McClatchy/Bellingham Herald

Noreen Hobson has attended every March for Life anti-abortion rally at the state Capitol in her 37 years of life, except for once when she was giving birth.She was there again Tuesday, leading an estimated 3,000 people to the steps of the Legislative Building as president of the organization founded by her late mother, Kathy McEntee.

…The rally came on the heels of the introduction of Senate Bill 5289, which seeks to require parental notification before a pregnant girl younger than 18 can have an abortion. House Republicans said they are introducing similar legislation.

Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, sponsor of the Senate bill, called the current pro-life movement the “greatest civil rights movement of our time.”

“The defense of innocent, vulnerable, defenseless, unborn children,” he told the pro-life advocates gathered. “They don’t have anyone to speak for them, so we need to speak for them.”

A parental notification proposal passed Padden’s committee last year, but never made it to the Senate floor for a vote. Padden said he is not dissuaded.

“We cannot rest until every innocent human life is protected,” he told the crowd at the rally.