It is a chance to make it clear to Trump, as well as to any Republicans tempted to abandon or sideline the pro-life cause, that its advocates are not going ...
There has always been something inspiring and deeply heartening to see thousands of people — many of them young, all of them earnest — come from across the country to Washington, D.C. for the March for Life. Often braving frigid conditions, they converge on a place not known for its warmth to them to continue the noble fight against abortion, to remember the millions of lives that never were, and — for many years — to protest the Supreme Court’s unjust decision in Roe v. Wade.
When Roe blessedly fell in summer 2022, pro-lifers rightly celebrated. But the return of abortion regulation “to the people and their elected representatives,” as Dobbs put it, created challenges. That fall began a string of losses for pro-lifers on state-level abortion referenda. This past fall provided only a few exceptions to that trend. State politicians and local pro-life activists had long done what they could locally. After Dobbs, many states started their own Marches for Life. But with much of the movement’s energy and resources focused on D.C. for so long, state efforts to fight pro-abortion referenda were outgunned and outmatched. Local pro-lifers, whose virtue cannot be overstated, faced asymmetrical fights against the pro-abortion behemoth, which was bolstered by national resources and attention.
Obviously, even during this period, abortion remained to some extent a national concern. Radically pro-abortion Democrats controlled Congress for some of that time and the presidency for all of it. Yet the changed nature of the abortion debate raised serious questions about whether D.C.-centered efforts such as the March for Life needed to change their strategy and redistribute some of their focus to the states.
That Republicans now have complete — albeit narrow, in Congress — control of Washington would seem to make such questions about the March and its purpose even more pressing. But the opposite is true. The March for Life has renewed importance. It is “the first post-Dobbs March with a Republican in the White House,” as Michael J. New described it. That Republican, Donald Trump, delivered real wins for pro-lifers in his first term. Despite Trump’s rocky history on the issue, his administration worked assiduously within the federal bureaucracy against abortion. And the justices Trump appointed provided the margin that made Dobbs possible.
Trump, however, has always been transactional. And there is some evidence that he believes, having already done things for pro-lifers, he is no longer as encumbered by their expectations. In 2022, he blamed pro-lifers for Republicans’ poor performance in that year’s midterms. In the 2024 presidential campaign, he presented a confusing picture of his actual stance: While setting himself against Democrats’ most extreme views on abortion, he initially supported a Florida constitutional amendment that would have expanded access to abortion, before reversing himself, and proclaimed that his administration “will be great for women and their reproductive rights.” His inaugural address, heavy on policy priorities, did not mention abortion. He has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as head of the Department of Health and Human Services. This is an agency Democratic administrations have transformed into a machine to promote their ideology, very much including expanding abortion. Kennedy’s ability and willingness to purge this agency of its leftism is suspect, especially without key figures from Trump’s first term around.
From Trump’s perspective, Kennedy’s nomination makes most sense as another political transaction. Whatever the actual size of the constituency Kennedy activated, he did what he could to channel it to Trump. But pro-lifers should not accept a designation as a lesser element in Trump’s political coalition, no longer as worthy of his attention. This year’s March for Life is a chance to make it clear to Trump, as well as to any Republicans tempted to abandon or sideline the pro-life cause, that its advocates are not going anywhere. Pre-recorded messages from Trump and even in-person appearances by Vice President JD Vance — who adopted Trump’s position on abortion during the 2024 campaign — aren’t enough. The pardoning of pro-lifers unjustly imprisoned for praying and demonstrating in and around abortion clinics is welcome but still insufficient.
Republicans in Washington during this period in power should dedicate themselves fully to the pro-life cause. Pro-lifers should push them to do so, and not accept political belittlement. The March for Life has endured because its cause is just, and because its believers are nobly dedicated to it. Year after year, they come to Washington not for themselves, but for those millions of lives that never were, and so that future lives might not suffer the same fate. They march so that politicians, including Trump, cannot ignore them — or forget the unborn.