". . . and having done all . . . stand firm." Eph. 6:13

Newsletter

The News You Need

Subscribe to The Washington Stand

X
News

‘Show Courage in Defense of the Unborn’: March for Life 2025

January 24, 2025

President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and a host of national pro-life leaders addressed the nation’s largest pro-life gathering on Friday, where speakers had a simple message: “Show courage in defense of the unborn.”

Vance made his first public speech since becoming vice president at the 52nd annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., where he told overflowing crowds of people from every state in the union, “We stand with you.”

The March for Life, whose theme this year is “Life: Why We March,” began in 1974, the first year after the Supreme Court’s now-overturned Roe v. Wade decision. Six months before Roe’s 50th anniversary, the Supreme Court vacated the holding and held the judges wrongly inserted a so-called right to abortion into the Constitution where none ever existed. Two years later, tens or hundreds of thousands continue to gathered on the Mall in the bitter cold and urged politicians to assure every innocent life is protected by law from conception until natural death.

“It feels like a South Dakota day!” newly elected Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told the frozen crowd.

How to Defeat the Abortion Industry

The cold felt like a greater contrast to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R), who told pro-life voters to demand politicians treat the right to life as the imperative matter it is.

“Here is what you should be asking your elected officials to do on the issue of the sanctity of life: Show courage in defense of the unborn,” said DeSantis. “The sanctity of life does not depend on poll results. It doesn’t depend on which way the wind is blowing. It’s an enduring truth, and it represents the foundation of our society” enshrined in the Declaration of Independence.

DeSantis encouraged voters that state-level victories are possible, even against the well-funded abortion industry, and exhorted politicians that standing up for life can fuel electoral success.

After the 2022 Dobbs decision, the abortion industry “poured hundreds of millions of dollars” into radical, “deceptively worded” pro-abortion ballot initiatives, said DeSantis. “They don’t tell the truth. They rely on a blizzard of lies” to pass initiatives. “They never made the case as to why you should have elective abortions on demand up until nine months.”

In Florida, “they put $120 million into enacting” Amendment 4 “as part of our constitution. The media was behind them 100%.” The provision “would have led to 40,000 abortions every single year in Florida” and made the Sunshine State “the epicenter of abortion tourism” in the Southeast.

DeSantis enrolled state leaders, barnstormed the state, had abortion survivors speak out, and ran pro-life public service announcements. “We were doing this, quite frankly, in the face of public opinion. The wind was in our face,” said DeSantis. Amendment 4 fell short of the 60% threshold necessary to become a constitutional amendment, and Florida became “the first state in the United States ever to defeat” an abortion ballot initiative.

Pollsters and “Establishment Republicans” told DeSantis “that standing for the right to life was somehow terrible politics. You wouldn’t get elected,” said the governor. “I’m proof that’s not true, because when Dobbs was overturned I ran on a pro-life platform, on the Heartbeat Protection Act, and I won the largest victory that any Republican has ever won in the history of the state of Florida.”

“And I can report now years later, not one single member of the Florida legislature has been defeated for voting for Florida’s Heartbeat Protection Act,” he added. “Since I signed Florida’s heartbeat bill a couple years ago, we have gained 800,000 registered Republicans” statewide.

“Don’t let the naysayers say … that you shouldn’t stand for the right to life. We showed how it’s done in the state of Florida,” said DeSantis.

“Since we were able to beat Amendment 4, Florida’s not only the place where Woke goes to die; it’s the place where babies go to live.”

J.D. Vance: America Must be ‘Pro-Life in the Fullest Sense’

Vice President J.D. Vance called on Americans to embrace the centrality of family, and for the U.S. government to become “pro-family and pro-life in the fullest sense of that word possible.”

After prosperity washed over America, “a culture of radical individualism took root, one where the responsibilities and joys of family life were seen as obstacles to overcome, not as personal fulfillment or personal blessings,” said Vance. “I want more babies in the United States of America. 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 to have kids, to welcome them into the world.”

Vance previewed that the administration would lower the cost of family formation by increasing the child tax credit.

“The benchmark of our national success is not our GDP number or stock market but whether people feel they can raise thriving and healthy families in our country,” said Vance. “We need a culture that celebrates life at all stages.”

Vance called President Trump “the most pro-life, most pro-family president of our lifetimes,” touting his “strong endorsement” of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which stalled in the Senate without getting a single Democratic vote.

The movement’s leaders agree the bill deserves bipartisan support. “It is simply common sense and a basic humanitarian practice to allow a baby who survives an abortion and is born alive to be protected and receive medical care,” the outgoing president of March for Life Action, Jeanne F. Mancini, told TWS. “We call on Congress to align our country’s law with the views of the large majority of Americans, who do not want to see living babies left to die untreated.” 

Until legislation passes, Vance pointed out how Trump has radically changed the tenor of government policy from the Biden-Harris administration. “No longer will our government throw pro-life protesters activists — elderly grandparents or anybody else — in prison. It stopped on Monday, and we’re not going to let it come back to our country,” vowed Vance. “The 47th president has already pardoned those unjustly imprisoned. … People exercising the right to protest on behalf of the most vulnerable should never have the government go after them ever again.”

“We stand by you, we stand with you, and most importantly we stand with the most vulnerable,” Vance told the March for Life crowd. “You guys are the beating heart of the pro-life movement, and you’ve saved many lives already.”

Vance, who earned a reputation as a pro-life stalwart even in the cases of rape and incest during his two-year tenure in the Senate before joining the Trump ticket, later declared on social media, “I was thrilled to join the March for Life this year!”

President Donald Trump: ‘We Will Protect the Historic Gains’

President Donald Trump, who became the first president to address the March for Life in person during his first term, recorded a three-and-a-half-minute message for the 2025 event.

Trump referred to Roe v. Wade as a “disastrous” and “unconstitutional … historic wrong [that] was set right three years ago. I was so proud to be a participant.” However, he inaccurately claimed the Dobbs decision “returned the issue [of abortion] to the state legislatures.” In fact, Dobbs returned abortion to popular control by every level of government: local, state, and federal.

In the next four years, said Trump, “We will protect the historic gains we have made” and hold back Democratic plans to institute a right to abortion up to “and after birth.”

“We will support adoption and foster care,” “investigate radical Left attacks on churches and pro-life centers,” and assure that “never again will religious persecution be allowed to happen in America.”

“Your mission is just,” as well as “very, very pure, to forge a society that welcomes and protects every child as a beautiful gift from the hand of our Creator,” Trump told the crowd.

Republican Congressional Leaders: We’re ‘Committed to Protecting Innocent Life’

The leaders of both chambers of Congress promised legislative action advancing the pro-life cause over the next two to four years.

“I stand with you in this fight, and so do many of my colleagues in Congress,” said Thune. “You are not alone. You are part of a great movement united around the truth that every life is precious. … It says in Psalm 139, You formed my inward parts, You wove me in my mother’s womb. I give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, and my soul knows it very well.’”

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) said the Trump-Vance administration represents “a new golden age in America,” beginning with President Trump’s endorsement of the Born-Alive bill. “It’s a matter of basic humanity to ensure that a child who survives an abortion attempt should be cared for as he or she is lying on the table, gasping for breath. But I am sad telling you only one House Democrat joined us in voting for that bill,” remarked Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas).

“House and Senate Republicans are committed to protecting innocent life. We will do it,” promised Johnson. “America is premised on the self-evident truth that every single person is made in the image of our Creator, God, and thus every individual has inestimable dignity and value,” said Johnson. “Your value is inherent. It is given to you by God. What we need today is a new generation of leaders and activists like William Wilberforce and Frederick Douglass.”

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, observed that “pro-life people are a persevering people of God through prayer and fasting.” Today, “we give thanks to God that abortion-President Joe Biden is gone.” But much more must be done to overturn his legacy, he said.

“We must end all taxpayer subsidies to Planned Parenthood,” said Smith to raucous cheers.

“We can start by demanding that they defund Planned Parenthood,” agreed Lila Rose, founder of Live Action. “Give that $700 million to pregnancy resource centers instead. And most importantly, we must urge our elected officials to abolish abortion.”

“Abolishing abortion is the most important human rights cause of our time. One million of our unborn brothers and sisters are killed every year by abortion,” said Rose. “We can usher in a new golden age for America when we protect every life from the moment of conception. This is our moment. I am so proud of all of you and what America is and will become by God’s grace.”

Some speakers contrasted the woman-centered care of pro-life pregnancy resource centers with the soulless, profit-driven modus operandi of Planned Parenthood. “If the abortion industry cared about women, it would admit the lethal danger of abortion drugs, it would stop leveraging public confusion for political gain, and because abortion is never medically necessary, it would offer both patients in every pregnancy life-affirming care, mom and baby,” said Hannah Lape, a young pro-life leader at Wheaton College. “Today, we affirm that the pro-life generation will not rest until every single abortion facility in our nation closes its doors for good.”

Others joined Vance’s call to focus on the family. World-famous surfer Bethany Hamilton, who excelled at her sport after losing an arm to a shark at the age of 13, said that when she learned of her first pregnancy, she felt profound doubts that she could raise a child. “Now being a mother of four, they are my greatest joy, the most beautiful blessing. They are the high of my every single day,” Hamilton told the crowd. “Yes, there’s challenges and, yes, it’s difficult at times. But the beauty sure outweighs the challenge. I look forward every day to serving my beautiful children and sharing life with them. Children are true wealth, and they are truly the greatest blessing God has to offer us alongside of His grace.”

“Children are a heritage from the Lord. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them,” she said, quoting the Bible.

Aside from the two congressional leaders, other politicians at the March for Life included: Senators James Lankford (R-Okla.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), and Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.). Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Julie Fedorchak (R-N.D.), Andy Harris (R-Md.), Bob Latta (R-Ohio), John McGuire (R-Va.), Bob Onder (R-Mo.), Smith (R-N.J.), Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.), and Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry (R) also attended.

GOP Must Keep ‘Standing Up for the Value of Every Single Child’

Pro-life leaders praised the political leaders for lending their voice to amplify the pro-life movement.

“It was wonderful to see Vice President Vance there in person and President Trump deliver a video address. Both of them recognized the dignity of the unborn child, that every child is a gift from God. To have a president and vice president who recognize each human being is a unique gift to our country, and we should be celebrating every one of these lives,” Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand. “That is a great blessing and one we haven’t had for four years. I was very grateful for the change of tone.”

“In 2020, President Trump made history as the first president to speak in person at the March for Life,” SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser told TWS. “We are thankful he and Vice President Vance continue to prioritize this massive annual human rights demonstration, which brings everyday Americans from all over the country to raise their voices for life. Together Trump and Vance are restoring the gains we were making for unborn children and their mothers before Biden took over and pushed abortion into every aspect of the government. The difference from the previous administration couldn’t be clearer.”

Pro-life advocates praised President Trump for two executive orders he signed on Friday, the first reinstating the Mexico City Policy which bans international organizations that carry out or promote abortions from receiving federal funding, and the second reinstating the Hyde Amendment that bans the federal funding of abortions. In addition, Trump made the decision to have the United States withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO), which promotes abortion. His administration also took decisive action to stop the taxpayer-funded facilitation of abortion by taking ReproductiveRights.gov — a website the Biden-Harris administration established to connect women with abortionists shortly after the 2022 Dobbs decision — offline.

The March for Life gives needed exposure to an issue too many politicians, including Republicans, want to avoid, Lankford told “Washington Watch” Thursday. “There are folks that are out there saying, ‘We should stop talking about this. This is a state issue. Don’t discuss anymore.’ That’s exactly the opposite of what we need,” he said. “I think 50 years from now, that generation will look back at now and say there was a season where we considered some children valuable and some children disposable, and they’ll be appalled by it. But that doesn’t happen accidentally. That happens because this generation talks about the value of every child.”

Pro-life marchers are “standing up for the value of every single child,” said Lankford. Already, he said, most mothers want to raise children rather than abort them. Almost 70% of abortions are coerced or unwantedaccording to a peer-reviewed study published in the medical journal Cureus in May 2023.

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.



Amplify Our Voice for Truth