WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump vowed to stand with anti-abortion activists Friday as he became the first sitting president to speak at the March for Life, an annual gathering that is one of the movement's highest-profile and most symbolic events.
"Today as president of the United States, I am truly proud to stand with you," he told a crowd of thousands braving the cold on the National Mall. "Unborn children have never had a stronger defender in the White House."
"All of us here today understand an eternal truth: Every child is a precious and sacred gift from God," Trump said. "Together we must protect, cherish and defend the dignity and the sanctity of every human life."
He cited his administration's anti-abortion initiatives, including expanding the Mexico City Policy -- which bans U.S. funding to nongovernmental organizations that offer abortion counseling in foreign countries -- and issuing a rule that bans organizations that receive federal family planning funding from providing referrals for abortion. That rule led Planned Parenthood to drop out of a federal funding program.
Evangelical and conservative Christians remain among Trump's most loyal backers. And the appearance made clear that, as he heads into the 2020 election, Trump is counting on those voters to help get him across the finish line.
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"I think it's a brilliant move," said Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition and one of Trump's most prominent evangelical supporters, of Trump's decision to become the first president to take the event's stage. Reed said the president's appearance would "energize and remind pro-life voters what a great friend this president and administration has been."
Past presidents who opposed abortion, including Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, steered clear of personally attending the march. They sent remarks for others to deliver, spoke by telephone hookup or invited organizers to the White House -- but never appeared at the march.
Peter Wehner, who was a speechwriter for Bush, said in an email that Bush didn't attend in person, because after the Sept. 11 attacks, officials believed his attendance would create a security nightmare for marchers.
Over the past 10 years, however, the Republican Party has displayed a new willingness to "embrace the issue as not only being morally right but politically smart," said Mallory Quigley, a spokeswoman for the Susan B. Anthony List and Women Speak Out PAC, which is planning to spend $52 million this cycle to help elect candidates opposed to abortion rights.
During his first three years in office, Trump has embraced socially conservative policies, particularly on abortion. He's appointed judges who oppose it, cut taxpayer funding and painted Democrats who support abortion rights as extreme in their views.
"President Trump has done more for the pro-life community than any other president, so it is fitting that he would be the first president in history to attend the March for Life on the National Mall," said White House spokesman Judd Deere.
On Friday, his administration took another step, threatening California with the potential loss of federal health care funding over the state's requirement that insurance plans cover abortions.
The federal Health and Human Services Department issued a "notice of violation," giving California 30 days to comply with a federal law known as the Weldon amendment. That law bars federal health care funding from being provided to states or entities that practice "discrimination" against a health care organization on the basis that it "does not provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions."
The head of the Health and Human Services Department's Office for Civil Rights, Roger Severino, said California is violating that restriction by requiring insurance plans to cover abortions. According to Severino, 28,000 Californians had abortion-free plans before the state's requirements and have now lost that option.
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Severino said in a statement that California "must stop forcing people of goodwill to subsidize the taking of human life."
Gov. Gavin Newsom said that by taking away the state's health care funding, Trump would be taking tens of billions of dollars from kids, senior citizens, the poor and the sick.
"And yet you call yourself 'pro-life' realDonaldTrump?" Newsom tweeted. "You sicken me."
However, Severino did not specify which of many streams of federal health care funds amounting to tens of billions of dollars might be in jeopardy for California.
"Our goal is to seek compliance, and we are going to give them 30 days, so we do not have to cross that bridge," said Severino. Other states also could face federal actions.
Meanwhile, Trump's campaign announced the creation of a new campaign coalition, "Pro-life Voices for Trump."
Trump's thinking on the matter has been simple: If he supports the cause, "why wouldn't he show up to their big event?" said Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union and a close ally of the White House. He said the president's appearance is deeply significant for participants and will "cement even tighter the relationship" Trump has with conservative activists across the country.
March attendees began streaming onto the Mall early Friday, many holding signs with slogans like "Make unborn babies great again!" and "I vote pro-life first."
The Secret Service banned many items that attendees might normally carry: backpacks, food or drink coolers, glass or thermal containers, selfie sticks, balloons, and banners more than 20 feet long and 3 feet high. The line to get through the security checkpoint grew so packed by noon that hundreds of people could not get into the rally.
They listened on loudspeakers from afar.
Louisiana state Sen. Katrina Jackson, a Democrat and a speaker at the event, said in an interview before the march that while she disagrees with Trump on policies and is discouraged by the insults he uses, she was "ecstatic" that a president would attend.
"We finally have a sitting president at the March for Life," she said. "It doesn't make him the face of it. It sets a precedent for future presidents to speak. It's my prayer the president's attendance doesn't make it look partisan."
Melody Wootten, 49, a musician from Sterling Heights, Mich., said she was attending to the march for the first time because of Trump. Both the legality of abortion and the president's impeachment, she said, constitute "an attack on Christianity."
Trump used his speech, in part, to attack Democrats for embracing what he labeled "radical and extreme positions" on abortion, and praised attendees, saying they were motivated by "pure, unselfish love." Vice President Mike Pence, who was traveling in Italy on Friday, also appeared in a video recorded at the Vatican after a meeting with Pope Francis.
Trump has had an evolution on the issue of abortion from his days as a freewheeling New York deal-maker, when he described himself as "very pro-choice" in a 1999 interview on NBC's Meet the Press.
By 2016, however, Trump said his views had changed and that he was now opposed to abortion except in the case of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is at risk.
Critics, meanwhile, accused Trump of using the march to try to distract from his impeachment trial in the Senate, with Ilyse Hogue, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, calling it "an act of desperation, plain and simple."
Volunteers at the rally handed out signs paid for by the Trump campaign at the entrance to the march. Terry Schilling, who runs the conservative American Principles Project, said hawking the signs was the first campaign volunteering he had done. Schilling was skeptical of Trump in 2016 and voted for him largely because he worried about who Democrat Hillary Clinton might appoint to the Supreme Court.
But he said he has been delighted by Trump's record in office, including his tax law, the state of the economy, his understanding of religious freedom -- and above all, his stance on abortion. "I could never have been more happy to be wrong," Schilling said.
Information for this article was contributed by Jill Colvin, Hannah Fingerhut, Kevin Freking, Don Thompson and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of The Associated Press; and by Julie Zauzmer, Sarah Pulliam Bailey, Michelle Boorstein, David Nakamura, Anne Gearan, Emily Guskin, Laura Vozzella and Gregory S. Schneider of The Washington Post.
A Section on 01/25/2020