Speakers and participants in the fifth annual Walk for Life insisted they were undaunted by the departure of a White House ally, George W. Bush, and his replacement by Barack Obama, a supporter of abortion rights.

"I've never seen people this energized. We've taken up his challenge," said Dolores Meehan of San Francisco, an organizer of the event.

Signs in the crowd riffed on Obama's campaign slogans, saying "Change Roe v. Wade, Yes We Can." The anniversary of the Jan. 22, 1973, Supreme Court ruling has been the occasion of yearly demonstrations by groups seeking to overturn it, the largest of which is the Capitol rally that Bush and like-minded predecessors have greeted with messages of support.

On Friday, though, as anti-abortion marchers thronged the National Mall, Obama issued a statement in support of the ruling and rescinded two of Bush's actions: a ban on U.S. funds to international family planning agencies that use their own money for abortions, abortion counseling or advocacy, and a cutoff of financial support for the United Nations Population Fund.

"We're going backwards instead of forwards," lamented Jane Liston, 65, of San Rafael, who carried a banner of Catholic Daughters of the Americas for Life at the San Francisco protest. "But we pray for him too, pray that his heart will be changed."

An angrier message came from the Rev. Clenard Childress, pastor of New Cavalry Baptist Church in Montclair, N.J., and northeast director of Life Education and Resource Network, which he described as the largest African American organization of its kind.

"I now have a face to put on black genocide," Childress declared from the stage at Justin Herman Plaza, which was nearly filled with anti-abortion demonstrators. "He's released hard-earned tax dollars to kill babies."

A short distance away, a few hundred counterdemonstrators gathered with signs proclaiming support for abortion rights, same-sex marriage and a variety of other causes. Some spoke of finding common ground.

"I feel for the other side," said Patricia Jameson, 24, of San Francisco.

She said she worked against abortion as a youth minister until three years ago, when she was raped by her pastor and had an abortion. Now, she said, "I can't imagine my life without the fact that I can choose."

"In a lot of ways, the pro-choice and pro-life people are not that far apart," said Eleanor Levine, 66, of Oakland, whose pink Styrofoam coronet read, "Imagine Peace." Many of the anti-abortion marchers probably voted for Obama and oppose war, she said, and "it's important that we figure out how to get together."

"They want to protect women as well," said Marcela Smid, 28, a UCSF medical student who has performed abortions under a doctor's supervision at San Francisco General Hospital. "We just see reality very differently."

The tone was more confrontational along the route of the march on Embarcadero, where some abortion-rights advocates shouted at the marchers and gave thumbs-down signs while others chanted slogans like, "If you don't like abortion, then don't have one."

Some anti-abortion marchers shouted back, but the two sides stayed on opposite sides of a police barrier. There were no arrests or incidents of violence, said Sgt. Lyn Tomioka, a police spokeswoman.

The marchers, 10 to 15 abreast, covered the length of the Embarcadero from the foot of Market Street northward as they trekked toward Marina Green for a closing rally.

Carol Jinista, 53, of South Sacramento rolled along the route in a wheelchair with a sign reading "Obama's Mama Chose Life for the Prez." This was her fourth march and perhaps her last, she said, because she has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Obama's election was "a historic moment that would not have occurred if his mother had aborted him," she said. "We both want change and better things for our country. It must begin with love and life."

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle