Emily0123bWASHINGTON—A freezing rain fell from the sky and mud mixed with ice on the ground as pro-life marchers in the nation’s capital mixed celebration with anger at recent setbacks.

The annual March for Life, held the day after the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, seemed to draw its largest crowd yet, despite the miserable weather. The mostly young crowd added up to at least tens of thousands, if not more than a hundred thousand. Teenagers gamely stood for hours and some marched shivering in soaked sneakers. At one point in the march, a teen couple kissed in the middle of the crowd, perhaps in a strategy to stay warm. One high schooler was dressed up as a Who from Whoville, a Dr. Seuss character—which didn’t make sense until you saw her friend’s sign quoting from the Seuss book Horton Hears a Who, saying, “A person’s a person no matter how small.”

“I like babies, yes I do, I like babies, how ’bout you?” chanted one group. Many carried signs that said, “I am the pro-life generation.”

But more than rain clouds hung over the march. On Friday the Obama administration announced it would require most religious groups to provide their employees with full health insurance coverage for contraceptives, including abortifacients like Plan B and Ella (see “No change,” Jan. 20). The only exemption from the requirement is for groups that have the “inculcation of religious values” as their primary mission and who serve and employ people of that faith—which essentially only covers churches. The narrowness of the exemption has angered not only conservative Catholics and evangelicals, but also a broad array of Jewish and Christian groups, including the Catholic Health Association, which supported healthcare reform.

On Sunday, the actual anniversary date of Roe, the Obama campaign sent an email to supporters trumpeting the contraceptive decision. The decision “ensures that being a woman will no longer be considered a preexisting condition,” wrote Stephanie Cutter, President Obama’s deputy campaign manager, in the message. “[Our] opponents have been waging a war on women’s health … the president has stood firm against these attacks.” … MORE >>

Read Emily Belz’s complete Web Extra report.