At Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America’s 2026 Gala in Washington, D.C., the mood was decidedly different from four years prior in the midst of celebrating the overturn of Roe v. Wade—but the resolve to carry on the fight for unborn children and their mothers was no less palpable.

Starting the day on a high note, the Supreme Court delivered a unanimous First Amendment victory for pregnancy centers fighting against Democrats’ weaponized government. Her PLAN’s Autumn Christensen reacted:

At the Gala, Bob Vander Plaats of SBA’s vital partner in Iowa, The FAMiLY LEADER, gave the opening invocation, praying “that we would stand firm in the faith…that we would be men and women of courage” and that everyone would see the love of our neighbors as ourselves at the heart of the pro-life movement.

In a “Salute From the Senate,” Senators Ashley Moody (Florida), Jim Banks (Indiana), Bill Cassidy (Louisiana), Cindy Hyde-Smith (Mississippi), James Lankford (Oklahoma), and Steve Daines (Montana) took part in a “lightning round” of brief remarks on what SBA’s role means to them, why the fight for life still matters, and what’s most important at this moment. Daines, the founder of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus who is retiring at the end of his current term, accepted SBA’s Distinguished Leader Award from Marjorie Dannenfelser.

In all, 11 U.S. senators and 30 members of the House were in attendance, including also Sens. Josh Hawley, Lindsey Graham, Tim Scott, and Ted Cruz. Hawley was joined by his wife Erin, who successfully argued the pregnancy center case at the Supreme Court, and young daughter in a sweet family moment.

 

 

 

Amid sleepless nights and intense negotiations in Congress, House Speaker Mike Johnson took time not only to praise “fellow warriors” gathered in the room, but also to share the personal reasons behind his dedication to the cause of life and his views on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

In her keynote speech, SBA President Marjorie Dannenfelser directly addressed the stark reality of America’s mail-order abortion drug crisis and the crossroads facing the pro-life movement and its allies in the Republican Party after Dobbs:

The victories that Dobbs enabled have been all-but-completely erased already. According to the best estimates available, more than 90,000 abortions occur each year just in states that protect the unborn throughout all nine months of pregnancy. Five of these states  (Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Arkansas, North Dakota) have more abortions within their borders today than they did under Roe. The door that Dobbs opened legally is being slammed shut in practice. If the other side takes power nationally, that door will be shut and locked for at least a generation. Their plan is not secret. The bill has been written; it has been voted on. It has been promised and sponsored and voted for by almost every elected Democrat in Congress. They are committed to eliminating the filibuster in order to vote on it when they are in power.  They are aiming to finish the project they have already partly accomplished – making the brutal death of America’s littlest children available at any time, and for any reason, in all fifty states.  This is an American tragedy for women and children– planned, in process and accelerating toward us.

A states-only strategy will not defeat this threat. It is incapable of countering their unity and focus; it forfeits the moral power of the pro-life cause in favor of narrow proceduralism; and it leaves women in need alone  and countless to children to die painful, late-term deaths in states like New York and California, Colorado and Illinois. The strategy does not work and it cannot work. It has never worked: no human rights issue in the history of the country has ever been solved this way. The only difference here is that the strategy has been tried and has failed in record time.

If we cannot match the fervor and intensity of the abortion lobby—if we cannot meet them and beat them in a national debate, not about popular sovereignty but about the dignity of the human person, then we will lose. If the Republican Party fully follows the administration’s states only strategy and abandons its commitments to pro-life action at the national level, then the movement as we know it is finished.

The only thing keeping that at bay is the impressive strength and resolve of pro-life champions in the House and Senate. The hopes of the movement, and the fate of millions of lives, rest in large part on the shoulders of the Senators who spoke to you here tonight and Speaker Johnson and the great number of pro-life stalwarts in the House. They constitute the best—perhaps the only—hope of revitalizing a national movement, in favor of life. Their success or failure over the next few years—in their campaigns, in their legislation, and in their efforts to shape the future of the party and its presidential candidate in 2028—will make the difference between a nation that goes all one way, and a nation that goes all the other.

When Abraham Lincoln gave his House Divided speech, it was in the context of a Senate campaign in the midterms of 1858. At that time his assessment was bleak and he was depressed: as he saw it the nation was tending much more towards becoming all slave than all free.

But the elections of the next two years would end up fulfilling his prophetic words. The nation did become all one way. Slavery was set on the path to extinction. As a result of those elections, the next decade would see slavery abolished and Congress, through the Fourteenth Amendment, granted the power and duty to ensure the right to life and that the equal protection of the laws would be guaranteed in all fifty states.

We have a similarly monumental task before us today. Our situation is similarly dire. But the tools of democracy we use are the same. And our opportunities are similarly great.

To that point, Dannenfelser revealed SBA’s commitment to investing a historic $160 million in the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election.

Elizabeth Gillette, whose testimony of being pressured to abort vividly exposes the hard reality of abortion drugs – often promoted as safe, private and painless – and the false “caring” image of Planned Parenthood, received SBA’s Medal of Courage and Sacrifice for her efforts to turn tragic experience into a lifeline for other women in difficult situations.

The closing highlight of the evening came as members of SBA’s student canvassing team, led by National Student Coordinator Olivia Palma, took the stage to rounds of applause and shared the dedication of the student team to visiting millions of voters at their doorsteps through Election Day in the largest pro-life voter contact program in history. Students representing more than 100 colleges and universities participate in the program, infusing the entire effort with vibrant energy and a sense of hopefulness for all the work that remains ahead.