WASHINGTON (CNS) — As a World War II veteran, Nellie Gray thinks abortion is “just not the American way.”

In the war against Nazi Germany, “my beloved America went over there and stopped the same kind of killing, and then we sat in judgment of them for that at Nuremberg,” she told Catholic News Service Jan. 10, referring to the 1946-47 war crimes trials at which German physicians were accused of euthanizing people considered “unworthy of life.”

“And now my country is doing the same thing,” said Gray, president of the March for Life Education & Defense Fund. “Millions of children continue to be killed. It just continues on and on and on.”

That’s why the theme for the 33rd annual March for Life Jan. 23 in Washington is ‘Roe v. Wade’ Violates the American Way.

The 2006 march will take place the day after the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that lifted most state restrictions on abortion, since Jan. 22 falls on a Sunday this year. The march always takes place on a weekday to permit marchers to visit the offices of their representatives in Congress afterward.

“Marchers for life educate Washington officialdom at all three branches of our government that a preborn human person, with an unalienable right to life, exists at fertilization, and that abortion kills a preborn human, traumatizes mothers and fathers, and assaults all members of our society, including feminists/abortionists,” according to materials distributed by the March for Life.

Because of construction, this year’s march has a different starting point — Seventh Street and the National Mall, the long park west of the Capitol. The March for Life usually begins at the Ellipse, located between the White House and the Washington Monument.

But the 2006 march, which begins at noon Jan. 23, will be surrounded by the usual complement of pro-life events and activities.

The National Prayer Vigil for Life opens Jan. 22 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington with an 8 p.m. Mass celebrated by Cardinal William H. Keeler of Baltimore.

The vigil — sponsored by the basilica, the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities and The Catholic University of America — also includes a Rosary for life, Night Prayer, Holy Hours, Morning Prayer and the opportunity for confession. It ends at 7:30 a.m. Jan. 23 with a Mass of penance and prayer.

Special events for young pro-lifers include the American Collegians for Life student leadership conference Jan. 21 on the Catholic University campus and a rally for life and youth Mass on the morning of Jan. 23 at Washington’s MCI Sports Arena.

The March for Life Education & Defense Fund also is sponsoring an educational convention Jan. 21-22 at the Hyatt Regency Washington Hotel on Capitol Hill. Scheduled events include talks by Archbishop Raymond L. Burke of St. Louis and Bobby Schindler, the brother of Terri Schiavo; screenings of films on ultrasound images and partial-birth abortion, and individual testimonies by men and women who have suffered varied abortion experiences.

Raymond L. Flynn, national chairman of Catholic Citizenship and former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, will be honored at the fund’s 24th annual Rose Dinner scheduled for the evening of Jan. 23 at the Hyatt Regency.

In addition to the anti-Roe events traditionally staged in the nation’s capital, two major marches are also planned for the West Coast.

In San Francisco, thousands are expected to take part in the second annual Walk for Life West Coast Jan. 21.

The 2005 event was the first large-scale Roe v. Wade anniversary demonstration to be held in the Bay Area. It drew 7,000 pro-lifers. As they walked along the city’s waterfront, the marchers at times were met with jeers and crude signs from many of the 3,000 abortion supporters who staged a counterdemonstration.

In a statement on the Website for this year’s march, organizers told pro-life participants to expect the same reaction but to remember their own event is to remain peaceful.

“The 2005 Walk for Life West Coast saw many vociferous pro-abortion demonstrators. We expect a similar or increased counterdemonstration for the 2006 Walk for Life. Please come prepared to be 100 percent peaceful. Our witness to peace in the face of such vile hostility is our greatest contribution to the pro-life movement,” the statement said.

In Los Angeles, the archdiocesan Commission for Catholic Life Issues and Hispanics for Life are sponsoring a March for Life/Life Chain Jan. 22.

Participants, also expected to be in the thousands, will meet at Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral and then process with pro-life signs through the streets of downtown Los Angeles.

The event “will be a reflection of the cultural diversity of the Catholic Church, which is uniting in prayer to end the 33-year slaughter of our unborn brothers and sisters. Hispanics in particular are overwhelmingly pro-life,” said Astrid Bennett Gutierrez, board member of Hispanics for Life.

In endorsing the event, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles said the “Life Chain is a way to make the proclamation (that) to be human is to be called to protect life and to promote human dignity.”