Half a century ago, the March for Life was launched by Nellie Gray after she and pro-life leaders gathered in her Capitol Hill townhouse to plan a commemoration of the first anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, deciding to hold a march to lobby Congress for a remedy to SCOTUS' legally flawed opinion.
For nearly 40 years until her passing, Nellie Gray would continue to plan the annual March for Life from her home, committed to the fight for life no matter how many years it took.
Last year, the Supreme Court finally remedied the errors of Roe with its decision in Dobbs, seemingly finishing the fight launched by Nellie Gray and carried forward by her successor Jeanne Mancini, the current president of the March for Life. But at this year's March for Life taking place on Friday in Washington, it's clear the fight for life has only just begun.
After millions of Americans participated in decades of marches calling for the end of Roe, current March for Life leader Jeanne Mancini says pro-life Americans "must realize that the fall of Roe means the battle for life must be fought on two fronts now: state and federal."
Indeed, that fight has already been playing out since the Dobbs decision returned the power of determining how to protect life to individual states and the American people. And there's much more work to be done to secure the right to life for unborn Americans in every state, though leaps and bounds have been made in many to protect the right to life for the unborn — even as many states have reacted by moving in the opposite direction, and national Democrats have called for a federal law to "codify Roe" that goes far beyond what the now-defunct opinion ever allowed.
Still, the will of the American people is, according to a new Knights of Columbus–Marist poll, firmly behind the pro-life movement and those walking in this year's March for Life.
The poll, released just before this year's March for Life, found that 69 percent of Americans support limiting abortion to — at most — the first three months of pregnancy. Marist Poll Director Dr. Barbara Carvalho noted that "nearly 7-in-10 Americans believe abortion should be limited," and despite "a year of contentious public debate" in the wake of Dobbs, that number is "comparable to the findings of a Knights of Columbus–Marist Poll conducted last January." That is, Americans are not noticeably less pro-life than they were before Roe was overturned, and all the noise from the "shout your abortion" crowd and Democrats in Washington hasn't moved the needle in their direction.
At this year's 50th annual March for Life, pro-life activists will hear from a number of speakers as the fight for life enters a new era and new arenas. Among them are Pro-Football Hall of Famer Tony Dungy and Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who brought and won the Dobbs case before the Supreme Court that finally struck down the flawed legal reasoning contained in Roe.
Dr. Christina Francis, the CEO-Elect of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) will also speak, as her organization continues to provide education and an evidence-based case to protect the lives of both patients doctors in her field treat: the mother and her child.
Gathering in the shadow of the United States Capitol, with the House again controlled by Republicans in the new Congress, there will be a handful of congressional speakers as well. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) will address the pro-life activists, as will Rep. Christopher Smith who co-chairs the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus.