Jana Mackey thinks her Kansas University female classmates take their rights for granted.

“I think women of my generation can’t really imagine a pre-Roe v. Wade or a post-Roe v. Wade world,” she said, referring to the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. “Abortion has been legal as long as we’ve been around. I don’t think people take the threat seriously.”

That “threat,” the possibility that new Supreme Court appointees could help overturn Roe v. Wade, has about 250 students from KU headed to Washington, D.C., for Sunday’s March for Women’s Lives, which is being organized by such groups as the National Organization for Women, Planned Parenthood and Choice USA. Organizers hope to have a million participants.

Marchers will be on the National Mall in Washington for a rally with celebrities, including Whoopi Goldberg, Gloria Steinem and Susan Sarandon.

The KU contingent, which left Friday afternoon, is taking seven buses and will be joined by about 100 students from the University of Missouri and Kansas State University.

Katie Wolff, a Shawnee junior, is among those on the trip. She said abortion rights hadn’t been a major issue on the KU campus for several years, noting that there hasn’t been an organization that makes abortion rights its primary focus.

“I don’t see this campus talking about any political issues at all,” Wolff said.

But with November’s election looming and the next president likely naming replacements for several retiring Supreme Court justices, Wolff said students should be prepared to renew the debate.

More than 250 people gathered at Holcom Sports Complex to board buses en route to Washington, D.C., where they will participate in Sunday's March for Women's Lives. Preparing to leave Friday were Kansas University students, from left, Joe Thurston, 21, Emily Shaftel, 19, Sandra Mayle, 19, and Brie Mullins, 19.

She said the KU chapter of Choice USA, which was formed to organize the trip to Washington, would remain on campus after this year.

It’s an issue that Brie Mullins, a freshman from Helena, Mont., said she didn’t plan to drop during her years at KU.

She said her godmother participated more than a decade ago in a similar rally in Washington that drew fewer than 75,000 people.

“Now we’re in the next generation, which is pretty impressive,” Mullins said. “This will be even bigger and better.”

6News video: KU women ride to Washington for march March for Women’s Lives