A brief ceremony will be held at the Capitol before participants walk down 14th Street to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Student Union. On the Student Union’s second floor, Ryan Bomberger of the Radiance Foundation in Norfolk, Va., will give a keynote speech at 11:45 a.m.
Hundreds of students from Nebraska and western Iowa are traveling to Washington, D.C., for the anti-abortion March for Life protest Monday afternoon on the National Mall.
The march, sponsored by National Right to Life, is an annual event that marks the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.
Three buses left Omaha at 6 p.m. Friday with students from Marian, Roncalli and Mercy High Schools. Several home-schooled students and 22 young adults from the University of Nebraska at Omaha are also attending.
The Rev. Damien Cook of St. Peter Catholic Church, who is in charge of anti-abortion activities for the Omaha Archdiocese, said 325 people from northeast Nebraska and Omaha, including chaperones, are attending.
"It's good to see them want to be politically active and seek justice for others," Cook said of the students attending.
Students from St. Albert Catholic School in Council Bluffs will attend with students from Sioux Falls, S.D., and West Des Moines.
About 80 students and seven priests from the Diocese of Lincoln also left for Washington Friday morning, said Michele Chambers with the Family Life Office in Lincoln.
Jude Werner, developmental director of the Newman Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said 135 university students along with 15 priests and religious missionaries planned to leave Saturday morning.
Liz Wiggs and Carly Steinauer, sophomores at Marian High School, are attending the rally for the first time.
"I personally am looking forward to the actual march, and seeing how many people are fighting for the same cause," Steinauer said.
The World-Herald News Service contributed to this report.
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