Nobody "ordered" anyone. The conservative Catholic parents and youth leaders who organized these things (a minority in our parish) tried to set it up as a social event and induce the kids to attend by peer pressure. Maybe 20% of the kids attended and I imagine many of them were pressured by their parents and did their best to be invisible during the actual protest.
My wife and I both come from ferociously "pro-life" families. Our moms were baby factories in the first years of their marriages and well praised for this by their religious communities. Our kids have lots of aunts and uncles.
During my mom's talks about birth control (gasp!), which began shortly after my last sibling was born, my mom would tell us she fully expected to have nine or more kids when she got married. She made it more than half way to that goal. But somewhere before the moon landing my parents and my wife's parents decided to stop. I think for my dad it was environmental reasons, maybe that "earthrise over the moon" picture taken by the Apollo 8 astronauts was his inspiration. My mom was just tired and wanted to reboot her career. I think my wife's dad, who was already working two jobs, realized he wasn't going to live to see his grandkids if he had to work any harder. My wife's mom, who had mastered motherhood, was itching to go back to school.
My mom's views on abortion changed when she volunteered as a child advocate and crisis counselor for a social services agency and became directly involved with pregnant girls who were the victims of incest, rape, drug and alcohol addictions, or just plain ignorance. She saw the harsh realities.
Within our family my mom was still very much "choose life" (she used to have that license plate frame on her car) but she also made sure in almost a TMI way that we knew all about birth control before we had any reason to care. She also insisted she'd welcome any babies we brought into the family. I think the prospect of more kids in my parent's crowded three bedroom house of perpetual chaos terrified me and my siblings so much that none of us had kids before we were married and able to support them.
I've still got a few in-laws and relatives who are "anti-choice" but the anti-birth control relatives got old and passed on years ago. I believe abortions must be available for both medical reasons and for those who do not share my own religious beliefs. And yes, that might even have included my own minor children. If I just found out that my own kids as teens (they are now adults) had ever showed up at Planned Parenthood seeking birth control, well good for them, it means my wife and I did something right as parents. I might have preferred they'd have talked to us first, but God knows there are plenty of things I never talked to my parents about as a teenager.
The only realistic and least harmful way to prevent abortions is to teach kids about sex and birth control, and to provide excellent social services to kids in bad situations.
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