this is "nightline." >> tonight, the march for. flded with activists. buthe goal that once seemed out of reach -- >>o chance with obama in. >> now with support at thelevels. >> life is winning again in america. >> these anti-abortion rightsers see dawn of a thea' tv family. ried to the with 18 children among iparadi i wentyself and asked him what toit. and -- ♪ lov ♪ >> the kitty of fstit you thefl i d and flu with a warmingtion you theraflu, for a powerful comeback. new express maxca 5vitamins and of >> number one in just 60

>> eve anti-abortionights swarmed theital they'readmistratieon. mike pencettssg vinn puarelde nt in y,a signal t th for then careers they may be in striking distance of major policy change. here's c's gloria riviera. >> reporter: today in the nation's capital, a s and af chants. >> pro-life! >> reporter: with one singular goal in mind. >> roe v. wade has got to go!

>> reporter: the march for life happens every january. but this year many anti-abortion crusaders say they're seeing a window of opportunity in one of america's most controversial and enduring culture wars. >> this is what the anti-abortion rights movement looks like today at the dawn of the trump administration. we're outside the supreme court. the word i keep hearing from so many in the crowd is that for the first time in eight years, they feel hope. >> we've had people here from 10:00 this morning -- >> reporter: kristin hawkens, president of students for the life of america. >> we have a chance of abolishing abortion in our lifetime pro-life generation!ights has been r years.he ruled it was legal in the case roe versus wade. while the most recent polls show 64% of americans believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, a supreme court vacancy and republican-led congress could mean drastic

changes to abortion rights in the coming years. >> that's why this administration will work with the congress to end taxpayer funding of abortion -- >> reporter: the anti-abortion movement has a staunch ally in vice president mike pence, the highest-ranking government official to ever attend the march for life. >> life is winning in america. >> you are an activist in the anti-abortion rights movement. >> correct. >> when you heard the vice president was going to speak, what did that feel like? >> it was amazing. it was amazing, so uplifting. thinking we might have a chance to actually, you know do something here. >> reporter: pence is a long-time anti-abortion legislator. >> government-wide prohibition on taxpayer funding for abortion has probably never been more important -- >> reporter: as in congress he introduced a bill to end funding for planned parenthood america's biggest reproductive health care provider. >> we will not rest until we restore a culture of life in america for ourselves and our posterity.

>> this is a very difficult time to watch the care that so many people need in this country be threatened and to be at risk. so that's what planned parenthood is focused on every day, making sure people are getting care and that they can continue to get care. >> reporter: one of his first orders of business president trump reinstated a reagan-era policy prohibiting american foreign aid to health providers overseas who even discuss abortion as a family planning option. this morning, president trump tweeted his support for the march for life. he spoke about it to abc's david muir in response to a question about last saturday's women's march. >> let me just ask you while we're standing outside, could you hear the voices from the women's march here in washington? we know there were more than 1 million people who turned out. you are their president now too. >> that's true. >> could you hear them from the white house? >> no, i couldn't hear them. but the crowds were large, but you're going to have a large crowd on friday too, which is

mostly pro-life people. you're going to have a lot of people coming friday. i will say this and i didn't realize this but i was told you will have a very large crowd of people. i don't know as large or larger. some people say it's going to be larger pro-life people. and they say the press doesn't cover them. >> reporter: at the march for life two years ago, we met kristen hawkens. there was a sense the odds were stacked against their movement. >> are you going to give them more warning of an arrest? >> way back. >> why are you talking to the officers? >> what happened is the counter protesters decided to block the streets. the march for life has the permit. >> we need to show the world we're the life generation! >> we saw pro-choice advocates getting arrested they got taken away. >> yeah it was great. i love our students to see that. because they need to see that there are people who actually

believe that killing a baby up to the moment of birth and sometimes after is still okay. >> reporter: the mood today, less confrontation, more celebration. we met a mother returning to the march after two decades. >> you were here 20 years ago, why are you back now? >> we have a chance with the new administration with vice president pence, i'm so excited. for the first time in eight years we have a voice again. >> reporter: at the march there were people as far as the eye can see. >> hey, thank you! >> walking with kristen is like walking with a rock star. >> reporter: just blocks away the president was busy making other news today. meeting with british prime minister theresa may, trying to find common ground on the phone with mexican president nieto, signing two executive orders one designed to build up the military, the other to create a system of "extreme vetting" for immigrants. a decisive start to acting on those campaign promises. >> but millions of women have

been helped by planned parenthood. but we're not going to allow and we're not going to fund as long as you have the abortion going on at planned parenthood. >> reporter: the marchers today hoping the president will make good on that one. >> the fight to defund planned parenthood is not new, but withblic house, the senate and the white battle at its peakht now. >> when we talk about the preventive health services that are actually threatened in a defunding scenario breast cancer screenings pap tests, birth control, std testing and treatment, those are the kind of services that are threatened. >> reporter: the other battleground the supreme court, where many in the anti-abortion movement hope that roe versus wade could be overturned. >> what would you like to see on the supreme court? >> just where life is valued. >> reporter: president trump is expected to fill the vacant seat on the supreme court with a conservative justice. but it still wouldn't be enough to tip the scales. most court watchers say five would likely vote to uphold four would likely vote to strike down.

>> the trump administration can restrict aborights canno any time soon. because more than the one opening on the supreme court that donald trump that this has been the settled law of the land for years. and absolutel wade is something that anyhould uphold and protect. we know when you make abortion illegal, you don't actually reduce abortion youy make it less safe. >> reporter: overturning roe versus wade is. krealy,sident is going to be ny womenen com com m hget in shape.te notonicada si to talk my icsourcetriar almo5%udinal innensatmeve e ngctio flu-like symptt start scribe ay so i canng weight.trgluten fre whin from chest congestion. can ne col, the #1 doctor recommended pain relief tylenol®

when you have 18 children and four different wives, it's likely one of them will do something to shake the foundations of your belief system. what was that it stunned this polygamist? here is abc's abbie boudreau.

>> reporter: life for polygamist cody brown, his four wives, and all tlc's hit sho"sister wives" adf drama when older mariah dropped this bombshell. >> whew. okay. um -- tslike >>pected fhe fileelieve being gay iheir religion. >> i had no idea idea at all. >> it was mariah's biological mother mary who seemed the most stunned of all four sister wives. >> you actually teared up. >> i think it was just such a shock. and completely different than what i had ever expected for her life. i realize now that it's okay for me to mourn what i thought was going to be her life. >> reporter: also shocked, the outspoken patriarch of the family cody. >> mariah never dated boys. a fundamentalist mormon culture,

the polygamists, they don't date for fun, they date for courtship, they date with intention to get married. so we just thought maybe she was just waiting for that person that she might have met. >> reporter: the 21-year-old says she was fighting the truth about her sexuality for years. >> it wasn't necessarily me keeping a secret it was something i couldn't accept in myself. >> reporter: mariah says her parents preached acceptance both at home and in public, but growing up in the church she feared the repercussions of coming out as a lesbian. >> the people i was around and the church i went to it was very -- bad. like -- gay people are bad. it was just like i can't be perfect in the eyes of god unless i'm not gay. >> reporter: cody is quick to protect his daughter, even in the eyes of his church. >> this is my church and my faith and i have chosen it. okay? she doesn't have to choose it. >> even though you're accepting of it do you still feel like being gay is a sin? >> i went to god myself and

asked him what to do about it. he said you love, i'll judge, and guess what that message to me was, it is off my shoulders, i do not have to worry about it my job is to love. >> reporter: suppressing her feelings for so long mariah says she became homophobic. >> i think i didn't want to be around it because -- i guess i wanted it you know? so when i did start being around people who are gay, it was like you know what? they're actually fine. it's okay. >> reporter: citing opposing beliefs, mariah left the church but it wasn't until college that the psychology major finally allowed herself to stop living a lie. >> was there a certain moment? >> i had been my iey.i aft that means i could date her. then i was like wait what? i don't want to date girls, that's weird, i like boys. >> reporter: mariah's announcement came in the midst time in her parents' marriage. >> is that what you're waiting for me to do is come crawling back on my knees? >> i've never said th asking.

>> reporter: meri was the first to wed cody 27 years ago and says she was supportive when he then married janelle, christine, and robin, and had 1t it is the with his first wife that don'tou and i are on the page. >> are you still in love with cody? we don't have the romantic love that we didt the very beginning. we don't. but i definitely love him and i have a lot of hope for our relationship and our future. >> how would you answer that question? >> you know on a practice tonic level. i mean we're just not in a loving relationship. >> reporter: despite being surrounded by her large family meri says she felt lonely and vulnerable when she found companionship >> it did feel good to have somebody that i was, you know talking to. interested in my life. >> do you feel like you were having an emotional affair? >> no i don't. no. >> do you feel like she was? >> i don't now, but at the time i thought she was having awn affair. >> were you angry with her?

>> i was worried. >> we were worried and angry and sad. >> confused. >> yeah confused, a little bit depressed. >> she was so checked out from us. >> reporter: yet meri was checked into her online friendship. they says things took a dark turn. >> that's when all the threats were happening. you know? stay away from your family you don't want to be with them because they're bad to you. >> reporter: says it was months into the relationship before she realized she'd been catfished. by a woman posing as a man. >> if you and taking better care of our relationship then i wouldn't have been in such a vulnerable place that i would have been open to other friendships that would lead to this kind of deception and evil. >> what do you think the end game for the catfisher was? >> attention. that's it. >> attention. money. i don't know. >> reporter: devastated her family rallied around her. but her relationship with kody

still suffers. >> do you trust her? >> you know i trust her on a pragmatic level. i don't trust her emotionally. >> is divorce on the table? >> not for me. >> um -- no then. it's not on the table. because i don't leave. i'm with these four wives, and i don't leave. >> reporter: they say after years avoiding the truth, they will no longer lie to themselves. mariah too is living her life in the openven no. >> r alcondit proay i chan rep m ga >>ghtneforst n. ra bounty is moand. lobster's bfosic creatines av one pee grilird shri ry iould ee yu'r cougeaf x severe soothesugh,hroae anfeve dudecleaner. you could wear th aand you cause ssthe go , youth anent.e y s saidovcancer treatment centamine a variety yjust impll lizedr pat' is at th is herat

ercenter.comilable n [stoen4 map ortre.fic, crime rahazards, a ri can findod trulia. the hous tonight,lytar we t tylerandsca don van d later hle thr >> that sbig, big deal i think"maryooreadn morer pe new worlme. ouricded cas moor s inulr aft ah iten.s >> we've done the best we >> you could tell sitti that room those women truly lond it was so genuine. you can't fake that. >> it was really my to thank them and mary in particular for being such a role model for me. >> reporter: earlier in her hometown of honoring who inspired so many. real deal. thank you for watching abc news. and as we're online at abcnews.com andfacebo for the company, aeverybody, welcome o you s vegas. about

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