STEUBENVILLE, OHIO— Franciscan University of Steubenville President Father Dave Pivonka, TOR ’89, and hundreds of students, alumni, faculty, and staff will attend the annual national March for Life on Friday, January 20, in Washington, D.C.

Events begin on campus at 10:30 p.m., Thursday, January 19, with a March for Life Holy Hour. Later that night, up to 440 students will board eight buses for D.C. and arrive in time for the 8:00 a.m. closing Mass of the National Prayer Vigil for Life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Under the theme Next Steps: Marching Into a Post-Roe America, the March for Life begins with a noon rally on the National Mall. It will then proceed along Constitution Avenue and, for the first time, end at the U.S. Capitol, not the U.S. Supreme Court.

The change in destination signifies a strategic shift in the March for Life’s mission to build a culture of life in America. Last June, the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court ruling overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that effectively legalized abortion in the United States. As this year’s theme suggests, March for Life organizers plan to celebrate, give thanks, and lay out a new state-focused strategy.

“Our presence at the March for Life this year is more important than ever,” said Hollieann Geike, president of Franciscan University’s Students for Life club. “The overturning of Roe was just the start of the fight for life, not the end.

“Now that Roe is overturned, it opens the doors for so much more,” Geike added. “We march for abortion to not only be unattainable, but also unthinkable. I hope the March for Life will not end when abortion is abolished, but when there is respect and equality for all human life.”