Thousands of abortion opponents rallied in Washington on Friday for the 50th annual "March for Life," marking a new chapter for a movement that has organized for decades around overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that recognized a women's right to an abortion.
With that ruling now thrown out, March for Life leaders and activists were celebrating their movement's win, pushing for stricter limits on abortion at the state and national level, and praying to change the "hearts and minds" of Americans who support abortion rights.
"We are not yet done," March for Life President Jeanne Mancini said to the crowd, which appeared thinner than the previous year but still spilled across the National Mall.
"We will march until abortion is unthinkable," she said.
Since the end of Roe on June 24, 2022, 12 states have enforced total abortion bans with limited exceptions and abortion is unavailable in two additional states, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights research and advocacy organization.
Rally-goers said they wanted to see abortion banned in every state, at every stage of pregnancy. Some held signs that read, "I demand protection at conception" and "abortion is genocide."
"I believe that, just like we wouldn't want to murder anybody out here, we wouldn't want to see any of these lives hurt or lost," said Rob McNutt, a pastor affiliated with a crisis pregnancy center in Maryland.
"Life begins at conception," said Kathleen Stahl, a 60-year-old nurse from Washington, D.C., who works in maternal and child health.
Stahl and others said that beyond abortion bans, they wanted to see more legislation aimed at getting resources to women struggling with unexpected pregnancies.
"We need to provide healthcare to our mothers, and a lot of our young mothers need more support," Stahl said.
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