WASHINGTON — Pro-life leaders shared their expectations for President Donald Trump at the March for Life, proposing potential steps his administration could take to defund Planned Parenthood and protect preborn children.
On the eve of the annual March for Life, Trump signed a pardon for about two dozen pro-life activists who were imprisoned for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. The activists faced federal charges under the Biden administration for obstructing the entrances to abortion facilities.
Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins approved of Trump’s actions, adding that she had sent him a list of activists to pardon the day after the presidential election. While she is grateful that the Republican president pardoned the activists, the pro-life leader expressed concern that Trump may assume his job is done now.
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Throughout the campaign trail during the 2024 presidential election, Trump stated that the abortion issue should be left to the states, a position many pro-life leaders criticized.
“The number one job right now should be defunding and devouring Planned Parenthood,” Hawkins told The Christian Post, holding up a pro-life sign that stated ‘Defund Planned Parenthood.’ “So we are going to have to convince President Trump to join us on that.”
As the pro-life leader noted, Planned Parenthood commits over 300,000 abortions a year, making it the largest abortion provider in the nation.
The SFLA president explained that the Trump administration could debar Planned Parenthood from receiving any federal funding, a process intended to protect the federal government from fraud, waste and abuse.
Hawkins cited various allegations and convictions against Planned Parenthood as grounds for debarment. The pro-life leader suggested that the process of debarment could start with ones like Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, which was ordered to pay $1.4 million for fraudulently overbilling the taxpayer-funded Medicaid program.
“Defunding Planned Parenthood would save more lives, really, than a late-term gestational ban,” Hawkins said.
At one point during a rally held before the march, Trump delivered a prerecorded speech to event attendees, calling Roe v. Wade an “unconstitutional decision” that kicked off “50 years of division and anger.” The Republican leader vowed to “stop the radical Democrat push for a federal right to unlimited abortion-on-demand, up to the moment of birth and even after birth.”
This, combined with Vice President J.D. Vance speaking at the March for Life rally, makes Marjorie Dannenfelser hopeful about working with the Trump administration. The president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a pro-life political organization, told CP that there is evidence the current Trump administration will support the movement.
Dannenfelser pointed to Trump’s statement of administration policy released on Thursday, which endorsed the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, a law that would require infants who survive an abortion attempt to receive medical care.
On Friday, Trump also issued executive orders that reinstated some of the pro-life policies from his first administration, including the reinstatement of the Mexico City Policy, which requires foreign nongovernmental organizations to prove they don’t use funding to assist with providing abortions abroad.
According to the SBA Pro-Life America president, the group has sent a statement to the Trump administration that outlines the pro-life policies it expects to see.
“For the first time since 2017, we have a shot at defunding Planned Parenthood,” Dannenfelser said. “And what I’m hearing on both sides of the Capitol, Senate and House, especially among new leadership…is ‘Yes, it’s time to do that.’”
In addition to defunding Planned Parenthood, Hawkins wants to see federal action against chemical abortion drugs. The national pro-life organization has advocated for state and federal policies to address abortion drugs, such as the Clean Water for All Act, intended to combat water pollution by chemical abortion drugs.
“Something no one wants to talk about is where all of the babies in chemical abortions go,” the SFLA leader said.
“[The Clean Water for All Act] doesn’t ban abortion, it doesn’t ban chemical abortions,” she added. “It simply says that, if you are going to do these abortions, women must collect the remains of their children. This would bring the abortion industry in line with the laws of our land.”
Jeanne Mancini, former president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, and the organization’s new President-elect, Jennie Bradley Lichter, emphasized the organization’s non-political nature. Now that Trump is the current president, both pro-life leaders expressed an eagerness to see how he governs.
“What I have seen up close from being on the President’s policy team in the first administration is the way that he governed as a pro-life president,” Lichter told CP. “He put so many wins on the board for life in that first term. That’s the president that America re-elected, right?”
So I’m excited about that president returning to office and seeing what he’s going to do this time,” Lichter added.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
