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Vice President Mike Pence took the stage at the anti-abortion March for Life rally in Washington, DC on Friday. He declared that "life is winning again" following the election of Donald Trump. (Jan. 27) AP
Vice President Pence addresses a rally on the National Mall before the start of the 44th annual March for Life on Jan. 27, 2017. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)
Energized by a White House administration they see as the most sympathetic in decades, and expecting the new president to pick a Supreme Court nominee who shares their views, thousands of demonstrators rallied and marched against abortion in Washington on Friday.
"Life is winning in America," Vice President Pence told a cheering crowd gathered near the Washington Monument.
Pence quoted the Declaration of Independence's guarantee of inalienable rights to "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" and said the U.S. Supreme Court in its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion "turned away from the first of these timeless ideals."
He promised that President Trump would not only end federal funding for abortions and abortion providers, he would name a Supreme Court justice who would "uphold the God-given liberties enshrined in the Constitution."
Pence, the highest-ranking official ever to address the annual event that began 44 years ago, said Trump asked him to appear.
"To all of you marching you have my full support!" Trump tweeted Friday morning.
The #MarchForLife is so important. To all of you marching --- you have my full support!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2017
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway also addressed the crowd, saying that anti-abortion forces had been ignored for too long.
"We hear you, we see you, we respect you and we look forward to working with you," Conway said.
Attendees have high hopes.
"Just like they abolished slavery they should abolish abortion,” said Annette Lancaster, 39, of Burlington, N.C., who said she had once managed a Planned Parenthood center. “It's the most disgusting horrible thing you could ever see."
Anna Geer, 26, from Arlington, Va., said she has been coming to these marches on and off for 18 years and feels more encouraged than she did during the administration of the last Republican president, George W. Bush.
"He wasn't as radical as Trump," Greer said. "We had hope with Bush but he was just your standard Republican president so I don't think this was on his list of priorities."
Planned Parenthood promised to fight back.
“We will not stand by as Vice President Pence tries to impose his radical, dangerous, and highly unpopular agenda on this country," said Dawn Laguens, Executive Vice President of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, in a statement Friday. "Defunding Planned Parenthood will cause a national health care crisis, leaving millions with nowhere to turn for basic reproductive health care, including birth control and cancer screenings."
The crowd at the March for Life included a heavy concentration of students, and many had come from out of state.
Hundreds had bused for 30 hours from the Catholic University of Mary in Bismarck, N.D.
“We support pro-life and we think that abortion needs to be abolished,” said Zach Saffell, a 17-year-old who came with dozens of fellow high school students from Fisher Catholic in Lancaster, Ohio.
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Some of the students from Lancaster carried signs calling for defunding Planned Parenthood.
When asked why he thought it was important, Saffell responded: “We got these for free, but we think it’s important to defund Planned Parenthood because if it’s not funded than it will make it harder for Planned Parenthood to fund abortions.”
Some demonstrators criticized the media for drawing comparisons between the March for Life and last week's mass "Women's March" protests in cities around the country. That theme was also picked up by March for Life President Jeanne Mancini, who told the crowd she had been asked by reporters if she expected as many people.
“The only number I care about, and the number all of us care about, is 58 million,” Mancini said. “Since 1973, 58 million Americans have been lost to abortion. We stand for the little, innocent children who have lost their lives, and we stand for their mothers who regret being involved in abortion. I’d like to address the women in the audience, and watching on TV: Pro-life is pro-woman."
Participants in the March for Life march near the National Mall on Jan. 27, 2017. (Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP)
Trump on Monday signed a presidential memorandum that reinstated and expanded the so-called Mexico City policy, which prohibits U.S. aid from supporting international groups that promote abortion. In addition to applying the ban to funds connected to family planning services, Trump also applied the "gag order" to all "global health assistance" provided by federal agencies. He also included new language barring federal funds from supporting organizations that participate in "coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization."
The Mexico City policy was first imposed by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, but Democratic presidents rescinded it since then, and Republicans reinstated it.
Trump also is expected to nominate a Supreme Court justice next week to succeed the late Antonin Scalia, who had been part of the conservative bloc on the court.
"Here's what's going to happen," Trump said in a 60 Minutes interview in November. "I'm pro-life. The judges will be pro-life."
Some in the anti-abortion movement are skeptical, however, and leaders of a group that staged a pre-rally protest on Friday morning, where about two dozen people laid down in the fetal position on Pennsylvania Avenue near the White House to stage a "die-in." They said they wanted to remind Trump he has to live up to his promises.
“We’re here today because we believe that what our founders said is true, that all humans are created equal in God’s image,” said Seth Drayer of an Ohio group called Created Equal. "Every successful abortion ends in the death of a distinct living full human being."
Ahead of the March for Life on Jan. 27, 2017, demonstrators lie down near the White House in fetal position to protest abortion. (Photo: Herb Jackson, NorthJersey.com)
Congress has already begun moving anti-abortion legislation. On Tuesday, the House approved a bill sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., that would prohibit using subsidies or tax credits provided through the Affordable Care Act to buy health insurance that covers abortion. The bill also would make permanent the Hyde Amendment, which bars direct federal funding for abortion through programs such as Medicaid and federal employees' and veterans health coverage.
Smith, first elected in 1980 and longtime leader of the House Pro-Life Caucus, said the effort in Congress has its most effective, articulate and compassionate backers ever.
"This is the turning point for the right-to-life movement," he said.
He said the House would next take up legislation sponsored by Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., to ban abortion after the fetus is able to feel pain, which advocates say happens 20 weeks after fertilization.
Sen Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, told the rally she would introduce a bill Monday to end funding for Planned Parenthood and redirect the money to be used at other women’s health care programs.
But a poll by Quinnipiac University released Friday found that when abortion was not mentioned, only 32% of respondents supported eliminating funding compared with 62% opposed. And when the question includes a mention that the organization provides non-abortion health services, just 12% favor a cut-off and 80% are opposed.
The proposed bills were considered in past Congresses, but they are expected to get more attention now with Trump in the White House, and with leaders of both chambers issuing statements praising the protesters.
"To all those marching today, know that we hear your words and we join your call for a nation that respects the dignity of every life," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said that leaders of both chambers "march with you."
"This is truly a new dawn for the unborn and for those women and men who defend them," Ryan said.
Contributing: Eliza Collins; Taylor Goebel and David Jordan of Medill __news Service
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