SW News: Tens of thousands of pro-life supporters from across the US thronged the streets of Washington DC in frigid temperatures for the 49th March for Life to defend the right to life from conception until natural death. The march took place on the 49th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade verdict of January 22, 1973. And there's a growing sentiment among demonstrators that this year's march could be the last before Roe is overturned.

The march began on the National Mall and ended in front of the United States Supreme Court on Constitution Avenue. "We hope and pray that this year, 2022, will bring historic change for life," Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life, the event's organizer, told attendees at a pre-march gathering. Katie Shaw, a Down syndrome life advocate, and Fr. Mike Schmitz, producer of the popular podcast "The Bible in a Year," were among the speakers at the protest.

Msgr. William Lori, Archbishop of Baltimore and Chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, also expressed his support for the pro-life rally. "The Catholic Church's objection to abortion is a compassionate response to both mothers and their children in the womb," he said in a statement.

This year's commemoration occurred while the nation awaits the Supreme Court's decision on the constitutionality of the Mississippi abortion law, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. The Mississippi Gestational Age Act restricts elective abortion beyond 15 weeks of pregnancy, and it is a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade which established abortion as lawful throughout the nine months of pregnancy as the default law in every state.

Roe vs. Wade was a 1973 court case in which the United States Supreme Court decided that a pregnant woman's right to choose abortion until she is 22 or 24 weeks pregnant when the fetus becomes viable was protected by the Constitution.