The 2017 March for Life is scheduled to take place on Friday, January 27, and hundreds of thousands of people from across the U.S. are expected to attend.According to the event’s website, the date for the March was chosen by the National Park Service (NPS). Because the Presidential Inauguration will take place on Friday, January 20, the NPS picked the next possible date for the March, which was the following Friday.
The theme for this year’s march is “The Power of One” and is intended to encourage every man, woman and child on earth to do whatever they can to protect life.
“One person can make a difference in the world, whether in the life of one person or many,” the site explains. “Sadly, in the U.S. alone, 1 million babies are not even given the opportunity to live and change the world each year. Building a culture of life and ending abortion takes each and every person. Starting with your family or neighborhood, our collective efforts will change hearts and minds, save lives, and build a culture of life.”
This theme will be elaborated upon during the March for Life Conference, which will be held from 9:00 a.m. until noon on Thursday, January 26, at the Renaissance Washington DC Downtown Hotel. The conference is designed to provide marchers with information and training tools to take back to their local communities and use in their fight for life.
Conference presenters include Ryan Bomberger of the Radiance Foundation who will deliver the keynote session at 9:00 a.m. This will be followed at 10:00 a.m. by a Panel Discussion on the pregnancy care movement moderated by Kathryn Jean Lopez, editor-at-large of National Review Online. Panelists include Sylvia Slifko of ICU Mobile, Amy Ford, founder of Embrace Grace, Callie Jett, founder of Talk about Adoption and Dr. Jeff Pauls of the Vitae Foundation. An Advocacy Training session is scheduled for 11:00 a.m.
The March will begin the following day with a Rally on the grounds of the Washington Monument at noon. Speakers for the Rally have yet to be announced. The March will follow at 1:00 p.m.
After the March has been completed, representatives of the Silent No More campaign will be giving testimonies outside of the U.S. Supreme Court at @3:00 p.m. Marchers are encouraged to visit their Representatives or Senators to advocate for life beginning at 3:30.
The day will conclude with the annual Rose Dinner beginning at 6:00 p.m. in the Renaissance Hotel. The keynote speaker will be New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
It is not known if President Donald Trump will make an appearance at the March, but Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life, spoke last month about her hopes that the new president would make good on the four promises he made in a September letter to prolife leaders. He promised to nominate pro-life justices to the Supreme Court; to sign into law the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act which would end late-term abortions nationwide; to defund Planned Parenthood as long as they continue to perform abortions, and; to codify the Hyde Amendment which will permanently protect taxpayers from having to fund abortions.
Mancini said she was “so excited to see what happens with the Supreme Court now” with a new president who could potentially nominate three new justices over the next four years. “You just dream about what that would look like," she said.
The mood for this year’s March is celebratory and full of high hopes as we enter a new era in U.S. government that promises to restore respect for the unborn.
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