The presidential inauguration will be on the minds of many this Tuesday, including those attending that evening’s Sanctity of Human Life Rally in downtown Peoria.

Derrick Jones, communications director for the National Right to Life Committee, will be the featured speaker at the rally, where he will talk about what President Barack Obama’s election portends for the right-to-life movement.

“Obviously, I’m speaking on what will go down in history as a very historic day,” Jones told The Catholic Post.

The rally, sponsored by Central Illinois Right to Life, will be at 7 p.m. on Jan. 20 at Sacred Heart Church, 504 Fulton St., Peoria, preceded by the Walk for Life.

The walk will commence at 6:30 p.m. at the Peoria County Courthouse, just across the street from the Family Resources Center, 321 Main St., which will host an open house for one hour prior to the walk.

A native of Springfield and a lifelong pro-lifer, Jones got an early start in the movement alongside his grandmother Mary Jones, one of the founding members of Springfield Right to Life and a board member of Illinois Federation Right to Life. She died last month on Christmas Eve.

“I grew up in the ‘youth wing’ of the pro-life movement, really under my grandmother,” Jones told The Catholic Post.

In 1992, Jones co-founded Sangamon County Teens for Life. Soon after, he joined the board of National Teens for Life, serving two terms as NTL president. In 1996 he started as an intern with the National Right to Life Committee in Washington, D.C., and has been with NRLC ever since.

Besides his communications duties, Derrick serves as an adviser for National Teens for Life and directs NRLC’s college internship program.

In addition to his talk at the rally, Jones hopes to have an opportunity to speak with students in one or more diocesan Catholic schools that day. After the rally he will take part in the March for Life in the nation’s capital on Thursday.