March for Life (Washington, D.C.)

March for Life

The start of the 2009 March
Date	Every year since January 22, 1974 (1974-01-22) (anniversary of Roe v. Wade)
Location	Washington, D.C.
Website	www.marchforlife.org

The March for Life is an annual rally protesting abortion, held in Washington, D.C., on or around the anniversary of the United States Supreme Court's decision legalizing abortion in the case Roe v. Wade. The march, whose stated mission is "to provide all Americans with a place to testify to the beauty of life and the dignity of each human person", advocates in overturning Roe v. Wade. It is organized by the March for Life Education and Defense Fund.

The 44th march was held on January 27, 2017 instead of the usual January 22, a week following the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

The first March for Life, which was founded by Nellie Gray, was held on January 22, 1974, on the West Steps of the Capitol, with an estimated 20,000 supporters in attendance. The march was originally intended to be a one-time event, in hopes that the United States Supreme Court would reverse Roe v. Wade immediately a year after its ruling. However, after the first march in 1974, Gray took steps to institute the rally as a yearly event until Roe v. Wade was overturned by incorporating more grassroots pro-life activists into the march which would later be officially recognized as a nonprofit organization the same year.

During the 33rd annual March for Life in 2006, the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court caused a major positive shift, because of the expectation that Alito would "win Senate approval and join a majority in overturning Roe." Around the time of the 35th annual March for Life in 2008, a Guttmacher Institute report was released, which revealed that the number of abortions performed in the United States dropped to 1.2 million in 2005. This was the lowest level of abortions since 1976. Although this seemed like a victory, many march participants stressed that the figures were not a large enough decline. Many marchers said they would not stop protesting until abortions were illegal.