Anti-abortion advocates descended on the U.S. capital on Friday for an annual march expected to draw the largest crowd in years, with the White House spotlighting the cause and throwing its weight behind the campaign.

"The #MarchForLife is so important. To all of you marching -- you have my full support!" President Donald Trump tweeted as thousands streamed onto the National Mall, within view of the White House.

The 44th annual anti-abortion march, billed as the world's largest "pro-life" rally, drew participants from all corners of the country exactly one week after Trump's inauguration.

"The unborn babies don't have a voice and someone has to stand up for what's right," said Katelyn Goodwin, 17, a high school student from Birmingham, Alabama who came to the march with her church youth group.

"If just one mother contemplating abortion will change her mind because of this march, then we've done something good," Goodwin said, waving a life-sized cardboard cutout of the pope.

The crowd -- which included many school groups -- toted signs that said "I am the pro-life generation," "Defund Planned Parenthood" and "Babies can feel joy in the womb."

Mike Pence spoke at the rally, becoming the first US vice president to do so, saying it was a "historic moment" for the anti-abortion movement.

"Life is winning again in America," he said to cheers. "That is evident in the election of pro-life majorities in the Congress of the United States of America."

"We've come to a historic moment in the cause of life, and we must meet this moment with respect and compassion for every American."

A former governor of Indiana, Pence is a staunch conservative defender of traditional family values with strong anti-abortion views.

- White House support -

Trump has already cheered abortion foes just days into his presidency. On Monday, he signed a decree barring U.S. federal funding for foreign NGOs that support abortion services.

Next Thursday, he is expected to announce his choice to fill an empty seat on the Supreme Court, a nominee who is widely expected to staunchly oppose abortion rights.

In addition to Pence, Trump's influential senior aide Kellyanne Conway was also scheduled to speak at the rally. However, most participants were not particularly political but rather driven by their strong beliefs.

"I think people that normally just sat back and said, 'Yeah, I'm pro-life' are beginning to act on it a little more and be more vocal," Annette Vaske, a Catholic high school teacher from Algona, Iowa, said of the impact of Trump's election.

"They don't feel so threatened and intimidated. I think we just realized that there's more of us than we really think there are."

The march will set off from the Washington Memorial and end at the Capitol -- where Republicans hold the majority in both chambers -- but the activists' focus will be on the building opposite Congress: the U.S. Supreme Court.

The march takes place days after the 44th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in 1973.

If Trump appoints a second conservative justice to the high court during his tenure, anti-abortion advocates's dream of overturning Roe v. Wade could become reality -- even though seven of 10 Americans oppose scrapping the decision that established the right to an abortion in the first three months of pregnancy, a study by the Pew Research Center found this month.

- Abortion foes -

Meanwhile, abortion opponents are also taking action at the state and local levels, encouraged by the ascent of Pence, Trump's nominee for attorney general Jeff Sessions and other anti-abortion heavyweights.

U.S. states enacted 338 restrictions on abortion between 2010 and 2016, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.

Abortion rights advocates especially oppose Trump's health secretary nominee Tom Price, who as a congressman consistently voted to block access and funding for abortion.

"This looming federal onslaught against a broad spectrum of reproductive health services," the Guttmacher Institute said, "threatens a massive rollback of women's health, rights and autonomy."

Source :Naharnet