WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Vice President JD Vance told participants at the 53rd annual March for Life in Washington Jan. 23 that President Donald Trump is their “ally” in the White House, amid concerns from some in the pro-life movement about remaining policy priorities just over a year into Trump’s second term in the White House.
During his comments, Vance mentioned the recent announcement from him and his wife, Usha Vance, that they are expecting their fourth child.
“Now, some of you may remember that in my remarks last year, I told you all one of the things I most wanted in the United States of America was more families and more babies,” Vance said. “So let the record show you have a vice president who practices what he preaches.”
In his comments in person at the rally to marchers, Vance acknowledged “the elephant in the room,” which he called “a fear” that “not enough progress has been made, not enough that happened on the political arena, that that we’re not going fast enough, that our politics have failed to answer the clarion call to life that this charge represents, and that all of us, I believe, hold in our hearts.”
“I want you to know that I hear you, and that I understand there will inevitably be debates within this movement,” Vance continued. “We love each other, and we’re going to have open conversations about how best we use our political system to advance life, how prudential we must be in the cause of advancing human life. I think these are good, honest and natural debates, and frankly, they’re not just good for all of you. They help keep people like me honest, and that’s an important thing.”
The comments from Vance, and from Trump, who addressed the rally by video message, came as some pro-life leaders criticized Trump’s recent comments to House Republicans telling them to be “flexible” on the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits public funding of elective abortions, in negotiations on health care subsidies — to the disappointment of pro-life groups that have long supported that policy.
Pro-life leaders have also objected to a September decision by the Food and Drug Administration, which operates under the Department of Health and Human Services, to approve Evita Solutions’ generic version of mifepristone, a pill commonly but not exclusively used for early abortion. The drug’s approval came despite previous indications from FDA and HHS officials that mifepristone would undergo a safety review. On its website, Evita Solutions calls mifepristone “an effective, safe way to terminate early pregnancy.” It was also the second time a Trump administration approved a generic pill for abortion, which it did in 2019.
But Vance told the crowd, “You have an ally in the White House.”
“It is why he is talking to the pro-life cause and why we do it in this administration, and it’s why three years ago, we cannot forget he delivered in his Supreme Court justices delivered, the most important Supreme Court decision of my lifetime,” Vance said in reference to the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which overturned the court’s previous abortion precedent, including Roe v. Wade.
Vance said, “Our administration has worked very hard to lead that effort and to pick up the pieces, to clean up the wreckages of five decades of bad policy on the question of life,” citing actions including expanded conscience protection for healthcare workers, and “policies that make family life possible,” such as “Trump accounts,” government-backed savings accounts for children under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
During Vance’s speech, some attendees chanted, “Ban the abortion pill!” Several national pro-life groups have called on the Trump-Vance administration to roll back the Biden administration’s actions on mifepristone to the regulations in place during the previous Trump-Pence administration.
During his 2022 U.S. Senate bid, Vance, a Catholic, said he supported a federal 15-week abortion ban — a measure potentially affecting nearly 6% of abortions in the U.S. But in the days leading up to his selection as the Republican vice presidential nominee, Vance moderated his position on abortion, aligning with Trump’s stated position that abortion policy should be left to the states. Vance also confirmed Trump, as president, would oppose a federal abortion ban if Congress passed such a law.
In a 2024 interview with NBC News, Vance called Trump’s approach to abortion “pragmatic” and said he also supported mifepristone “being accessible.” Although mifepristone can be used in early miscarriage care protocols, Vance did not qualify his statement.
Nearly 9 out of 10 abortions take place within the first trimester, with more than six of 10 abortions performed through a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol.
But in his pre-recorded comments recorded from the White House, Trump said that with the Dobbs decision the pro-life movement “won the greatest victory in his history.”
“I want to thank every single one of you who’s out on this winter day, a beautiful day, but it’s winter, nevertheless, to stand up for the unborn,” Trump said.
After Trump’s video, Jennie Bradley Lichter, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, said in remarks at the rally, “Thank you to our president for all of the pro-life victories he’s delivered in his first five years in office so far. We are looking forward to many more in the next few years.”
During comments at the rally, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said it was a historic moment for the pro-life movement to “have the White House, the Senate, and the House all working together to enact meaningful and historic pro life victories.”
“We measure our success on the number of lives we save and the lives we improve and uplift, of common sense, life, confirming policy,” Johnson said.
However, multiple studies show that since the Dobbs decision, the abortion rate in the U.S. has increased rather than decreased, despite bans in some states. According to Guttmacher, a research firm that tracks numbers for the abortion industry, abortion reached 1.04 million in 2024, up from 874,000 in 2016, which was the last year of consistent decline before numbers started rising again.
The annual March for Life, which calls itself the “largest annual human rights demonstration in the world,” takes place on or around the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which previously legalized abortion nationwide. This year’s event marks the fourth march since the high court overturned Roe and related abortion precedent in its 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision.
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