Mike Pence First Vice President to Address March for Life

Vice President Mike Pence will address the tens of thousands of participants of the 2017 March for Life, the first United States vice president to do so.

Pence will speak to pro-life activists Friday morning, January 27, during the rally on the National Mall prior to the march, reports the New York Times. President Donald Trump’s counselor, Kellyanne Conway, is also headlining the list of speakers.

“We’re going to have heavy administration presence there,” confirmed White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Tuesday. “It’s no secret that this administration and this president will do what they can to fight for life.”

March for Life President Jeanne Mancini said that while members of her organization do not keep track of the exact number of participants in the march each year, “the number most important for us is 58 million, which is the number of Americans that have been lost to abortion.”

Mancini added that many women – disturbed by the pro-abortion march held in Washington, D.C., last weekend – have been contacting her office. Though the event was called a “Women’s” Rights march, pro-life women who attempted to join in were turned away.

“We are hearing from a lot of women who felt like their voices weren’t represented last weekend,” said Mancini, who said she called in volunteers to handle more registrations for the March for Life.

Trump had the following exchange with David Muir at ABC News during an interview:

“The crowds were large, but you’re going to have a large crowd on Friday too, which is mostly pro-life people,” Trump said, previewing the March for Life. “You’re gonna have a lot of people coming on Friday, and I will say this, and I didn’t realize this, but I was told, you will have a very large crowd of people. I don’t know – as large or larger – some people say it’s gonna be larger. Pro-life people. And they say the press doesn’t cover them.”

“I don’t want to compare crowd sizes again,” Muir began.

“What they do say is that the press doesn’t cover them,” Trump said.

A coalition of 25 pro-life organizations and two members of Congress have challenged the major networks to cover the March for Life (#CoverTheMarch).

Media Research Center conducted a study of media coverage of the Women’s March. Results show the major networks – ABC, CBS, and NBC – spent about 1.25 hours on that event last weekend, while they spent only 35 seconds on the 2016 March for Life.