The 119th Congress kicked off on Friday, and even a blizzard isn’t stopping the new Republican majority from conducting the people’s business – including the first major pro-life bill of 2025.
As the GOP retakes the reins, here are some of the key allies in leadership to watch:
Speaker of the House: Mike Johnson (Louisiana): Johnson was a staunch pro-life advocate long before entering politics, practicing constitutional law as senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly Alliance Defense Fund). In the 118th Congress, he was a leading voice against the wave of pro-abortion violence that followed the leak of the Dobbs decision and worked hard to stop the Biden administration’s discrimination against pregnancy centers. In 2024, he brought as his guest to Biden’s State of the Union address the director of a local pregnancy center that was targeted by vandals.
One year ago today, the House voted to give @SpeakerJohnson the gavel.
Congratulations to my friend and life-long champion for life! pic.twitter.com/9CNdwx6Zwt
— Marjorie Dannenfelser (@marjoriesba) October 25, 2024
Majority leader: Steve Scalise (Louisiana): Hailed by President Trump as “the legend from Louisiana,” Scalise is widely known as a determined survivor of cancer and an attempted assassin’s bullet. It’s no surprise he’s also a leader in fighting for the lives of vulnerable children born and unborn. Previously as Republican Whip, in the wake of the Ralph Northam infanticide scandal, he spearheaded a petition to bring the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act to the floor over the opposition of Nancy Pelosi and House Democrat leaders who repeatedly refused requests to hold a vote.
Whip: Tom Emmer (Minnesota): As part of the Republican leadership team, Emmer set a strong agenda for the new House majority in the 118th Congress with pro-life legislation to protect babies born alive, stop taxpayer-funded abortion and more. He signed the Dobbs congressional amicus brief and is a perennial supporter of the March for Life. With a consistently excellent voting record, he holds an A+ on SBA Pro-Life America’s congressional scorecard.
Republican Conference chair: Lisa McClain (Michigan): McClain was elected in 2020 – a member of a record-breaking class of pro-life women elected to Congress that year. As a freshman, she introduced legislation to stop government-supported experiments using the bodies of aborted babies, as well as co-sponsoring bills to end taxpayer-funded abortion, protect babies from painful late-term abortions and more. She also signed the pro-life congressional amicus brief in the Dobbs case. A mom of four, she is now the highest-ranking Republican woman in the House, succeeding Elise Stefanik.
National Republican Congressional Committee chair: Richard Hudson (North Carolina): Rep. Hudson has served in leadership roles throughout his House tenure and has an outstanding pro-life record. Recently, Hudson led a Republican response (along with Senate colleague Ted Budd) to the shocking military briefing that portrayed mainstream pro-life organizations as terrorist groups, resulting in Fort Liberty furiously disavowing the slides and promising to drop them from future presentations.
Majority leader: John Thune (South Dakota): Pro-life advocates can be very pleased by Thune’s election as the top Senate Republican, succeeding Mitch McConnell. Dannenfelser notes, “Sen. Thune is an unwavering defender of life, voting consistently and courageously to protect the lives of unborn children and newborns” including by introducing the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. Furthermore, “…his outstanding leadership in defeating South Dakota’s extreme abortion amendment is another testament to his dedication to protecting moms and babies.”
Watch Thune call out the Democrats’ extremism and callousness to the humanity of children in the womb (from 2022):
Whip: John Barrasso (Wyoming): Now serving his fourth term, Barrasso stood up for the right of states to direct tax dollars away from abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood during the Obama presidency. Since then he’s maintained an outstanding record, signing the congressional amicus brief in Dobbs and co-sponsoring several important pro-life bills.
Conference chair: Tom Cotton (Arkansas): Cotton has been a strong critic of the Biden-Harris administration’s radical Cabinet appointees, its anti-life weaponization of the DOJ, and its policy of paying for abortion travel in the Veterans Administration, noting that three weeks of paid leave is “something that we don’t even give our troops when they have a parent die.” He’s also shown the pro-life movement’s compassion in introducing a bill to provide family and medical leave after miscarriage and stillbirth.
Republican Policy Committee chair: Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia): Capito has consistently voted pro-life on the key votes we’ve scored, including protecting babies born alive and stopping taxpayer-funded abortion. She has firmly opposed radical Biden nominees and the Democrats’ attempts to impose a nationwide all-trimester abortion mandate. Capito serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, an important role in ensuring spending bills have pro-life protections in a time when Democrats have sought to eliminate them.
Republican Conference vice-chair: James Lankford (Oklahoma): We’re big fans of Sen. Lankford, who is vocal about the human right to life. He has introduced several bills to stop discrimination against pro-life Americans, including in health care. On the first anniversary of Dobbs he led colleagues in a celebratory rally. He has been highly invested in seeking justice for the D.C. Five babies, including stopping local authorities from destroying their bodies at the behest of Biden’s DOJ. His eloquence in defense of unborn children and their mothers shines on the Senate floor in too many examples to list:
Here’s Lankford in action again, dismantling Democrats’ dangerous misinformation about pro-life laws:
National Republican Senatorial Committee chair: Tim Scott (South Carolina): Sen. Scott is a great choice to lead efforts to elect Republicans to the Senate. As a presidential contender in the 2024 cycle, the deeply pro-life Scott was a vocal advocate for protecting babies from painful late-term abortions nationwide.
Here’s the now-famous moment in the Senate when he confronted Biden Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen for asserting that abortion helps the economy:
Senators Jim Banks (IN), Bernie Moreno (OH), Tim Sheehy (MT), and Dave McCormick (PA) were sworn in last week. Senator-elect Jim Justice (WV) will be sworn in next week due to unique circumstances. Senator John Curtis (UT), who had an A+ record as a member of the House, has replaced retiring Sen. Mitt Romney.
From top to bottom, the contrast between the new Republican majority and the defeated Democrats led by Kamala Harris couldn’t be clearer. Babies in the womb and their mothers are far safer than they ever would have been under a Harris-Walz administration. It would, of course, be impossible to fully introduce every one of our pro-life congressional allies in this space, but we’re thankful for them all, and we’ve made it easy to find your representatives’ profiles including key votes and other highlights at our National Pro-Life Scorecard.
We can’t wait to get to work!
The Biden Administration signs the death warrant for thousands of unborn babies every day because of its commitment to the extreme Big Abortion agenda. Help us deliver a life-saving message: TELL JOE NO and that you want a pro-life America.
Tell Joe: No!
