By Denise Smith Amos
The Cincinnati Enquirer

DOWNTOWN - About 300 teenagers from Catholic high schools in the Tristate will board buses downtown Wednesday, ride overnight to Washington, D.C., and participate in the 31st annual national March for Life Thursday afternoon.

Students from Roger Bacon, Elder, La Salle, St. Xavier, McAuley, Badin, McNicholas and Seton high schools will join 400 other Greater Cincinnati residents who plan a caravan to the protest.

The march is expected to draw 150,000 people.

The march will extend from the Washington Monument to the Supreme Court building. This is the 24th year for the large Cincinnati contingent, said Betsy Jacquez, a volunteer coordinator of the march.

At least six buses will begin picking up students at schools at 6 p.m. Wednesday, and transport them to St. Xavier Church, 607 Sycamore St., downtown, where they will attend Mass.

The next day, half of the group will breakfast with members of Ohio's congressional delegation and half will attend a rally and Mass.

Roger Bacon will spend an extra day, visiting the U.S. Holocaust Memorial and other museums and monuments, said Barbara Coyle, the school's community outreach director.

The school held an essay contest and the 44 winners got a seat on the bus.

Lisa Lasita, a junior, wrote: "Abortion would not be a problem if we were all responsible for our own actions."

Anti-abortion advocates aren't alone in recruiting young people to their cause, said Sue Momeyer, president of Planned Parenthood Cincinnati Region.

"We certainly have connected with young people who are on the opposite side of this issue," she said.

E-mail damos@enquirer.com