Addressing thousands of marchers gathered for the 53rd annual March for Life Jan. 23, Vice President JD Vance spoke on the miracle of human life and encouraged pro-lifers to continue building a culture that protects it.

Vance reminded attendees braving cold weather on the National Mall that the 2025 March for Life marked the site of his first public speech as vice president. He recalled telling marchers at the time that he wanted to see more families and more babies in the U.S. 

“Let the record show that you have a Vice President who practices what he preaches!” he said, sharing that he and his wife are expecting their fourth child.  

The couple first announced Jan. 20 that they will welcome a baby boy this summer.

“Life is a gift,” Vance tells marchers 

Vance repeatedly expressed gratitude — for his family, for the pro-life movement, and for the dedicated marchers who turned out despite the cold. He described the movement as one rooted not in anger or resentment but in hope and joy, pointing to families, children, grandparents, and church groups as living proof of its character. 

Vance said the Trump administration stands firmly with the pro-life movement, recognizing both the moral stakes of the cause and the sacrifices made by activists who have sustained it for decades.

Throughout his remarks, Vance returned repeatedly to the theme of this year’s march — that life is a gift.

“I'm grateful to my own family, for my beautiful wife Usha, and that God has given us the miracle of new life again,” he said. “I'm grateful. I'm grateful for this movement, for the truth that is on our side.”

Vance rejected modern cultural narratives that portray marriage and children as burdens or obstacles to freedom, calling such ideas a distortion of reality. Family life and sacrifice, he said, are not enemies of meaning. Rather, they are meaning’s source. 

“We know that family is not just the source of a great joy, but part of God’s design for men and women — a design that extends outward from the family to our neighborhoods, to our communities, and to the United States of America itself,” Vance said.

What does abortion say about civilization?

In one of the most sobering moments of his speech, Vance placed the abortion debate in a broader historical context, arguing that when a society treats children as disposable, it ultimately reveals a civilization’s moral decline. Citing examples from ancient societies, he said cultures that normalize the killing of children mark a return to paganism rather than progress.

“The mark of barbarism,” Vance said, “is that we treat babies like inconveniences to be discarded rather than the blessings to cherish that they are.” 

“The March for Life, my friends, it’s not just about a political issue. As important as all this politics stuff is, it is about whether we will remain a civilization under God or whether we ultimately return to the paganism that dominated the past.”

The pro-life movement in a post-Roe era

Much of Vance’s address reflected on the post-Roe landscape shaped by the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in the case of Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health, which he said “put a definitive end to the tyranny of judicial rule on the question of human life.” 

With that legal battle settled, Vance said the focus has shifted from the courts to persuading fellow citizens “that we must build up that culture of life.”

>> ‘Roe v. Wade’ is gone: Why do we still march? <<.

Vance outlines pro-life policy actions 

Vance also outlined pro-life policy actions taken by the administration, such as ending prosecutions tied to prayer outside abortion facilities, restoring conscience protections for healthcare workers, and defending faith-based adoption and foster care providers.

“Throwing priests and grandmothers in prison for praying outside a clinic,” he said, “that's over. We stopped it.”

He highlighted new efforts, including reinstating bans on the use of tissue from the bodies of aborted babies in federal research and expanding the Mexico City Policy to block U.S. funding for foreign organizations that promote abortion or “radical gender ideologies.” 

Vance also pointed the administration’s Jan. 22 decision to launch fraud investigations into Planned Parenthood affiliates over millions of dollars in loans that “were unlawfully received and unlawfully forgiven by the Biden administration.”

“And as the President knows better than anybody,” Vance said, “if we want to convince more Americans to choose life, we must also choose policies that make family life possible. So, we've done that as well.”

He pointed to expanded child tax credits and the new Trump savings accounts for children established at birth.

“When Usha and I were having the debate about whether we were going to have a fourth kid, I said, ‘Honey, we've got an expanded child tax credit, and we've got the Trump accounts. We got to take advantage of this stuff,’” he joked

A society that claims to value life, he argued, must remove the economic pressures that discourage marriage, parenthood, and stable family life. 

“We want Americans — every American — from all walks of life, to have happy, healthy children,” Vance said. “And we want them to raise those kids with confidence that their kids are going to do well and grow up in safety and prosperity.”

“Much road ahead,” Vance tells marchers

Acknowledging frustrations among some activists who are concerned that progress has been too slow or that not enough progress has been made, Vance urged marchers to reflect on how far the movement has come in just a decade. 

“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,” he said. “But I'm a realist. I know that there is still much road ahead to travel together.”

He concluded, “Take heart. 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. God bless you all, and thanks for having me.”