March for Life 2019: Abortion 'greatest injustice in nation'…
"I'm a Christian and I believe that all life matters, including those who are unborn"
WASHINGTON - Thousands of anti-abortion activists, including many young people bundled up against the cold weather gripping the nation's capital, gathered at a stage on the National Mall Friday for their annual march in the long-contentious debate over abortion. Signs reading "Choose love, Choose life," "I am the pro-life generation," and " Defund Planned Parenthood " dotted the crowd gathering under hazy, wintry skies at the morning rally.
The 46th Annual March for Life rally was held on the National Mall in Washington D.C. Friday afternoon, an event to demonstrate objections to the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v Wade decision. Rep. Daniel Lipinski, D-Ill., who is one of the only anti-abortion Democrats in the House, also addressed the morning rally. Ben Shapiro, a popular conservative commentator, was the featured speaker.
Pence and his wife Karen also made a surprise appearance at the Friday rally with a video message from Trump.
He later tweeted about the administration's nomination of conservative judges and allowing "states to defund Planned Parenthood. The first march took place on the west steps of the Capitol in January 1974, the year after the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, which affirmed the constitutional right to access safe, legal abortion.
On the other side, the new Democratic House majority vows to block Trump actions affecting birth control access and abortion services. Nathan Elfrich, 19, and Carolin Quinn, 18, both students from Xavier University, see the annual event as a way to bond with peers. Michael Gladu, 55, an operating room nurse from Gaithersburg, Maryland, said he thinks public opinion is changing and moving in support of the anti-abortion movement "because … the younger generation is seeing this as good. Barry Wood, 67, and his wife Susan, 65, of Richmond, Virginia, were married in 1973, the same year as the Roe v. Wade decision, and have been attending the march almost every year since.