March for Life

(Daily Citizen) — The theme for the 53rd annual March for Life is “Life is a Gift.” The event will take place in Washington, D.C. on Friday, January 23, 2026.

Jennie Bradley Lichter, who became President of the March for Life after last year’s march, will lead the gathering.

In remarks at the National Press Club, Lichter described the theme as “an invitation to everyone to be swept up into a movement that transcends politics and celebrates joy, beauty and goodness of life.”

In addition to addressing law and policies central to promoting a culture of life, this year’s message calls on participants to reflect on the gift of every human life — born and preborn — and to advocate for life with conviction and love.

The powerful video explaining this year’s theme boldly declares, “Every life is a gift. Even when it’s unexpected. Even when the timing feels off. Even when it’s hard. Even when the world says otherwise…. All life deserves a chance because every single human life is a gift.”

Each January, thousands of marchers gather in Washington, D.C. for the National March for Life — the largest annual human rights demonstration in the world.

As in year’s past, the event will begin with a rally on the National Mall, followed by a peaceful march along Constitution Avenue to the U.S. Capitol Building and Supreme Court.

Organizers of the event also announced this year’s pre-rally concert will feature the Grammy-nominated, Dove award-winning Christian band Sanctus Real.

The National Anthem will be led by the Friends of Club 21 Choir, a group of young people with Down syndrome from Colorado Springs. Their participation is a powerful reminder that every human life, regardless of ability, has immeasurable dignity and worth.

Sarah Hurm, whose testimony of hope and redemption includes reversing a chemical abortion, will offer one of the march’s featured testimonies. Her story highlights real-life impacts of life-affirming choices and second chances.

Georgetown University Right to Life will hold the banner and lead the march this year.

In addition to the national march, many states now host their own local march for life throughout the year. This initiative, led by the national march organizers, reflect the shifting landscape and increased focus on state-level engagement and community-based outreach. Learn more about the state marches here.

Even with the reversal of Roe v. Wade, the work to build a culture of life in America is not over. From instituting pro-life laws at the federal and state level to changing hearts and minds, the sacred work of the pro-life movement continues.

Pro-life friends who plan to attend the March for Life in Washington, D.C. can learn more details at March for Life.

(Originally published by the Daily Citizen)

(Daily Signal) — The new president of the March for Life announced that the theme for the 53rd annual march is “Life is a Gift.” On Jan. 23, tens of thousands are expected to gather on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to march to bring awareness to the hundreds of thousands of abortions that occur in the United States each year and to convince people of the sacredness of human life.  

The organization also announced that Grammy-nominated Christian rock band Sanctus Real will perform at a pre-march rally. Friends of Club 21 Choir, a group of young adults from Colorado with Down syndrome, will sing the national anthem. And Sarah Hurm, a mother who began to abort her child using the abortion pill, will give the featured testimony, sharing how she changed her mind and saved her baby with the abortion pill reversal procedure.

Jennie Bradley Lichter, the new president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, shared her vision for the 53rd March for Life at a news conference on Tuesday.

“Our goal,” Lichter shared, “is to invite everyone to the irrepressible joy of the March for Life; to be swept up into a movement that transcends politics and celebrates the joy, beauty, and goodness of life itself.”

She emphasized that the theme, Life is a Gift, speaks to the heart: “We want to draw people in by emphasizing what makes the march so powerful: joy, unity and radiant hope of tens of thousands of people coming together.”

For 53 years, pro-life supporters have come together for this event. Lichter believes the march continues to flourish after all these years because “it is rooted in this fundamental conviction that life is a gift. That is a core human truth, and that truth has immense staying power.”

Last year, JD Vance made his first public appearance at the march as the vice president. He joined the rally stage with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The organization shared that while President Donald Trump hasn’t yet made plans to attend this year, he voiced his support for life and the march last year via video. He pledged that in his second term he would “stand proudly for families and for life.”

The group expects to announce more speakers as it gets closer to January.

The March for Life Education and Defense Fund is the organization that powers the public demonstration every year. It operates year-round, organizing small state marches across the country and lobbying for pro-life policies.

(Originally published by Daily Signal)

(National Review) — The March for Life announced its theme for the January 23 demonstration: “Life Is a Gift.” Jennie Bradley Lichter, the new president of the March for Life, said in an announcement that this year’s theme “invites everyone . . . to be swept up into a movement that transcends politics and celebrates the joy, beauty and goodness of life itself by recommitting ourselves: to each other, to every woman facing a pregnancy and to every child.”

“Life is a gift” has long been a salient message when fighting against abortion, but it is similarly relevant in other fertility-related discourse, specifically that about in vitro fertilization. Reproductive technologies treat children as products rather than gifts, and, accordingly, children are subjected to versions of quality control and performance reviews — not only with respect to health but also aesthetic traits such as eye and hair color. Parents with big enough bank accounts can essentially test and grade their embryos with respect to hereditary disorders and physical traits like height, then choose whichever children are supposedly worthy of implantation and thus a chance at birth. Moreover, products for purchase can become the topic of heated debates about ownership: In divorce cases in which a married couple has frozen embryos, the children are treated as property to be owned rather than as human beings with rights. 

Putting aside fertility and pregnancy, “life is a gift” seems to have great resonance this season as a series of devastating events in our country has revealed a thriving culture of death. We saw the assassination of the Unitedhealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in 2024 because someone had a grievance with his line of work, and then we watched the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk onstage during a university appearance as he was responding to a question from the audience. Neither tragedy should have occurred, and each provided an opportunity for the divided nation to attempt catharsis by categorically condemning politically motivated violence, thereby restoring a bit of faith in the American project. But that didn’t happen, not really. Alleged assassin Luigi Mangione has become something of a heroic celebrity and accumulated more than $1 million in donations for legal support, while Kirk’s murder was widely celebrated in progressive forums such as Bluesky as a victory over “fascism.” These murders, along with the reactions to them, evoke a sense of despair, frustration, and fury that drains our confidence in ourselves and in our country. 

“Life is a gift” is a morally instructive theme when evaluating issues like abortion that treat a young child as a removable appendage, when navigating new technologies that devalue human life to a customizable commodity, and when pockets of the left rejoice in the brutal deaths of their perceived political enemies.

(Originally published by National Review)