WASHINGTON — Anti-abortion demonstrators descended on the National Mall in Washington on Friday for an annual rally a day after Republicans in the Senate were slowed in their efforts to advance a ban on federal abortion funds.

[Trump became the first president to give speech at March for Life rally in 2020.]

Organizers had pledged to go on with the event, called the March for Life, in a capital full of shuttered federal agencies because of a partial government shutdown.

While thousands of demonstrators marched and cheered on guest speakers, the climate in Washington this year was not the same as a year ago, when Mr. Trump hosted some of the marchers in the Rose Garden with enthusiasm after having just broadened religious freedom protections for health care providers who were opposed to performing abortions and gender reassignment surgery.