Drawing hundreds of thousands of grassroots pro-life advocates from virtually every corner of the nation, the March for Life is America’s largest annual pro-life demonstration and is always an inspiration. After Dobbs, the need to stand and raise our voices for the human rights of the unborn and to come together in support of their mothers not only continues but is more important than ever.

This year’s March was unfortunately also in the shadow of a recent remark by President Trump, which the White House later walked back, suggesting pro-life members of Congress should be “flexible” on the Hyde Amendment, and a troubling lack of action on mail-order abortion drugs that have driven up abortions in this country to at least 1.1 million a year. Ahead of the March, SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser expressed hope that this would be a moment for the administration to commit to these urgent priorities, while also warning of the potential for pro-life voter demoralization in a midterm election year.

In a Washington Post op-ed, Dannenfelser laid out the movement’s current crossroads:

We celebrate that 20 states now have laws in effect protecting unborn children and their mothers before the first trimester ends. Yet there are more abortions now than before — at least 1 million a year. That makes abortion the nation’s top cause of death by far, driven by covid-era policies implemented under President Joe Biden that allow abortion drugs like mifepristone to be bought online and shipped without the patient ever seeing a doctor in person. Flooded with these mail-order drugs, even the most pro-life states cannot enforce their laws — undermining Trump’s “back to the states” position.

The day of the March, Dannenfelser joined C-SPAN’s Washington Journal to discuss the state of the movement:

• Flexible on the Hyde Amendment? “Great to be flexible on all sorts of things…yoga, what you eat tonight, what you’re going to wear.” Inappropriate, however, on the bedrock principle of not forcing taxpayers to fund the destruction of innocent lives.

• How big is the Republican Party’s pro-life voter base? “Enormous,” says Dannenfelser, rejecting the claim that pro-life voters are “the cheapest dates” in politics.

Watch the full interview here.

Amid the battle on Capitol Hill to stop forced taxpayer funding of abortion in health care and keep it out, where their leadership has been indispensable, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune celebrated the historic defunding of Big Abortion in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act:

Longtime, stalwart pro-life champion Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey called out abortion drugs – pushed by the abortion lobby as their low-overhead, high-profit, low-responsibility workaround to pro-life laws after Dobbs – as “baby poison” and complacent media for failing to sound the alarm about the harm they inflict on women as well:

On the ground at the March for Life, SBA staff made an important detour at the Department of Health & Human Services to call for action on dangerous abortion drugs.

Writing at The Federalist, a former 911 dispatcher shared invaluable perspective on the chaos sown by removing even minimal health and safety standards on the abortion drug mifepristone:

I speak every day with women and girls in moments of fear, pain, and confusion — often in the middle of the night, when no one else is willing to answer the phone. Over the past year, I have noticed a troubling pattern that should concern anyone who cares about women’s health, parental responsibility, and basic medical ethics.

The number of calls from women related to chemical abortions is increasing, as is the confusion. Women ask whether the amount of blood they’re losing is normal. They aren’t sure if they took the pills correctly, or at the right time, or in the right dose. Many don’t know how many weeks pregnant they are. They were told this would be simple, private, and empowering. In reality, it is often chaotic and isolating.

Ob-gyn Dr. Ingrid Skop added the voice of more than 30 years’ experience caring for patients as well:

In no other area of medicine are patients deliberately given drugs whose expected effects include significant pain and heavy bleeding — as well as other frequent complications — and then left to manage those effects without medical oversight. This intentional downgrading of medical care contrasts dramatically with the care provided to women in other pregnancy emergencies…

What the abortion industry has normalized with mail-order abortion drugs would be considered medical abandonment in any other situation.

We talked to grassroots marchers, including voters from the influential state of Iowa, who were knowledgeable on the subject of abortion drugs and want to see more action:

Vice President JD Vance addressed the March for Life on the heels of the joyful news that Second Lady Usha Vance is expecting their fourth child. He alluded to the frustration many grassroots pro-lifers feel about pro-life laws being undermined by mail-order abortion drugs and a rising toll of lives lost – but he did not say what steps the administration plans to take to address it.

SBA’s Kelsey Pritchard, mom of four with one yet unborn, reacted:

Following the March, Dannenfelser once again urged:

“It is time for the Trump-Vance administration to act and at a minimum restore in-person dispensing, getting these dangerous drugs out of the mail. Doing so would allow states to enforce their laws, protect countless unborn lives, and restore essential medical oversight to stop the coercion and abuse of women nationwide.”