The rally takes place every year on the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which granted federal protections to the practice of abortion in the United States. In June 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe in a new ruling, which returned the right to regulate abortions to state governments.
"Today, thousands of passionate Americans will come together in our nation’s capital for the March for Life. Equality begins in the womb, and I will continue to fight for the right to life until every unborn child is protected," US Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, Chair of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus, said on Friday.
Earlier this month, the new Republican-led US House of Representatives also passed the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which requires doctors to provide the same care to infants who survive an abortion as would be offered to any other infant born prematurely.
Pro-abortion members of Congress have attempted to secure federal protections for those who receive or provide abortions in the months since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe, with President Joe Biden vowing to sign any such legislation that makes it to his desk.
However, Biden said in November that he does not expect the new Congress to have the votes to codify federal protections for abortions in the style of Roe.