March for Life

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PHOTOS: As thousands join March for Life, pro-life advocates share their ‘why’

(CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY) — Tens of thousands of pro-life people of various ages and backgrounds held handmade signs as they walked from the National Mall to the Supreme Court building on Friday, packing the streets of Washington, D.C., for the 52nd annual March for Life.

After several years of disappointment at the ballot box since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, many participants and speakers expressed optimism after the historic rejection of pro-abortion ballot measures in three states last November as well as the possibilities of additional pro-life actions over the next four years under the administration of newly-inaugurated President Donald Trump.

Powerful testimonies for life

The speakers who took the stage before the march, including activists, politicians, and individuals sharing personal stories, emphasized the inherent value of human life from conception, often citing their faith as a foundation for their pro-life stance.

All advocated for protecting the unborn, supporting women and families facing unplanned pregnancies, and highlighted the importance of providing resources and support.

Most notable among the politicians who addressed the crowds were Trump, who appeared via a prerecorded video message, and Vice President JD Vance.

Trump vowed to end the “weaponization” of law enforcement against pro-life Americans and highlighted his recent pardoning of 23 imprisoned pro-life activists. Vance, in his speech, called for a culture that celebrates life at all stages and proclaimed that the success of a nation is measured by the well-being of families.

“Let me say very simply: I want more babies in the United States of America,” Vance said to loud cheers.

“I want more happy children in our country. And I want beautiful young men and women who are eager to welcome them into the world and eager to raise them. And it is the task of our government to make it easier for young moms and dads to afford to have kids, to bring them into the world, and to welcome them as the blessings that we know they are here at the March for Life.”

Other politicians such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis emphasized the importance of courage in defending the unborn, touting his state’s victory against a pro-abortion ballot initiative.

Other speakers stressed the importance of individual action and the need to change hearts and minds on the issue of abortion. Lila Rose emphasized the importance of personal conversations to persuade others to understand the value of life and called for the defunding of Planned Parenthood in favor of pro-life pregnancy resource centers that help women and families. Professional surfer and pro-life Christian mother Bethany Hamilton highlighted the need to support women and help them see the true value of life.

Marching for the unborn

Once the march got underway, students from Wheaton College carried the March for Life banner and led the crowd of thousands of pro-lifers down the march route on Constitution Avenue toward the Supreme Court building.

Members of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) — a Catholic nonprofit group — played Catholic hymns, such as “Ave Maria” and “Hail Holy Queen,” along with patriotic songs.

Members of Students for Life of America (SFLA) displayed a large banner near the front of the pack warning that “Chemical Abortion Pills Kill” unborn children and another that urges lawmakers to “Defund Planned Parenthood.”

“Chemical abortion has started to become the No. 1 [means of obtaining an] … abortion,” Alicia Foreman, the SFLA regional coordinator for the Carolinas, told CNA.

Foreman warned that chemical abortion pills hurt women and are dangerous to the environment. She said they are “so easy to obtain” and “easy for sex traffickers to use” and for “rapists” to obtain to kill the unborn children of their victims.

SFLA has urged state governments and the federal government to ban chemical abortion pills and for Trump to halt the delivery of the pills through the mail by enforcing the Comstock Act. However, Trump has committed to keeping abortion pills available.

“We have more work to do,” Foreman said. “We’ve got to keep pushing.”

Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, who offered a prayer at the beginning of the rally, told CNA in the midst of the March that he believes this year “there is a renewed hope.”

“This is probably my 35th, 36th march,” he said, adding that he continues to attend each year “because it’s the most important human rights issue of our time.”

“A society that permits the killing of its children, that society has no future,” he continued. “We have to change our policies on this, and we have to win these state referendums.”

The archbishop emphasized that even though Roe v. Wade has been overturned, the pro-life movement still has work to do.

“I think there’s a renewed hope with the change of administration, with the freeing of the pro-life prisoners that were in jail,” Naumann observed as a crowd of students passed by.

“We have our work cut out for us, we’ve seen that,” the prelate said. “I’m from Kansas, and we were the first state to have a ballot initiative after the Dobbs decision. Unfortunately, we lost it, but at some point we’re going to come back and we’re going to win that.”

A Catholic University of America student marching with his fellow Cardinals told CNA he was marching for babies who face a grim statistical likelihood of being aborted.

“I march for many reasons,” CUA freshman Jackson Russell told CNA. “But the biggest one is that I’m autistic, and abortion attacks autistic people the most.” Russell, who is studying political science, attended the march with a large group of students from the university.

Pointing to research that has found that mothers who discover that their unborn child has autism are “more likely to get an abortion,” Russell told CNA: “My people are being attacked, that’s why I’m out here.”

Benedictine College students who traveled from Atchison, Kansas, to Washington, D.C., for the March for Life were jubilant, shouting pro-life slogans and carrying a large red-and-black banner through the streets.

Elizabeth Peterson, a junior year honors student at Benedictine, told CNA: “I’m marching because I think that babies have as much right to life as anyone else does, and that includes unborn children.”

“Unless there is equal justice for everyone,” she said, “there is really equal justice for none.”

Peterson, who has attended the March for Life five times, said she was “so proud” to have traveled to the march this year with Benedictine, which she described as “a very pro-life school, [and] very Catholic.”

“Everyone just feels really happy this year,” she said. “I don’t know what it is, but everyone just feels really excited.”

Peterson also said it was “cool to see the vice president speak,” adding: “I think just the mindset has shifted a little bit.”

Members of the secular pro-life group Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) held signs in front of the United States Supreme Court — the finishing point of the March for Life — urging Congress to repeal the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

The FACE Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994, increased penalties for people who are convicted of obstructing access to abortion clinics or pro-life pregnancy centers — but has almost exclusively been used to convict peaceful pro-life demonstrators over the past four years.

Last night, Trump pardoned 23 pro-life activists who were convicted by President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice, including PAAU Director of Activism Lauren Handy, a Catholic who had been sentenced to nearly five years in prison for her role in a protest.

“I am just so thankful that my friends are out [of prison] and that Trump pardoned them,” Avie Sark, a content creator for PAAU, told CNA. “Our friends were put in prison because of the FACE Act.”

Sark said the FACE Act is “used to criminalize and prosecute peaceful pro-life protesters,” but that “after the death of Roe, hundreds of pregnancy centers [were attacked and] … little to nothing was done about it.”

PAAU member Elise Ketch told CNA the FACE Act seeks to prevent protests in which pro-life activists are “putting our bodies between the oppressor — which is the abortionist — and the oppressed — which is the baby.”

“I want to bring back rescue, which is the protests where we [hold a] sit-in at clinics,” Ketch said.

Tyler Arnold, Madalaine Elhabbal, and Francesca Pollio Fenton contributed to this story. 

(Originally published by Catholic News Agency)

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Vance Promises Pro-Life Movement ‘We Stand With You’ In First Vice Presidential Remarks

(DAILY WIRE) — “It is a blessing to know the truth, and the truth is that unborn life is worthy of protection.”

WASHINGTON — JD Vance delivered his first public remarks as vice president at the 52nd annual March for Life on Friday, vowing to the pro-life movement that the Trump-Vance administration stands by them, and will continue to march with them through the years.

“It is a blessing to know the truth, and the truth is that unborn life is worthy of protection,” he told the thousands of pro-life demonstrators gathered on the National Mall on Friday morning, promising to be back next year. “So please, go forth, not with frustration, but with joy. We are joyful to March for Life. We are joyful to know that that picture on an ultrasound, that is a picture of a baby with hopes and dreams and potential to come. It is a joy and a blessing to fight for the unborn, to work for the unborn, and to March for Life.”

“I want to be clear that this administration stands by you,” he promised the crowd. “We stand with you, and most importantly, we stand with the most vulnerable and the basic principle that people exercising the right to protest on behalf of the most vulnerable should never have the government go after them ever again.”

It was an emotional moment for many of the pro-lifers in the crowd — families pushing strollers and wiping their children’s faces clean, teenagers traveling with their high school teachers, priests and nuns in cheerful groups, and college students from all across the country, joking, flirting, and cheering together. This is a crowd that largely voted for Donald Trump, but many of them are single issue voters, and some were anxious when they went to the ballot box this year. Roe’s overturn had made abortion politically toxic, and they were unsure what their footing was with the former president.

Yet they trusted that if elected, Trump would once again head a pro-life administration, and they remembered that he was the most pro-life president the United States had ever seen — the man who appointed the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade.

And many of those present at the March for Life on Friday told The Daily Wire that his actions in this first week of his presidency alone have reassured them that the Trump-Vance administration will defend life throughout the next four years.

On Thursday, Trump pardoned 23 pro-life activists targeted by President Joe Biden’s administration for their pro-life advocacy. On Friday evening, shortly after the March for Life had ended, Trump signed an executive order aboard Air Force One banning international non-governmental organizations that promote abortions from receiving federal funding. His action reinstates the Mexico City Policy — a serious priority for many pro-lifers.

And the president himself sent a video message to the march, as he traveled to view the damage that flooding and wildfires had done to North Carolina and California.

“In my second term, we will again stand proudly for families and for life,” Trump promised the crowd, praising the “tireless work and devotion” of the pro-life movement for helping to defeat Roe v. Wade, struck down by the Supreme Court in June 2022. He slammed Democratic extremism on abortion, pointing out that many Democrat-led states and lawmakers embrace abortion up until birth — and even allowing babies to die if they are born alive in botched abortions.

That message concluded: “To all of the very special people marching today in this bitter cold, I know your hearts are warm and your spirits are strong, because your mission is just very, very pure, to forge a society that welcomes and protects every child as a beautiful gift from the hand of our creator. Thank you for never losing hope and never giving up. Thank you for your tremendous support, God bless you, and God bless America.”

Vance emphasized his support and belief in the movement as well.

“You guys are the beating heart of the pro-life movement, and you have saved many lives already, and you’re going to save more again,” Vance told the pro-life movement on Friday. “You being here, this very march is a reminder of the incredible strength and unity of the pro-life movement and from the bottom of my heart, thank you, thank you for being here, and thank you for marching here today.”

“Most importantly, in your works, you remind us that the March for Life is not just a single event that happens on a frigid January day,” he said. “The March for Life is the work of the pro-life movement every single day from this point forward.”

 

(Originally published in Daily Wire)

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Trump, Vance speak at antiabortion March for Life rally in D.C.

(WASHINGTON POST) — Thousands turned out and sent a message to Trump — a complicated figure for the antiabortion movement.

Nearly three years after the U.S. Supreme Court knocked down federal abortion rights, and only days after the self-described “most pro-life president ever” reentered the White House, thousands of antiabortion demonstrators marched to the U.S. Capitol on Friday for the 52nd March for Life.

But even bolstered by Donald Trump’s reelection and a new ruling GOP trifecta, the annual rite found the antiabortion movement at a crossroads, still working to stake out a new front line in a shifting fight over abortion access.

In a video address played Friday to the frigid, wind-whipped crowd, Trump reiterated his antiabortion record but stopped short of promising to pursue restricting abortion access.

“In my second term we will again stand proud for families and for the rights of the unborn,” shielding them from “radical left attacks on churches and crisis centers,” Trump said. “We will get them to justice one way or another.”

On the eve of the rally, he pardoned 23 people who were convicted of blocking access to reproductive health clinics, fulfilling another campaign promise to reward political supporters who have run afoul of the law. And on Friday, the Justice Department said it would scale back Biden-era efforts to prosecute demonstrators who interfere with patient access to the clinics.

The crowd’s biggest reaction at the march, however, came after Trump’s image faded from the monitor and Vice President JD Vance took the stage. In his first public appearance since taking office, Vance positioned what has long been among the nation’s most divisive social issues as a problem intertwined with economic struggle — a theme that helped power the Republican ticket to dominance last November.

“It is the task of our government to make it easier for young moms and dads to afford to have kids,” Vance said. “It should be easier to raise a family, easier to find a good job, easier to build a home to raise that family in, easier to save up and purchase a good stroller or a crib for a nursery.”

The messaging was echoed by many speakers Friday, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) — who told the crowd Dobbs did not signal the fight’s end; the battle was to change American culture itself.

“People have asked me if we are done marching in Washington because Roe versus Wade was overturned,” Jennie Bradley Lichter, president-elect of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, told the crowd at the start of the rally. “No, of course not, we are not done. We will keep marching until abortion is not only illegal but unthinkable. We have so much work left to do.”

Since Dobbs, a handful of states have set their own restrictions, and as of October, one in three women ages 18 to 44 live in a state where abortion is banned or mostly banned. Yet research has found that the number of abortions in the United States increased in 2023 as more people accessed medication-induced abortions to end unwanted pregnancies.

A national exit poll conducted by Edison Research from the 2024 election shows that 65 percent of Americans said abortion should be legal in most cases, while 31 percent said it should be mostly or always illegal. Notably, Trump won 29 percent support among voters who supported abortion rights, along with 91 percent of those who opposed legal abortion, the poll showed.

“Polling has suggested they’re not winning the battle for hearts and minds anymore,” abortion movement historian Mary Ziegler said of antiabortion activists. “In that sense, the movement finds itself at a crossroads.”

Since the fall of Roe, antiabortion groups have sharpened their focus on pressing federal lawmakers to defund Planned Parenthood and launched legal efforts to restrict access to mifepristone, a widely used abortion medication. March for Life has marches planned in 17 states in 2025, according to its website.

States have staked out vastly different positions, with the most conservative banning all or most abortions. This month, Maryland enshrined the right to abortion access in the state’s constitution.

Bob Craig, 65, a deacon who traveled to the march with a group of Massachusetts parishes, said this year marked at least his 10th March for Life. He said the sense of unity kept him coming back. Today, Craig said he was particularly interested to hear from Vance.

“Politics aside, it’s comforting to know we have that kind of voice in the vice president’s office advocating for us,” Craig said, agreeing with Trump’s assessment that abortion is an issue best left to the states. He said he thought a federal abortion ban would go against the Constitution.

“I believe that people get to make their own decisions in terms of state government, but now this shifts the responsibility to make good choices at a state level in their legislation against abortion.”

Organizers expected up to 150,000 demonstrators, according to a National Parks Services permit application. The agency does not document crowd sizes. The area of the Washington Monument grounds cordoned off was nearly full Friday, and buses of high school students, college ministry groups and seniors alike who traveled to the nation’s capital to demonstrate.

The Patriot Front, a white supremacist organization, also joined the march, holding a banner that declared: “Strong families make strong nations.” A live stream shared on X by News2Share’s Ford Fischer showed the group marching by the Washington Monument while carrying flagpoles with an upside down American flag, the Betsy Ross flag and a flag with the group’s logo. At one point, several teenage boys or young adult men walked past the group and gave members a fist bump.

Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life, condemned the group’s presence in a statement: “March for Life promotes the beauty, dignity, and worth of every human life by working to end the violence of abortion. We condemn any organization that seeks to exclude a person or group of people based on the color of their skin or any other characteristic.”

Vance’s keynote address directly urged the crowd to think culturally, but also noted the government had a role to play in helping families.

“We failed a generation by not only permitting a culture of abortion on demand but neglecting to help young parents achieve what they need to have a happy and meaningful life,” he said. “We need a culture that celebrates life at all stages and truly believes the benchmark of national successes is not our GDP numbers or our stock market, but whether people feel they can raise healthy and thriving families in our country.”

For Liberty University students Evan Gaitonde, 18, and Bo Bishop, 19, the vice president’s pro-family message hit home.

“He knows what it’s like to be a father, he knows the joys of parenthood, and he wants to spread that to the generation of today to encourage us,” said Bishop, who was among the more than 1,000 students the Christian university bussed in.

“When I have kids one day I hope they get this kind of love and support from the community,” Gaitonde said.

Leaving the staging area, Gloria O’Brien, 66, stood out from the crowd in a sequined black beret with a gold sticker on the back reading “Made in the womb.”

The Guatemalan native said she found the level of controversy over abortion to be shocking when she arrived in the United States in her 30s.

“In Guatemala, every family loves babies,” she said. “When I hear that people are rejecting the babies, I was like, ‘why?’”

She and her husband, Gregory O’Brien, 60, are retired and living in a small town in Colorado. They said they were excited to attend their first antiabortion march.

As a former public school superintendent in Los Angeles County, Gregory O’Brien said he has been moved by watching young people grow throughout his career, and feels compelled to protect that potential.

While he said he’d love to see some federal policy changes under Trump, or more state constraints on abortion, it’s more of a new mentality among the American public that he’s after.

The goal is “to make it unthinkable,” he said.

(Originally published in Washington Post)

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‘Every human life is priceless’: Why we march

(FOX NEWS) — Women need to know that they are strong and capable, and the pro-life community will love and support them long after their child is born

As we gather today for the 52nd annual March for Life – the world’s largest annual human rights demonstration – we mark a time of new beginnings. Earlier this week our country welcomed a new presidential administration, and, closer to home, our organization also begins a new season of leadership.

It has undoubtedly been the honor of a lifetime to serve this incredible organization – and the collective millions of marchers – for the past 12 years, but I am delighted to now pass this responsibility to Jennie Bradley Lichter, with confidence that she is the woman meant to lead the March for Life and the pro-life community in this next season.

With such exciting changes, it is also good to recall what is unchangeable; the thing that draws countless people to Washington, D.C., year after year and that which makes the March for Life great.

I’m referring to the foundational values that anchor our efforts, remembering that all human life, born and unborn, has inherent dignity and value that deserves to be protected and supported in families, communities and by law. The unborn are the poorest of the poor, the most vulnerable, and they are worthy of every possible protection we can offer. I can’t think of a more worthy cause.

This year’s theme, Life: Why We March, highlights our desire to refocus on these attractive, commonsense and basic fundamentals of life. These include the truth that each life has inherent dignity and that science shows that life begins at the moment of conception or fertilization. The heart of the pro-life movement is about providing the resources and support pregnant women and families need, and last, we need to continue to utilize the power of witness and storytelling to change hearts and minds.

Science clearly shows that life begins at the moment of conception/fertilization. From that moment on a new human life in the womb possesses its own genetically unique DNA, different from its mother and father. At just six weeks, expectant parents can see and hear their child’s heartbeat and by 12 weeks all other organs have formed.

These are only a handful of the many moments of gestational development that give witness to the reality that each life is unrepeatable, inherently valuable, and deserving of our love and protection.

Tragically, we live in a culture that presents confusing messages to women in this regard, presenting the false idea that abortion is necessary to flourish and succeed. Yet the tragic reality is that 60% of women who had abortions would have preferred to give birth if they felt they had the emotional or financial support they needed.

Women need to know that they are strong and capable, and the pro-life community will love and support them long after their child is born. That’s why there are approximately 3,400 community-based maternity homes and pregnancy resource centers across America that help women in need who want to keep their children.

Denying the inherent value and dignity of unborn children through elective abortion has scarred innumerable women, families and doctors, and, of course, robbed us of hundreds of thousands of innocent and precious children each year. The speakers who address the March for Life this year, from a man who survived a botched abortion to a former abortionist, have come to share their testimony and shine light on the tragedy of abortion, while serving as a beacon of hope for our future.

Sometimes we forget that abortion impacts real people for the rest of their lives. But by boldly sharing our stories, we can remind women and families around us that their lives, as well as their child’s, are worthy of love and protection. There is strength in our voices and power in our presence.

We march for unborn children in the womb, all of whom deserve love and life. But being pro-life goes far beyond protecting those still in the womb; we stand by and support every struggling mother and family as they welcome new life into the world. We also march for the former abortionists, those who have survived abortions, and the women who have suffered the physical and emotional pain of abortion.

Our message is simple, direct and clear: each human life from the moment of conception deserves our respect and protection, and we are here to support those lives every step of the way. The outpouring of love and support shown by the pro-life community must serve as a guiding light in the midst of so much darkness.

So the world continues to change as it always will, but the goals of the March for Life remain steadfast and true. We will continue to affirm the beautiful truth that unborn children are equal members of our human family, offer resources and support to women and families in need, and let our witness tell the story that every human life is priceless and the tragedy of abortion harms us all. And that is why we march.

(Originally published in Fox News)

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What Trump and Vance Told March for Life Crowd

(THE DAILY SIGNAL) — On Friday thousands of supporters of the pro-life cause gathered to participate in the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., and heard from President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, who were sworn into office earlier this week.

In a prerecorded video, Trump pledged that in his second term his administration would “again stand proudly for families and for life, we will protect the historic gains we have made and stop the radical Democrat push for a federal right to unlimited abortion on demand up to the moment of birth and even after birth.”

The 47th president also promised to support adoption and foster care and to investigate attacks on churches and crisis pregnancy centers. The president also noted his recent pardoning of pro-life activists.

“I will also end the weaponization of law enforcement against Americans of faith,” said Trump. “I’m releasing the Christian and pro-life activists who were persecuted by the Biden regime for praying and living out their faith.”

The vice president struck a similar note, making it clear that pro-life activists should no longer fear the Justice Department.

“No longer will the federal government direct FBI raids on the homes of people like Mark Houck and other Catholic and Christian activists who are fighting for the unborn every single day,” said Vance. The FBI came with guns to the house of Houck, a pro-life activist, and his wife and seven children without notice.

“And no longer will our government throw pro-life protesters and activists, elderly grandparents, or anybody else in prison. It stopped on Monday and we’re not going to let it come back to this country,” Vance added.

In his address, he also decried the anti-family culture of the United States.

“We failed a generation, not only by permitting a culture of abortion on demand, but also by neglecting to help young parents achieve the ingredients they need to lead a happy and meaningful life,” he said.

Vance declared that he saw a role of the government to provide an environment that supported families.

“And it is the task of our government is to make it easier for young moms and dads to afford to have kids, to bring them into the world and to welcome them as the blessings that we know they are here at the March for Life.”

The 40-year-old, who has three young children with his wife Usha, continued:

Now it should be easier, easier to raise a family, easier to find a good job, easier to build a home to raise that family in, easier to save up and purchase a good stroller, a crib for a nursery.

We need a culture that celebrates life at all stages, one that recognizes and truly believes that the benchmark of national success is not our [gross domestic product] number or our stock market, but whether people feel that they can raise thriving and healthy families in our country.

The vice president touted the record of Trump during his first term, including his appointments of three justices of the Supreme Court who helped overturn Roe v. Wade, as well as dozens of pro-life federal judges.

Vance noted that, just four days into his second term, Trump had already endorsed the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, and he promised that the Justice Department would no longer target pro-life activists.

The vice president concluded his speech by praising the pro-life marchers.

“You make it possible for us to stand here and say that America is fundamentally a pro-baby, a pro-life, and a pro-family country.”

The Daily Signal also caught up with some pro-life marchers to ask them what they hoped to hear from the new administration. Father Ben Rynearson, a Catholic priest, told The Daily Signal that he hoped the country could “get back to a place in our culture and our societies where all life is seen as something sacred … to protect the unborn and those who have no voice, to be able to speak for those who have no voice.”

Eva Cooley and Hunter Dalke, an engaged couple active in pro-life politics, also discussed what they wanted to see from the Trump administration. Cooley told The Daily Signal that one of her biggest priorities she hoped to see from the new administration was planning to defund Planned Parenthood.

“Planned Parenthood has caused so much damage to so many women, and they are funded with taxpayer dollars to allow abortions to happen, and that is just a horrible use of funds, a horrible use of resources. And so I’m really hoping that the Trump administration can stop pouring so much of our money into this abortion giant,” Cooley said.

Dalke added that there needed to be “accurate messaging about what abortion actually is.”

“Across America, women are being told lies about what abortion has been, telling them that it’s not the killing of a human life. And I think we can do better and treat women better.”

Cooley and Dalke also expressed appreciation for Trump’s pardoning of pro-life activists Thursday. “We were just so grateful that these peaceful protesters, some of whom were just praying outside of abortion clinics, can finally go home to their families,” said Cooley.

“It was just absolutely ridiculous and an utter misuse of power from the Biden-Harris administration to put these protesters in jail. And we’re looking forward to seeing what else Trump can do,” she added.

(Originally published by The Daily Signal)