WASHINGTON —  President Trump vowed to support antiabortion-rights protesters in his second term as tens of thousands of demonstrators rallied in Washington on Friday.

“We will again stand proudly for families and for life,” Trump declared in a prerecorded video address to the annual March for Life.

Protesters had come to the capital for decades to call for the repeal of Roe vs. Wade, which affirmed a constitutional right to an abortion. Now, with the repeal of Roe in 2022, they are now on the inside rather than the outside. With Trump’s return to the White House and Republicans in control of Congress, the activists want to build on their victories.

Vice President JD Vance told the crowd, in person, that the president “delivered on his promise of ending Roe” and appointed hundreds of antiabortion judges.

Abortion was largely absent from the stack of dozens of executive actions in Trump’s first days of office. But he has made quieter moves on abortion, including pardoning antiabortion activists who invaded and blocked abortion clinics and using wording related to fetal personhood in an executive order rolling back protections for transgender people.

House Speaker Mike Johnson celebrated these moves as evidence “this new White House is already showing its resolve.”

“It is a new golden age for America,” Johnson told the crowd.

Despite frigid weather, activists showed up with multicolored hats and signs declaring “Life is our revolution” and “MAGA: Make Abortion Gone Again.”

“We have a march every year but this one is pretty special…,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America group. “There is a trifecta of pro-life Republicans in the White House and the House and the Senate.”

The march has been held annually since 1974. It comes after the president pardoned several activists convicted of blockading abortion clinic entrances.

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said there is still work to be done, despite the Supreme Court decision. “There’s no silver bullet to ending abortion,” she said. “The march now ends on the backside of the U.S. Capitol to remind our representatives that abortion is not only a state issue, but also a local issue and also a federal issue.”

Hawkins added that she’d like to see Trump defund Planned Parenthood and more focus on making sure women with unplanned pregnancies have the resources to have the child, such as paid family leave and expanded child tax care credit.

Angela Vasquez-Giroux, vice president of communications at Planned Parenthood Action Fund, which supports abortion rights, said: “We know exactly what is at risk and we know the hate and lies they will spew at the March for Life.”

The battle over abortion since the 2022 decision has been in state courts and at the ballot box where voters in seven states approved ballot measures for constitutional amendments on reproductive freedom in November and more states could see ballot measures in coming years.

Legislatures have been fighting back already with proposals that could make such measures more difficult to get passed.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis celebrated the 2024 defeat of an abortion-rights amendment on the March for Life stage and boasted about his role in the state-funded campaign against the measure. A majority — just over 57% — of voters there supported a state constitutional amendment overturning the ban, but unlike most states, Florida requires 60% to pass constitutional amendments.

“Most elected officials will say ‘Look, what’s on the ballot is not their issue — the people can decide,’” DeSantis told the crowd. “And they wash their hands of it and walk away.” He added: “We were not just going to sit around in Florida and do nothing.”

Jennie Bradley Lichter, the March for Life president-elect, said the group plans to be at 17 state capitals across the country in 2025.

Supporters of abortion rights spoke up, too.

“No matter what they said on the campaign trail to win an election, this shows their intentions to continue to attack abortion access,” Ryan Stitzlein, vice president of political and government relations for the national abortion-rights organization Reproductive Freedom for All, said of abortion-rights opponents.

“Each time one of these has taken place since the Dobbs decision, it’s been a day to reflect on how much damage that’s been caused by that decision and the crisis we continue to live in.”

Ellie Smeal, president and founder of the Feminist Majority Foundation, said her group would counterprotest.

“We want to remind people of the popularity of abortion rights and the importance of this issue, that women and men are supportive of people making their own reproductive health decisions,” she said.

Fields, Fernando and Khalil write for the Associated Press.