(Headline USA) President Donald Trump vowed to support pro-life advocates in his second term as tens of thousands of demonstrators rallied in Washington on Friday for the annual March for Life.
“We will again stand proudly for families and for life,” Trump declared in a prerecorded video address as he jetsetted across the country touring multiple disaster zones.
Activists had come to the capital for decades to call for the repeal of Roe v. Wade, which imposed a federal abortion mandate, superceding states’ right to self-determination.
Now, with the repeal of Roe in 2022, the pro-lifers are now on the inside rather than the outside—at least for now.
With Trump’s return to the White House and Republicans in control of Congress, the activists want to build on their victories and ensure they cannot be erased by the caprices of a strategically placed activist judge as they were in the 1970s when Roe was decided.
“Our country faces the return of the most pro-family, most pro-life American president of our lifetimes,” Vice President JD Vance told the crowd in his in-person speech.
Vance hailed Trump’s previous actions on abortion, saying the president “delivered on his promise of ending Roe” and appointed hundreds of pro-life judges.
Abortion was largely absent from the stack of dozens of executive actions in Trump’s first days of office. But he has already made quieter moves on abortion, including pardoning several right to life activists and using wording related to fetal personhood in an executive order affirming the scientific consensus that there are two genders, which transgender activists have tried to dispute.
Despite frigid weather, a festive atmosphere surrounded the event as activists showed up with multicolored hats and signs declaring “Life is our revolution” and “MAGA: Make Abortion Gone Again.”
“This is a significant moment in history,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America group. “Yes, we have a march every year but this one is pretty special…There is a trifecta of pro-life Republicans in the White House and the House and the Senate.”
Kristen Cooper, 21, was among several thousand Students for Life America members attending. She said she was especially excited to be at the march with pro-life Republicans in the White House.
She said this march was her fourth but the first with a Republican administration. “It’s surreal, actually.”
Anna Henderson, a teacher at a Catholic high school near Jackson, Michigan, was also attending her fourth march with a busload of her students.
“Just because we have the backing of the administration doesn’t mean the fight is over,” she said. “We still need to change people’s hearts.”
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said there is still work to be done, including calling on Trump to defund Planned Parenthood and offer resources such as paid family leave to women with unplanned pregnancies.
“The march now ends on the backside of the U.S. Capitol to remind our representatives that abortion is not only a state issue, but also a local issue and also a federal issue,” she said.
The battle over abortion since the 2022 decision, has been in state courts and at the ballot box where voters in seven states approved ballot measures for constitutional amendments on abortion in November. Legislatures have been fighting back already with proposals that could make such measures more difficult to get passed.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis celebrated the 2024 defeat of an abortion amendment on the March for Life stage, boasting about his role in the state-funded campaign against the measure, which fell short of the 60% threshold needed to pass constitutional amendments in the state.
“Most elected officials will say ‘Look, what’s on the ballot is not their issue—the people can decide,'” DeSantis told the crowd. “And they wash their hands of it and walk away.”
Ellie Smeal, president and founder of the Feminist Majority Foundation, said her group would counterprotest.
“We want to remind people of the popularity of abortion rights and the importance of this issue, that women and men are supportive of people making their own reproductive health decisions,” she said.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
