(Headline USA) The largest pro-life rally in the U.S. returned Friday with thousands of expected participants converging on the National Mall in Washington, DC.
Supporters at the 48th annual rally were cautiously optimistic that their top objective—reversing the Supreme Court’s controversial Roe vs. Wade decision—may be within reach.
“My hopes have been dashed many times, but I have never felt like this,” said Joe Pojman, executive director of Texas Alliance for Life.
This year’s annual march arrives as the Supreme Court plans to review at two separate cases out of Mississipi and Texas that pose challenges to the nearly 50-year-old federal policy that universally mandates abortions.
The court has indicated it will consider allowing states to impose tighter restrictions on abortion with a ruling in the coming months—and possibly overturn the landmark 1973 ruling.
The rally, held on the anniversary of the Roe decision, is taking place in amid a COVID-19 surge that is expected to limit turnout at the National Mall, on top of a winter weather threat for the mid-Atlantic that led new Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin to declare a state of emergency this week.
Some abortion opponents posted on the event’s Facebook page that they will not attend because of draconian COVID-19 vaccine mandates for people going to restaurants and other places in the District of Columbia.
Mayor Muriel Bowser recently announced that proof of vaccination and photo identification would both be required.
However, the pandemic has not dampened the optimism of a resurgent movement that sees a new Texas law banning most abortions as a sign of things to come, and who say they are not done fighting for restrictions even if the Supreme Court’s conservative majority rules in their favor later this year.
At least 26 states are in line to further limit abortion access if Roe is weakened or overturned, according to pro-abortion groups.
In December, the court indicated in a major case that it would uphold a Mississippi ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, and allow states to ban abortion even earlier. The Mississippi case directly challenges Roe.
Tanya Britton, a former president of Pro-Life Mississippi, said she is attending a candlelight vigil this weekend in the north Mississippi city of Tupelo, where she lives.
She said if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, she wants the U.S. Constitution and state constitutions to be amended to ban abortion. Such a massive undertaking would take years and would likely to face stiff opposition in many places.
Britton said abortion opponents already provide spiritual and material help to pregnant women, and society needs to help men feel connected to their children.
“Many men have decided, ‘Well, it’s your body, it’s your choice’ and I’m out of here,” Britton said. “We have got to help them to understand their role and responsibilities when it comes to the preborn child and then the child when it is here.”
For months, courts have dealt Texas abortion providers a string of defeats over efforts to block a law that since September has banned abortions once cardiac activity is detected.
Another loss for Texas clinics came Thursday, when the Supreme Court refused to speed up the ongoing challenge over the law, which providers say is now likely to stay in effect for the foreseeable future.
Democrats and abortion providers say that if Roe is toppled, they expect opponents to step up restrictions on access to abortion medication by mail.
“In terms of what the Republicans are planning, I wouldn’t put anything off the table,” said Arizona Democratic state Sen. Rebecca Rios said. “There is almost an excitement, a kind of giddiness within them.”
Mississippi state Sen. Joey Fillingane, a Republican who pushed for the state’s new abortion laws, said he is not able to attend the March For Life in Washington but is pleased that he and two GOP colleagues will be recognized there.
Mississippi has just one abortion clinic, and Fillingane said the state should next target access to abortion-inducing medication.
If Roe were nullified, Fillingane said he expects states to take different approaches to setting their own abortion laws.
“I think that’s the way it should be,” he said. “The laws in California, based on their population and what they want, may be very different than the laws in Mississippi based on what our population feels about the issue of life.”
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
