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Tens of thousands of demonstrators are expected in Washington Friday for an anti-abortion march that’s shaping up as a triumphant affair under President Donald Trump — despite his ambitious projection of crowds as large as 600,000. The March for Life, as it’s known, has kicked off on the National Mall every year since 1974 to mark the Jan. 22 anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision establishing abortion rights. (Schor and Nussbaum, 1/27)

They helped Donald Trump win in battleground states and now, just days before he’s expected to name his pick for the Supreme Court, tens of thousands of anti-abortion marchers will show up in his backyard on Friday to remind the new president of their expectations. These March for Life activists have a single message: Trump must use this rare opportunity to reshape the high court for a generation, moving it to the right and setting the stage for a reversal of decisions that expanded access to abortion. They are eager for Trump’s appointment to yield a court that will give doctors the latitude to make decisions about what emergency contraception and procedures they’ll provide to pregnant women. (Douglas, 1/26)

Vice President Pence will join Friday’s March for Life, a move from the White House considered historic by march organizers. President Ronald Reagan made a video for the march in 1988 and President George W. Bush called in to the march in 2008, but no president or vice president has spoken at the march before, according to a march spokeswoman. Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s senior counselor, will also speak at the march. (Bailey, 1/26)

Despite Trump having spent most of his adult life favoring abortion rights, abortion opponents believe they have a friend in the White House for the first time in eight years. “He was voted into office, I would say, because he aligned himself with this cause,” Thomas Hoerner, a junior at St. Mary’s High School in St. Louis, said from a bus Thursday on his way to Washington. Many young Trump voters chose him for his opposition to abortion, Hoerner said, “because this is the one cause they care about. … We should definitely remind him of that.” (Aton, 1/27)

Marchers — many of them women — are descending on Washington, D.C., to send a message about abortion to the Trump administration and the Republican-led Congress. ... The juxtaposition has opened up a larger debate about how women who consider themselves "pro-life" fit into the feminist movement. The issue became a point of tension surrounding the Women's March after a handful of anti-abortion activists said they were planning to attend. In a statement, organizers apologized for initially including the anti-abortion group as a partner, and stating that the march's "platform is pro-choice and that has been our stance from day one." (McCammon, 1/27)

Sensing a political opportunity they have not had in more than a decade, social conservatives are preparing for a lengthy fight over abortion rights that promises to widen the culture war fissures that Republicans have tried for years to bridge. Two fights now loom in Washington that are galvanizing the right as it solidifies control of two branches of government and moves to dominate the third: an effort in Congress to eliminate Planned Parenthood’s federal funding and President Trump’s forthcoming choice of a Supreme Court nominee. (Peters, 1/26)

Facebook executive and Lean In author Sheryl Sandberg broke her silence Thursday, weighing in on President Trump's reinstatement of a Reagan-era policy banning U.S. foreign aid to health providers overseas who offer abortion counseling or advocate for a woman's right to have an abortion. In a Facebook post, Sandberg said the policy could have "terrible consequences for women and families around the world," cutting them off from other health services. She shared an article from the New York Times and said she supports passage of Global Health, Empowerment and Rights (HER) Act. (Guynn, 1/26)

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson signed into law on Thursday a bill banning the most common abortion procedure employed in the second trimester of a pregnancy, among the most restrictive abortion legislation in the United States. The law, which takes effect later this year, prohibits dilation and evacuation, a practice that pro-choice advocates say is the safest method of ending a pregnancy but which supporters of the legislation call "barbaric," requiring the "dismemberment" of the fetus. (Barnes, 1/27)