(The Lion)–Tens of thousands of Americans are traveling to Washington, D.C., for the 53rd annual March for Life Friday, where Vice President J.D. Vance will address rally attendees at noon for the second consecutive year, according to the organization’s press release.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Vice President Vance back to the March for Life this year,” March for Life President Jennie Bradley Lichter said. “His presence at this year’s March underscores the importance of this iconic event and the centrality of the pro-life movement to a healthy conservative coalition.”
Vance, who announced Tuesday his family is expecting their fourth child in late July, said he’s “grateful to the tens of thousands of Americans who travel to the National Mall each year to speak out in support of life,” according to LifeNews.
“Now, the task of our movement is to protect innocent life, it’s to defend the unborn and it’s also to be pro-family and pro-life in the fullest sense of that word possible. So let me state very clearly: I want more babies in the United States of America,” Vance said at the 2025 rally, adding America is “fundamentally a pro-baby, a pro-life and pro-family country.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson also will speak at the rally, as well as Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, according to the National Catholic Register. Johnson addressed the March for Life Rally in 2025, sharing his story as the result of a teenager’s unexpected pregnancy.
President Trump will not attend the rally or the march, but he will address marchers in a pre-recorded video that will play at the event, National Catholic Register reports.
Recently, pro-life leaders have opposed Trump’s call to Congress to reach a compromise on the health bill, possibly including an alteration or abolition of the Hyde Amendment, which protects taxpayer dollars from funding abortion.
Abby Johnson, CEO of And Then There Were None (&TTWN), a pro-life ministry helping abortion workers leave their jobs – as well as a former Planned Parenthood director herself – criticized the March for Life organization for inviting Vance to speak.
“We’re now rewarding this administration by protecting them and propping them up at the March for Life and allowing the vice president to speak as if he is some authority in the pro-life movement, as if he is the most pro-life vice president we’ve ever had, even though they are allowing for the mass destruction of babies in the womb,” Johnson said in a video posted on X.
Johnson cited how the administration recently handed over millions of formerly withheld dollars to Planned Parenthood due to the near total likelihood of losing a court case. She also referenced the administration’s approval of a generic version of the chemical abortion pill this past fall.
Additionally, many pro-life advocates believe the administration is stalling policies that would implement safeguards for mifepristone – the chemical abortion pill – on which the Senate Health committee held a hearing last week.
“Instead of leading pro-life voters through the streets to protest the administration’s mail order abortion regime, [the March for Life] is leading pro-life voters to a stage to be propagandized by the administration,” Washington Examiner senior editor Peter Laffin said in a post on X.
Pro-life advocacy group Live Action was expected to hold a press conference, “Abortion Pill Exposed,” Thursday before the march to discuss the “grave dangers posed by chemical abortion drugs” and “the urgent need for federal legislation to prohibit their use,” according to a press release.
As the midterm elections approach, protecting life and abortion regulation remains a crucial issue for 2026.
