"That shows how the general public do actually recognize that joy when they see us," she said.
Abortion was voted into law in the U.K. on Oct 27, 1967 with the Abortion Act, which took effect April 27 the following year. Since then, millions of legal abortions have taken place in the UK. According to official statistics, 184,571 abortions took place in England and Wales in 2014 alone.
"The fruits of this event are very real," said Paschal Uche, a seminarian at St. Mary's College, Oscott. He was one of the emcees for the March for Life.
"It's really at the heart of what it means to be a Catholic," Uche told CNA. "Jesus came that we might have life, and life to the full. At it's very basic level that means the right to life for every person."
Pro-life work such as the March for Life renews his sense of vocation, he said.
"We stand for life," he said.
"Personally knowing two girls who have gone for abortions, I know something of the pain of what the opposite (side) says, and we will never really know the pain of what the unborn baby feels."
Toby Duckworth, a newly accepted seminarian for the Archdiocese of Birmingham, also served as an emcee.
"The March for Life is a way of witnessing to my belief in life, and in the sacredness of that," Duckworth said. He voiced hope that people will come to share that belief and join in.
Archbishop Longley was unable to attend this year's March for Life due to another commitment.
He said he hoped that the marchers' witness would "touch people so that people think" and come to feel "the rightness of speaking in defense of life" within Birmingham and beyond.