Last Updated Jan 27, 2017 12:16 PM EST
The March for Life , held each year in Washington to mark the anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, will have one of its biggest-name speakers in years: Vice President Mike Pence.
Tens of thousands of activists will gather today in Washington for the March for Life anti-abortion rally. But for prospective Supreme Court nomi…
Neither a president nor a vice president has ever addressed the march, which is now in its 44th year. One of President Trump \u2019s top advisers, Kellyanne Conway , is also on the speakers\u2019 list.
Conway told the crowd that Mr. Trump and Pence stood with them.
\u201cWe hear you,\u201d Conway said. \u201cWe see you. We respect you, and we look forward to working with you.\u201d
Just before the rally was scheduled to begin, Mr. Trump expressed his support for the event on Twitter.
\u201cThe #MarchForLife is so important,\u201d the president said. \u201cTo all of you marching — you have my full support!\u201d
The #MarchForLife is so important. To all of you marching — you have my full support!
Organizers told the National Park Service in their permit application they expect 50,000 participants. Yet Mr. Trump insisted on the eve of the rally that the crowd would be far larger, saying \u201ca lot of people are gonna be showing up.\u201d
\u201cYou know, the press never gives them the credit that they deserve,\u201d Mr. Trump told Republicans gathered in Philadelphia. \u201cThey\u2019ll have 300, 400, 500, 600 thousand people. You won\u2019t even read about it. When other people show up, you read big-time about it. Right? So, it\u2019s not fair, but nothing fair about the media.\u201d
Abortion-rights opponents gather at the Washington Monument to hear Vice President Mike Pence speak at the March for Life rally on Jan. 27, 2017, in Washington.
One of Mr. Trump\u2019s first official acts after taking office a week ago was to sign an executive order banning U. S. aid to foreign groups that provide abortions.
In Congress, Republican majorities in both chambers are vowing to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood, which provided more than a third of the nation\u2019s abortions in 2014. They also hope to ban most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Mr. Trump has pledged to sign both measures if they reach his desk.
In a suggestion now gone viral, thousands of donations to Planned Parenthood have been made in VP-elect Mike Pence’s name.
Less than a year ago, with President Obama\u2019s second term winding down, things were markedly different. The Supreme Court struck down Texas\u2019 strict regulations on abortion clinics as interfering with a woman\u2019s constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy. And with polls at the time suggesting Hillary Clinton would likely defeat Mr. Trump, abortion opponents worried about an era of liberal majorities on the court.
\u201cThe horizon looked bleak for the pro-life movement,\u201d said Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life.
Mancini suggested that many voters chose Mr. Trump largely because he pledged to appoint a Supreme Court justice who shared their views on abortion, even if they disagreed with him on other issues.
\u201cI don\u2019t identify as a Republican or a Democrat but I do vote pro-life,\u201d Mancini said.
But for federal appeals court Judge William Pryor, outspoken opposition to abortion as Alabama\u2019s attorney general has pushed him to the bottom of Mr. Trump\u2019s shortlist, CBS News chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford reports.
President Donald Trump will announce his Supreme Court justice nominee next week. CBS News’ Jan Crawford discusses the leading contenders.
Sources tell CBS News Pryor\u2019s nomination is unlikely after Senate Republicans warned about a repeat of his 2003 appeals court confirmation fight.
\u201cI believe that not only is the case unsupported by the text and structure of the Constitution, but it has led to a morally wrong result,\u201d Pryor said then. \u201cIt has led to the slaughter of millions of innocent unborn children. That\u2019s my personal belief.\u201d
For two years, Democrats blocked Pryor\u2019s confirmation.
Abortion opponents were heartened by a recent study that found the number of abortions in the United States dropped under 1 million in 2014, the lowest total in 40 years. The report by the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights, credited increased access to birth control but also a surge in abortion restrictions in many states.
Americans remain deeply divided on abortion.
The latest Gallup survey, released last spring, found that 47 percent of Americans described themselves as pro-choice and 46 percent as pro-life. It also found that 79 percent believed abortion should be legal in either some or all circumstances.
Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said that poll shows why abortion-rights supporters shouldn\u2019t despair. She also said Republicans were taking actions that would result in more illegal abortions and deaths of pregnant women.
\u201cThe vast majority of Americans support Roe v. Wade and support the legal right to abortion,\u201d Hogue said.
Friday\u2019s march comes less than a week after one of the largest mass demonstrations in the city\u2019s history, the Women\u2019s March on Washington, which drew more than half a million people opposed to Mr. Trump on issues including abortion.
In America’s capital and in cities across the globe, millions take to the streets in solidarity against the new Trump administration
Mancini said she had planned to participate in the women\u2019s march until organizers dropped an anti-abortion group as an official partner. She said its failure to embrace different views on abortion was a missed opportunity.
The March for Life is usually held on the anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court decision — Jan. 22 — but it was pushed back this year because of Mr. Trump\u2019s inauguration.<\/p>\n

\n

\nSimilarity rank: 13\n<\/div>\n

Sentiment rank: 0<\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n