually reach several thousands, but this year snow and the 9-degree temperature held numbers down to 800.

The night of Jan. 21, “a few hundred” attended the pro-life vigil Mass at St. Mary’s, the old cathedral across from the Capitol, added Greg Schleppenbach, director of pro-life activities for the Nebraska Catholic Conference. Several stayed for the lock-in with all-night adoration. In the morning before the walk, 500-600 people attended the morning Mass. Schleppenbach said he tried “to replicate what goes on in D.C.”

Texas In Texas, events stood out in Austin and Dallas. On Jan. 27, more than 1,500 people filled San Jose Church for Mass celebrated by Archbishop Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston. Joining him were Austin’s Bishop Gregory Aymond. Father Frank Pavone of the Missionaries of the Gospel of Life was also on hand for the day.

According to Ann Bierschenk, the Austin Diocese’s director of pro-life activities, the march and rally that followed drew between 2,000 and 3,000 people.

On Jan. 22 in Dallas, despite ice-slicked roads and freezing rain, about 200 people prayed the Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet in front of the oldest abortion business in the state, then joined others for the annual Roe Memorial Mass, adoration and March for Life. A standing-room only crowd attended Mass celebrated by Dallas Bishop Charles Grahmann at the 1,200-seat cathedral.

Next, a rally took place at the Earl Cabell Federal Building and Court House in Dallas, where the Roe v. Wade case originally was filed in 1970, said Andrew Smith of the Catholic Pro-Life Committee of North Texas.

“We have always felt here very strongly the urge to end it here,” Smith said of the events. “We need to band together to stand witness at the courthouse where God was mocked and the case had its tragic roots.”

California Numbers were high at Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in Los Angeles, too. Msgr. Timothy O’Connell, director of the archdiocese’s Commission for Catholic Life Issues, said more than 3,000 people attended the archdiocese’s Requiem for the Unborn, a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Roger Mahony.

The events in San Diego summed up the signs of hope across the country. On Jan. 20, immediately after people prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet outside an abortion business, Bishop Salvatore Cordileone led a holy hour for the culture of life at Our Lady of the Rosary Church, with adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Gospel, homily, Rosary and Benediction.

Coordinator Sue Lopez said, “For the holy hour and especially for the prayers at the mill, we had new faces. … Different people are getting reached in different parishes.”

That wasn’t all she saw. Something different also happened during the Jan. 22 candlelight prayer vigil attended by more than 100 people at a busy downtown intersection on Harbor Drive.

“We noticed one thing that was incredible,” said Lopez. “We had overwhelming positive responses from the public.”

Said Dolores Meehan, co-founder of the Walk for Life West Coast, “It really feels like a movement out here now.”

Staff writer Joseph Pronechen

writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.