The annual March for Life will primarily be held online on Friday, but street closures are still possible, police say.
Drivers should expect rolling street closures Friday in the area of the National Mall, U.S. Capitol and Union Station, D.C. police said. Intermittent closures are possible downtown.
Organizers of the March for Life, the anti-abortion movement’s preeminent annual event, asked their supporters nationwide not to gather in D.C. this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic and political unrest.
Instead, a small group of invited anti-abortion leaders will march on Friday and the event will be livestreamed, March for Life’s president, Jeanne Mancini, announced earlier this month.
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“Since we are in the midst of a pandemic which may be peaking, and in view of the heightened pressures that law enforcement officers and others are currently facing in and around the Capitol, this year’s March for Life will look different,” she said. “The annual rally will take place virtually and we are asking all participants to stay home and to join the March virtually.”
Tim Tebow, the football star, is still scheduled to make a keynote speech at a virtual gala taking place after the downsized march, Mancini said.
Mancini said she looks forward to holding the event in person next year.
Photos: Trump Makes History as First President to Speak at March for Life
The march has been held annually since 1974, one year after the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion across in the United States. Even blizzards in 1987 and 2016 did not force cancellation, although turnouts were smaller than usual.
