Anti-abortion advocates descended on the US capital today for an annual march expected to draw the largest crowd in years, with the White House spotlighting the cause and throwing its weight behind the campaign.
"The #MarchForLife is so important. To all of you marching -- you have my full support!" President Donald Trump tweeted as thousands streamed onto the National Mall, within view of the White House.
The 44th annual anti-abortion march, billed as the world's largest "pro-life" rally, drew participants from all corners of the country exactly one week after Trump's inauguration.
"The unborn babies don't have a voice and someone has to stand up for what's right," said Katelyn Goodwin, 17, a high school student from Birmingham, Alabama who came to the march with her church youth group.
"If just one mother contemplating abortion will change her mind because of this march, then we've done something good," Goodwin said, waving a life-sized cardboard cutout of the pope.
The crowd -- which included many school groups -- toted signs that said "I am the pro-life generation," "Defund Planned Parenthood" and "Babies can feel joy in the womb."
Trump has already cheered abortion foes just days into his presidency. On Monday, he signed a decree barring US federal funding for foreign NGOs that support abortion services.
Next Thursday, he is expected to announce his choice to fill an empty seat on the Supreme Court, a nominee who is widely expected to staunchly oppose abortion rights.
Though Vice President Mike Pence and Trump's influential senior aide Kellyanne Conway are scheduled to speak at the rally, most participants were not particularly political but rather driven by their strong anti-abortion beliefs.
"I think people that normally just sat back and said, 'Yeah, I'm pro-life' are beginning to act on it a little more and be more vocal," Annette Vaske, a Catholic high school teacher from Algona, Iowa, said of the impact of Trump's election.
"They don't feel so threatened and intimidated. I think we just realized that there's more of us than we really think there are."
Several Republican lawmakers, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan and other religious leaders are also scheduled to speak at the rally.
The march will set off from the Washington Memorial and end at the Capitol -- where Republicans hold the majority in both chambers -- but the activists' focus will be on the building opposite Congress: the US Supreme Court.
The march takes place days after the 44th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in 1973.
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