By Catholic News Service • Posted October 5, 2017

WASHINGTON (CNS) — The theme for the 45th annual March for Life will be “Love Saves Lives: Life Is the Loving, Empowering and Self-Sacrificial Option.”

The March for Life Education and Defense Fund announced the theme for the 2018 rally and march at a briefing on Capitol Hill Oct. 3 with Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life organization and other pro-life leaders in Washington.

“We march for life because abortion is a horrific human rights travesty,” said Mancini.

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She moderated a panel discussion on “how the pro-life movement continues to empoer women” with Susan Gallucci, executive director of the Northwest Center, which offers a range of services to pregnant women and new mothers; Chuck Donovan, president of Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research and education institute of the Susan B. Anthony List; and Alison Howard Centofante, director of alliance relations at Alliance Defending Freedom, a nonprofit legal group that supports pro-life, religious freedom and other issues.

The March for Life will take place Jan. 19, which is a Friday and comes ahead of the Jan. 22 anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade and its companion case, Doe v. Bolton, that invalidated state and federal restrictions on abortions, legalizing abortion virtually on demand.

Pro-lifers from around the country will gather for a rally at noon on the grounds of the Washington Monument. After the rally, pro-lifers will march up Constitution Avenue to the court.

Centofante remarked that love saved her father’s life “through adoption and therefore love saved my life.”

“Planned Parenthood pushes the message that you should just eliminate the child to eliminate the problem,” she said.

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“This world has too much violence, and this shows that we are loving at our core,” Centofante said about the 2018 theme.

The Northwest Center serves hundreds of women every year, said Gallucci. “We offer love and support to women and their families, no matter their circumstances.”

“At the early stages of the pro-life movement, providing alternatives to abortion was at the heart of the movement,” noted Donovan, adding that pregnancy centers are leading the movement all over the U.S.

Mancini ended the briefing with a challenge for all: “What will you sacrifice to build a culture of life?”

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More information about March for Life 2018 can be found at http://marchforlife.org/mfl-2018/rally-march-info.