Will Pro-Life Marchers Boo Trump and Vance?

By David G. Bonagura, Jr. ( bio - articles - email ) | Jan 21, 2026

One constant has endured through 52 years of American political and cultural upheavals: the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., has been a joyful, ebullient event. Other protests, fueled by outrage or resentment, push forward with angry shouting and can court trouble with law enforcement. The March for Life, by contrast, regardless of what party happens to lead Washington, has always featured cheering, prayer, music, and the peaceful parading of tens of thousands of people. What was founded to protest Roe v. Wade became—and has remained—an enthusiastic rally to support human life in the womb.

Last year’s March carried an added excitement: President Donald Trump had just been inaugurated for his second term. He is the only sitting president to have addressed the March in person and he appointed three justices to the Supreme Court who, in voting to overturn Roe, fulfilled the March’s mission. Having returned to office, he sent newly elected Vice President JD Vance to represent him.

The crowd eagerly awaited Vance. He was elevated to keynote status, bumping Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, arguably the most successful pro-life governor in American history. And his address did not disappoint. He called President Trump “the most pro-family, most pro-life American president of our lifetimes,” he declared that “we march to protect the unborn,” and he promised to return to the March in 2026.

When the vice president addresses pro-lifers this Friday, he will conclude a year when the most pro-life American president seemed thoroughly uninterested in living up to his own billing. The Trump administration has registered a few pro-life accomplishments. It reinstated the Mexico City Policy to block federal money from funding abortion overseas, rescinded Biden orders that facilitated abortion access, and cut off Medicaid funding for abortion. The president pardoned 23 pro-lifers jailed for violating the Freedom of Access for Clinics (FACE) Act. The Big Beautiful Bill suspended funding for Planned Parenthood for one year.

These actions, though not insignificant, are largely behind the scenes, important to activists yet outside the scope of regular voters. Given that Trump has not advanced a single pro-life measure in the Republican-led Congress, not even one that garners wide support such as repealing the FACE Act or strengthening the Infants Born Alive Protection Act, this appears to be his strategy: throw a bone to the base, but don’t invite it to the feast. In fact, its preferred items cannot be found on the president’s menu.

The Trump administration’s first year includes more than sins of omission. In October, the FDA approved a generic version of the abortion drug mifepristone. A spokesman for the Department of Health of Human Services, led by former abortion supporter Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., claimed approval was automatic. Somehow, such respect for protocol has not inhibited HHS’s approach to vaccines and food pyramids. Two weeks later, the Trump administration announced an agreement with the pharmaceutical company EMD Serono to lower the cost of IVF-related drugs. For pro-lifers, IVF is a pernicious cousin of abortion since it manipulates human embryos, destroying some in the process, to manufacture life.

This month, President Trump further distanced himself from pro-lifers when he declared that Republicans in Congress “have to be a little flexible on [the] Hyde [Amendment],” a spending rider that has prevented taxpayer money from funding abortion for nearly fifty years. Hyde has been a guarantee of Republican pro-life politics, yet the president, in a striking irony, broke it to extend subsidies for Obamacare, the program he has spent years trying—and failing—to overturn. The president’s equivocation had immediate consequences: 17 Republicans in the House voted with Democrats to extend the subsidies without the Hyde Amendment protections.

Trump’s Hyde Amendment flop has ignited pro-life leaders to challenge him. Will they express their frustration at the March for Life when Vice President Vance—or President Trump himself, appearing on prerecorded video message—begin praising themselves for how well they think they have protected life?

The March for Life bills itself as bigger than politics, as this year’s theme of “Life is a Gift” makes clear. The crowd will rightly cheer pro-life speakers and performers, which include the Friends of Club 21 Choir, a chorus of young adults with Down Syndrome, who will sing the National Anthem. But in Washington politics can never be ignored.

The March for Life Organization announced via email that it is “thrilled” that Vance is returning. By ignoring the Trump administration’s failures on life, March organizers risk conveying to GOP leaders that happy sounding words about life speak louder than actions.

Last year, just before Vance took the stage, Wheaton College student Hannah Lape issued a tacit yet unmistakable challenge to the Trump administration that has proved prophetic. “The next four years of America’s history will be defined either by courage or by cowardice. Abortion is not a states’ rights issue to be ignored; it is a fundamental human rights crisis weighing on America’s shoulders. Our country cannot be great until the preborn are protected.”

In 2020, Trump declared to the March for Life crowd, “Every person is worth protecting. Every human life—born and unborn—is made in the holy image of almighty God.” After a year back in office, Trump has recoiled from this courageous statement. On Friday, pro-lifers can send a resounding message to the president and vice president: make substantive efforts to defend life or lose pro-lifers’ support. Whether they have the courage to do so may define history.