JD Vance addresses March for Life: We need ‘a culture that celebrates life at all stages’

CNA Staff, Jan 24, 2025 / 15:35 pm (CNA).

Vice President JD Vance on Friday addressed tens of thousands of people at the March for Life in Washington, D.C., speaking about his pro-life convictions as a Catholic father and promising that the newly minted Trump administration will continue to uphold pro-life policies. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a joyful crowd,” the newly sworn-in vice president said, looking out over the crowds huddled on the National Mall. Temperatures had climbed into the 30s by Friday in D.C. after dangerously cold temperatures earlier in the week moved Monday’s inauguration indoors. 

Vance praised the marchers in attendance for their conviction that “every single child is a miracle and a gift from God” and discussed the obstacles many families and single parents face in being able to afford to have children and raise them in a stable environment.

He said his goal as a government official is to do what he can to create a society that is pro-family “in the fullest sense of that word possible,” adding that the true “benchmark of national success” ought to be how easy it is to raise a family.

“Let me say very simply: I want more babies in the United States of America,” Vance said to loud cheers.

“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 for young moms and dads to afford to have kids, to bring them into the world, and to welcome them as the blessings that we know they are here at the March for Life.”

Vance discussed the Trump administration’s proposal to increase the child tax credit and support for the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Act, which would require doctors to provide lifesaving health care to infants who are born after a failed abortion attempt.

The House of Representatives passed its version of the bill a day after Democrats blocked the bill from advancing in the Senate.

Vance also said pro-life protesters who have faced aggressive prosecution — specifically mentioning Catholic father Mark Houck, who was acquitted in 2023 — will not “ever have the government go after them ever again.”

Vance said becoming a father helped to solidify his convictions that “an unborn life is worthy of protection” and again encouraged the marchers to continue in their work.

“You remind us that the March for Life is not a single event that takes place on a frigid January day. The March for Life is the work of the pro-life movement every day from this point forward,” he said. 

“Go forth not with frustration but with joy. We are joyful to march for life. We are joyful to know that that picture on an ultrasound, that is a picture of a baby with hopes and dreams and potential to come. It is a joy and blessing to fight for the unborn, to work for the unborn, and to march for life.”

Immediately before Vance’s speech, the crowd watched a brief prerecorded video message from President Donald Trump, who is currently in California surveying the damage from the recent wildfires. Trump addressed the March for Life in person in 2020 during his previous term as president. 

Trump, who garnered criticism from some pro-lifers on the campaign trail by insisting that abortion policy should be left up to the states, promised in his video message to end the “weaponization” of law enforcement against pro-life Americans and highlighted his recent pardoning of 23 peaceful pro-life activists who had been convicted and imprisoned under the Biden administration.  

He also called Roe v. Wade “unconstitutional” and said his administration will “protect the historic gains we have made and stop the radical Democrat push for a federal right to unlimited abortion on demand, up to the moment of birth and even after birth. Think of that, after birth. And some people want that, can you believe it?”

“In my second term, we will once again stand for families and for life,” Trump said, praising the marchers for their tenacity.

“Your mission is just very, very pure: to forge a society that welcomes and protects every child as a beautiful gift from the hand of our creator,” he said.

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/261789/jd-vance-addresses-march-for-life-we-need-a-culture-that-celebrates-life-at-all-stages