NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/life-is-winning-highlights-from-the-2017-march-for-life Jan. 30, 2017 ‘Life Is Winning’: Highlights From the 2017 March for Life NEWS ANALYSIS: The 44th annual event in Washington, D.C., drew hundreds of thousands of peaceful pro-life supporters — and for the first time was attended by the vice president. Matthew Bunson Extract: After more than four decades of marching and gathering across the nation to protest the catastrophic 1973 Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade, the pro-life movement witnessed something unprecedented on Jan. 27 during the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C.
For the first time, the sitting vice president of the United States took part, brought the best wishes of the president and delivered a speech pledging the new administration’s commitment to the cause.
Vice President Mike Pence electrified the hundreds of thousands in attendance who stood beneath the shadow of the iconic Washington monument and largely filled the National Mall. The appearance of the vice president was the strongest evidence imaginable of the sense of optimism and renewed energy that surround the pro-life movement. And the marches for life held across the country, from San Francisco and Los Angeles, and everywhere in between, to the nations’ capital drew some of the largest and most enthusiastic crowds ever seen. An estimated half million people took part in the annual march in D.C. that had as its theme this year “The Power of One.”
The 2016 presidential election left the pro-life cause in an unanticipated place. Not only are both Houses of Congress under the control of pro-life leaders, but the White House also is occupied by a new president in Donald Trump, who signed a pledge to support life. It is an historic moment, as many pro-life leaders have noted, and there is a sense of momentum that much can and must be accomplished over the next two years. Trump and Congress gave the marchers in D.C. additional hope in his first week, with executive orders that began to dismantle the Affordable Care Act that had included the infamous HHS mandate (requiring businesses and religious organizations, including the Little Sisters of the Poor, to provide employees with contraceptives, sterilization and abortion inducing drugs); restore the Mexico City Policy that blocks foreign aid from being used to fund organizations that promote or perform abortions worldwide; and passage in the House of Representatives of a permanent version of the Hyde Amendment that prevents tax money to pay for abortions in the United States.