On Jan. 23, hundreds of thousands of Americans will gather on the National Mall for the March for Life in Washington, D.C. This rally is for the awareness of the sanctity of all life but pays particular attention to honoring the beauty of unborn life and protecting the right to life for every American.
I have been lucky enough to attend the March for Life on three occasions.
Each visit left me inspired and more convinced of the need to ensure we protect unborn children.
The last time I attended the march was in 2024. The slogan was, “With every woman, for every child.” A video played on repeat while thousands gathered to hear a variety of speeches. The video for this year’s rally spoke about how the death and darkness of abortion will only end with an approach of hope and love. Those gathered were invited to be the light in the darkness for those babies who have no voice.
Speeches were given by Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson (R-La.), two women who found a pregnancy center and chose life, as well as the head football coach of the Michigan Wolverines (now the LA Chargers), Jim Harbaugh.
The most powerful words were delivered by one of the mothers who made the decision to keep her child after finding her way into a pregnancy center.
She spoke about her fear of being alone and the weight of the decision she faced. Yet, her child is now her everything.
In her witness, you could see the love of a mother who recognized that a decision for an abortion is the rejection and murder of a real person. If women feel supported in their crisis pregnancies, they will learn the value of their unborn child; therefore, they will be more likely to choose life for their unborn child.
Following the presentation of speakers, the march begins.
It takes hours for the crowd to enter into the street and finish the walk around the Capitol. As a participant, all you can do is wait for your section to funnel into the street to march. In this waiting, in the bitter cold, I found myself thinking about mothers who were considering an abortion. I also was struck by the fact that every single person around me was given the gift of life because their parents chose to keep them.
I doubt that was the mindset of the thousands present (and it often is not my mindset), but the joy of the crowd is what made me consider this fact. The people present were there to stand up for life and bring awareness to its dignity, but they did so joyfully because life is so precious.
Learning about abortion as a procedure and the scientific evidence for life in the womb also further strengthened my desire to promote life. My journey to investigate these facts was sparked by my first visit to the March for Life, years ago. During that march, there was a section of people on the sidewalk with large jumbotron screens, showing pictures and videos of babies in the womb.
You could hear them crying, see them moving, and make sense of their facial structure. There were so clearly human beings.
In my research, I found that abortion is the ending of a human life. Science is clear and indisputable. The life killed is a unique set of DNA. The embryo, no matter the age, is a human baby.
There are two types of abortions. Surgical abortion is the procedure which kills the child by inserting a needle into its brain. Then the child is ripped out of the mother and discarded, as if he or she were medical waste.
The second and now easily attainable form of abortion (for the very early stages of pregnancy) is medical abortion.
A mother takes two pills, mifepristone and misoprostol. These medicines cut off key nutrients to the child and force the uterus to contract, forcing the baby out of the woman’s body In essence, this drug cocktail forces a miscarriage.
As a father of three children, who also lost our fourth child (the twin of my 1-year-old daughter), the words describing an abortion are difficult to type out. I have seen my children on a sonogram. I have watched them grow as my wife’s stomach increased in size. I witnessed their births. Learning what abortion does convinced me more than ever before that it is a destructive action which cannot be chosen.
Studies show that abortion has major negative impacts on mothers, including physical and emotional. Most importantly, however, abortion kills innocent life and makes the value of life dependent on those who can take it away, rather than intrinsically as a human being.
The theme for the 2026 March for Life is, “Life is a Gift.” In this month, which is dedicated to the celebration of the sanctity of life, may we cherish our own lives and fight for the right of every person to live the most precious gift: their own life.
