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(Newsmax) — As Washington, D.C., braced for a major storm and a possible shutdown Friday, thousands of abortion opponents from across the U.S. arrived in the nation’s capital for the 53rd annual March for Life.

In a trend that has emerged since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and returned authority over abortion to the states, participants are increasingly younger and more vocally opposed to abortion.

“Dobbs [the decision which overturned Roe] didn’t go far enough,” said Charlie Leighton, one of a contingent of high school students from St. Francis Xavier Church College in St. Louis, Missouri. “The next great step would be a federal ban on abortion.”

Leighton conceded that “this may not be politically viable now, but I hope that will change.” He added that larger Marches for Life could help generate broader support for a federal abortion ban.

Fellow Xavier student Nick Johnson, who is Black and attending his first March for Life, described himself to Newsmax as a “convert” to the pro-life cause and said he wanted very much “to be a voice for all races” in ending abortion.

“I was raised by a single mom who never married and could have aborted me but didn’t,” Johnson said. He also said he admired President Donald Trump’s “attitude on the abortion issue and his boldness in speaking out against abortion. He does say things sometimes that aren’t appropriate but on the abortion issue, he’s made a good start.”

Trump later spoke to marchers from the White House and promised to be a “voice for the voiceless” in the fight to end abortions.

Joseph DeProuyear, one of a group of 20-25 seminarians (students for the Roman Catholic priesthood) from St. Joseph’s Church in Yonkers, said “We’ve seen a lot of progress on the issue of abortion, such as overturning Roe with Dobbs and getting the issue back to the states. And some states such as Missouri have moved advanced pro-life laws.”

But, he quickly noted, “New York is still very pro-abortion. And that’s the reason we have to give more testimony to state legislators on why abortion should be stopped and continue to hold marches like this in individual states.”

While the March for Life has traditionally attracted large numbers of Roman Catholic participants, a growing number of non-Catholics continue to brave the Washington, D.C., cold to participate in the annual trek from a downtown rally to the Supreme Court.

One of them was Christina Hadgimallis of Southampton, Pennsylvania, a member of St. Mark’s Eastern Orthodox Church in nearby Newtown.

Noting that she is a mother of four and a chaperone for her daughter and her high school classmates, Hadgimallis said, “Speaking as an Orthodox Christian, in our church I don’t see as much of a push for pro-life activism, per se. [But] I’m very passionate about it. I wasn’t always, but I really am [now].”

As to just what made Hadgimallis passionate about the issue, she said “I’m not sure who explained it to me first. If it was [the late] Charlie Kirk or [educator] Michael Knowles, they explained life the way I could understand it from the womb all the way out. I have to say, when I was [her children’s] age, I could probably move more pro choice.

“But then, having my own children and losing children, I thought it’s an important movement. And I think it’s taking off with young people. This my first time here. I think it’s inspiring, and I want to set a good example for [my] girls.”

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(Originally published by the Newsmax)

(Daily Signal) — On Friday, tens of thousands of Americans once again gathered for the 53rd annual March for Life in the District of Columbia. This year’s theme, “Life is a Gift,” points to the heart of why people young and old, from all walks of life and across the political spectrum, brave the cold every year.

Until every human being is protected and cherished from the moment of conception, happy warriors will continue to come together to celebrate wins, strengthen resolve, and demand for Congress and those who influence our culture to do more to protect women, girls, and unborn children.

On the policy front, both the Trump administration and Congress have been working to roll back President Joe Biden’s pro-abortion policies and advance additional pro-life protections.

Earlier in January, the administration announced:

—The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights put Illinois on notice for a state policy requiring medical providers to provide abortion referrals. Such laws violate federal conscience protection laws. If Illinois doesn’t follow the law, HHS can withhold millions in federal funding.

—The administration is further expanding the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance policy, which was reinstated last year. Nongovernmental organizations today receive global health assistance funding to certify that they won’t perform or promote abortion. Now, that policy will also apply to radical gender ideology and DEI policies as well.

—The National Institutes of Health is reinstating a policy requiring no federal funding to go to entities conducting unethical research on obsolete fetal tissue obtained from elective abortion. NIH will prioritize ethical alternatives instead.

—As reported exclusively by The Daily Signal, the Small Business Administration “is reviewing whether Planned Parenthood affiliates illegally received $88 million in loans during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

—HHS confirmed it will reverse a Biden-era regulation that allowed “taxpayer-funded abortion travel for unaccompanied illegal alien children.”

—The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services put Maryland on notice that its “abortion grant program violate[s] the protections against federal funding of abortions.”

—These announcements build on actions taken at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, including:

—Pardoning 23 pro-life activists who had been convicted after the Justice Department under Biden weaponized the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act against them for peacefully protesting at abortion clinics.

—Issuing an executive order to disentangle taxpayers from abortion funding and revoking two pro-abortion executive orders issued by Biden.

—Reinstating the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance Policy, which requires nongovernmental organizations to certify they won’t perform or promote abortion as a condition of receiving U.S. dollars.

—Defunding the United Nations Population Fund over its complicity in China’s coercive and inhumane population control policies.

—Renewing membership in the Geneva Consensus Declaration, a partnership of more than two dozen countries united in the goal of improving women’s health, preserving human life, strengthening the family, and protecting national sovereignty.

—Taking steps to ensure the Title X program grantees comply with the letter and spirit of federal law. The administration paused funding to certain grantees, like Planned Parenthood, to review compliance with grant terms and executive orders. And it restored funding to pro-life states, like Oklahoma and Tennessee, after the Biden administration improperly conditioned grants on abortion counseling requirements.

—Rescinding pro-abortion guidance and policies such as the Department of Defense abortion travel policy allowance as well as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services guidance that wrongly claimed federal law on emergency medical care requires that doctors perform elective abortions.

—Rescinding a Biden administration regulation requiring abortion benefits and abortion counseling for veterans and certain beneficiaries.

Congress, for its part, delivered a massive win by defunding Planned Parenthood of Medicaid payments for one year, thanks to a provision in 2025’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill.” The abortion giant receives over half a billion dollars courtesy of American taxpayers every year, and most of that is from Medicaid. Cutting off those reimbursements for a year has left Planned Parenthood reeling. About 50 clinics have closed in the past year.

Looking ahead, there’s still a lot of work to do.

In addressing health care reform, Congress must deliver on its commitment to protect innocent life by not expanding or entrenching taxpayer funding for abortion coverage. While Congress can be flexible on which road to take on health care reform, all of them must lead to a destination that protects innocent unborn life.

Congress must remain committed to preserving the Hyde family of amendments—which prohibit taxpayer dollars from being spent on elective abortions—in annual appropriations legislation. First enacted in 1976, Hyde will mark its 50th birthday later this year, assuming members hold the line. Importantly, thanks to Hyde, 2.6 million Americans get to celebrate their birthday every year, too.

Federal lawmakers must also work to defund Planned Parenthood beyond the one-year provision of the One Big, Beautiful Bill. Otherwise, the bulk of its taxpayer funding will resume on July 4. On the day Americans mark our nation’s 250th anniversary, it would be a tragedy to simultaneously gift Big Abortion with a massive payday.

There’s plenty of additional action for the administration to take as well. There are still regulations and administrative policies from Trump’s first term that haven’t been revived yet. There are also new challenges that have become more pronounced in recent years.

Addressing dangerous abortion drugs must be a top priority because women, girls, and unborn children’s lives are at stake. These pills are corrupting medicine by destroying any semblance of a doctor-patient relationship. They hurt women who are coerced or forced into an abortion they didn’t want. And they are stifling otherwise strong efforts pro-life states have made to protect life following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision.

It’s, of course, encouraging that the Food and Drug Administration is conducting a holistic assessment of these dangerous drugs. Such a review is long overdue, especially in light of incomplete adverse event data that has corrupted decision-making to weaken safety protections over the years.

In the meantime, the FDA should do the bare minimum and restore the safety requirements that were in place during Trump’s first term, including in-person visits to rule out dangerous complications. Thanks to Biden, abortion pills can now be obtained online with little more than a few clicks of a mouse, stripping away basic safeguards such as knowing how far along a woman actually is in her pregnancy, whether or not she has a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy, or if the person ordering pills is even a pregnant woman at all.

This status quo is unacceptable, and returning to pre-Biden rules does not require a full-scale safety review. It would simply restore basic safeguards while the FDA tackles the broader concerns about mifepristone’s many safety concerns.

During Trump’s first term, the administration and Congress made significant pro-life policy progress. Now is the time to restore and expand on what Biden and his pro-abortion allies spent four years undoing.

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(Originally published by the Daily Signal)

(OSV News) — A “complex” political environment presents both challenge and opportunity for the pro-life movement, Jennie Bradley Lichter, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, said at the 27th annual Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life on Jan. 24.

“We shouldn’t kid ourselves that everything is rosy and we shouldn’t be too quick to pat ourselves on the back,” she said in a keynote address at the conference. “Abortion rates have actually been rising with the rise of the chemical abortion pill and how easily it’s accessed; our culture is still deeply unfriendly to life.”

The conference, organized by students at Georgetown University, gathered under the theme “The Pro-Life Mission After-Birth: A Lifelong Devotion.” The Cardinal O’Connor Conference is typically held the day before or after the annual March for Life, according to the university. It was first held in 2000 and later named in honor of the late Cardinal John J. O’Connor, who was archbishop of New York, a Georgetown University alumnus, and founder of the Sisters for Life. Cardinal O’Connor was known for his pro-life activism on abortion, but also for his opposition to the death penalty and his support for social safety net programs.

Messaging and the Pro-Life Position
In her address, which came the day after her first national March for Life at the helm of the organization, Lichter told the conference that the pro-life movement needs to win converts to its cause.

“We can never compromise our position, which is rooted in the truth about human life,” she said. “But how do we adjust our framing and our messaging so that our fellow Americans can hear and understand it, can receive it?”

The conference this year, and the March for Life itself, took place amid growing frustration from some in the pro-life movement about what they see as inaction from the Trump administration on key policy priorities like stronger restrictions on mifepristone, a pill commonly but not exclusively used for early abortion, and protecting the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits public funding of elective abortions.

Vice President JD Vance addressed the 53rd annual March for Life in Washington Jan. 23. Acknowledging in his comments what he called “the elephant in the room,” Vance spoke about concerns from some in the pro-life movement about their remaining policy priorities just over a year into Trump’s second term in the White House.

“I want you to know that I hear you, and that I understand there will inevitably be debates within this movement,” Vance said in his address. “We love each other, and we’re going to have open conversations about how best we use our political system to advance life, how prudential we must be in the cause of advancing human life. I think these are good, honest and natural debates, and frankly, they’re not just good for all of you. They help keep people like me honest, and that’s an important thing.”

Pro-life leaders call on Trump admin for action
The comments from Vance, and from President Donald Trump, who addressed the rally by pre-recorded video message, came shortly after pro-life leaders criticized Trump’s comments to House Republicans Jan. 6 telling them to be “flexible” on the Hyde Amendment in negotiations on health care subsidies, to the disappointment of pro-life groups that have long supported that policy.

Pro-life leaders have also objected to a September decision by the Food and Drug Administration, which operates under the Department of Health and Human Services, to approve Evita Solutions’ generic version of mifepristone. The drug’s approval came despite previous indications from FDA and HHS officials that mifepristone would undergo a safety review. On its website, Evita Solutions calls mifepristone “an effective, safe way to terminate early pregnancy.” It was also the second time a Trump administration approved a generic pill for abortion, which it did in 2019.

Some pro-life groups have called on the Trump-Vance administration to roll back the Biden administration’s actions on mifepristone to what was in place during the Trump-Pence administration.

Lichter: “Politically complex dynamic” in US
Lichter told the conference, “right now, this moment, our particular American moment, is full of opportunity, and it’s full of challenges for those of us who care about the rights of the unborn and about making sure that moms have the support they need to choose life.”

Although there is a “very politically complex dynamic” surrounding “the current president and the 2024 election,” Lichter argued, she said that “one really important takeaway for our purposes is that (former Vice President) Kamala Harris, of course, built her campaign around abortion rights.”

“She and her campaign managers and the Democrats made a big bet that the American people’s desire for unfettered abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy was going to propel her into office in the wake of the Dobbs decision, and they were wrong,” she said. “That is not what the American people wanted.”

However, she argued, “the cultural and political landscape for the pro-life movement is challenging, no doubt about it, but these challenges are not a sign to retreat.”

“They are an invitation to sharpen our message and be keen students of our times, to know what the arguments against us are, and to speak with moral clarity, courage and compassion, with unflagging hope and with joy,” she said.

The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, and as such, opposes direct abortion. After the Dobbs decision, Church officials in the U.S. have reiterated the Church’s concern for both mother and child, and they have called to strengthen available support for those living in poverty or other causes that can increase the risk of abortion.

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(Originally published by OSV News)

(Washington Stand) — On a chilly but beautiful January day in Washington, D.C., thousands gathered on the National Mall for the 53rd National March for Life. Participants came from across the United States and beyond — families from coast to coast, international groups from Korea and Ireland, students, children, grandparents, clergy, and activists — united under the event’s simple theme: “Life is a Gift.” Winter’s crisp air contrasted with the crowd’s warmth, hope, and resolve.

The event began with an hour of worship music, followed by powerful speeches linking faith, the sanctity of life from conception, and America’s founding principles to defending the vulnerable. Signs proclaimed, “Choose Love, Choose Life,” “Christ is Lord,” and support for figures like the late Charlie Kirk, who frequently advocated for faith and family. A particularly moving highlight was the Friends of Club 21 Choir — young adults with Down syndrome and supporters — singing the National Anthem with passion, further embodying the message that every life holds inherent value, dignity, and beauty.

A video message from President Donald Trump highlighted the administration’s efforts to advance pro-life policies, while Vice President J.D. Vance addressed the crowd in person, affirming the movement’s “ally in the White House” and urging continued progress in the post-Dobbs era. The stage also welcomed numerous members of Congress, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), alongside Reps. Andy Harris (R-Md.), Michael Cloud (R-Texas), Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.), French Hill (R-Ark.), Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), and others who spoke or showed support.

Amid the sea of people, stories emerged of determination and joy: parents who organized a bus for eager Wisconsin students attending their first March, families marching together across generations, and attendees from diverse walks of life who traveled far to stand in solidarity. The Washington Stand was able to speak with some participants, each of whom shared experiences that captured the heart of the gathering.

Gwyn Andrews, Senate Aide for Senator Randy Robertson (R-Ga.), shared her personal turning point. “I grew up as a pastor’s daughter,” she told TWS. “I would have always told you I was pro-life, but I really didn’t care.” At 19, facing an unexpected pregnancy, she scheduled a chemical abortion at Planned Parenthood. Three days before, a girl explained the beauty of life from conception and that she would always be a mother. Ultimately, Gwyn chose life; her daughter was adopted by a Christian couple. “The best way to make change,” she said, “is to have one conversation at a time.” Abortion begins as a cultural issue, she added, so “we have to change culture.”

Noelle, who also spoke with TWS, echoed this. She emphasized the importance of starting these conversations in the home. “The idea that a mother can destroy her own child is heartbreaking,” she said, “and we need to start with education and in the home — teaching children and families that life begins at conception, that life is sacred and valuable and beautiful, and that God can turn even terrible situations for good.”

“I love attending the march,” Noelle added. “I’ve been a supporter for a long time, and I’ve been lucky to be able to come back multiple times. And I know that if we keep putting God at the center of our lives,” immense progress can be made. “My message for you at home is to get involved. … Every year, every day is an opportunity” to do something.

Rep. Andrew Clyde, in comments to TWS, rooted his commitment in America’s founding document. “If you look at the birth certificate of our nation, the Declaration of Independence … all men are created equal and they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. And the first that is mentioned is life.” He stressed government’s duty to secure and defend life, noting how the Dobbs decision was a major reversal of federal overreach. “Finally, government is here under the Trump administration defending life. And that’s what we’re supposed to be doing.”

Clyde highlighted ongoing challenges, particularly the shipment of mifepristone abortion pills across state lines. “One of the bigger challenges is the fact that mifepristone is being shipped across our country through the post office, and it’s illegal to do that in the state of Georgia,” he said. He referenced his D.C. Shield Law Repeal Act, introduced in December with growing co-sponsors, aimed at dismantling D.C.’s protections for such shipments. “If we can do that, then we can put these people who are sending poison into our states… in jail.”

Rep. Michael Cloud similarly affirmed government’s primary role in protecting God-given rights, starting with life. “Our job in government is to protect … those inalienable rights that we understand are a gift from God. They’re not a grant from government,” he shared. “You can’t have liberty without life. You can’t pursue happiness without life.” He celebrated post-Roe progress but warned of persistent threats like abortion pills, which harm both babies and mothers. Cloud called for restoring a culture where “babies are a blessing” and healthy families remain society’s foundation.

Drawing from Scripture, he urged perseverance: “Don’t get weary in well-doing … Evil is never going to rest. And so, our job is to be the watchmen on the wall, so to speak, and to stand for life.” He praised the crowd’s diversity and resolve: “A lot of people out here not fainting, still staying in the fight. And that’s great … from all generations, all backgrounds, all races.”

Pro-life advocate Ryan Bomberger, founder of the Radiance Foundation, brought a powerful personal testimony rooted in his own life story. “I’m here with my sons, and I want them to understand that it’s okay to be pro-life,” he told TWS. “We live in a culture that tries to … shame guys into silence about the evil injustice of abortion.” Bomberger, conceived in rape yet adopted and loved into a large family of 15 siblings (10 adopted), fights for the marginalized because “that was once me.” As a father of four — including two adopted children — and husband to a wife who chose life as a single mom (a daughter, named Radiance, whom he adopted), he sees countless reasons to press on.

“It is a fight for everybody,” he urged. He encouraged practical involvement: “Join your local pregnancy center … Volunteer for them. Support them … Get your church into the fight.” Bomberger expressed optimism for 2026 and beyond: “I’m full of hope. Why? Because Jesus is our hope … Without Jesus as that center, as our foundation, it’s going to be really hard to have the victories.” Even one life saved is a massive win, he added, but the goal is society-wide change through faith-centered action.

In the end, the March for Life revealed something profound: as Congressman Cloud had noted, this movement draws remarkable diversity. Young and old, people from every region and many nations, spanning various religious traditions and even political affiliations, are coming together not out of uniformity but out of a shared conviction. This love for life — its gift, its sanctity, its potential — binds those who fight for it.

And across every conversation, one truth echoed clearly: while much has been achieved, especially since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the work is far from finished. The call remains urgent, joyful, and enduring.

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(Originally published by the Washington Stand)