The anti-abortion movement “is about whether we will remain a civilization under God or whether we ultimately return to the paganism that dominated the past,” Vice President JD Vance told this year’s March for Life rally in Washington, D.C.
Speaking at the Jan. 23 event on the National Mall, Vance linked opposition to abortion to conservatives’ disdain for DEI and “radical gender ideologies that prey on our children.”
He also took the occasion to remind the crowd of his comments at last year’s rally where he said, “One of the things I most wanted in the United States of America was more families and more babies.
“So, let the record show you have a vice president who practices what he preaches,” he added. “Usha and I announced this week that we’re expecting our fourth, and it will be our third baby boy.”
“Let the record show you have a vice president who practices what he preaches.”
Vance repeatedly gave President Donald Trump credit for advancing the anti-abortion cause.
Through the U.S. Supreme Court decision three years ago that overturned Roe v. Wade, “what we did, what the president did, what the Supreme Court did, was put a definitive end to the tyranny of judicial rule on the question of human life,” he said.
The vice president gave full credit for the high court ruling to Donald Trump, who in his previous stint as president was allowed to nominate three justices to the court.
“He shattered a 50-year culture of disposability, one that treated human life as expendable the moment that it became inconvenient. And he empowered our nation and our movement to build a culture of life from the grassroots up.”
The 50-year effort to overturn Roe is now complete and the focus of the anti-abortion movement must shift, Vance said. “We’re not trying to argue to the Supreme Court anymore. We are trying to persuade our fellow citizens that we must build up that culture of life.”
The vice president said the Trump administration has begun “undoing the evils we saw under the previous administration,” such as:
- “Throwing priests and grandmothers in prison for praying outside a clinic.”
- Mandating taxpayer funding for abortions.
- “We have secured religious freedom in the United States of America.”
- “We’ve ended the censorship of Christians, Jews and other Americans of faith who were punished simply for following their faith in public life.”
- “We gutted Biden-era rules and ensured that no nun, no nurse, no pharmacist and no physician has to check their faith and their values at the door of their workplace.”
- “At many of our departments, we’ve reinstated a ban on the use of fetal tissue in federal research.”
- “We’ve completely realigned U.S. foreign aid and turned off the tap for NGOs whose sole purpose is to dissuade people from having kids.”
Vance also attempted to fend off criticism from the far right that the Trump administration has not done enough to stop all forms of abortion.
“I’d ask you to look at where the fight for life stood just one decade ago, and now look where it stands today,” he said. “We have made tremendous strides over the last year, and we’re going to continue to make strides over the next three years to come. But I’m a realist. I know there is still much road ahead to travel together.
“Take heart in how far we’ve come. But don’t lose sight of why we march. And so long as you are out there marching for life, I hope you know that the vice president of the United States will march with you.”
The March for Life is the largest annual pro-life gathering in the U.S., held every year on or around the anniversary of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade.
Trump also spoke at the rally, as did Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.