On Friday, Vice President JD Vance encouraged anti-abortion advocates to appreciate the progress made in limiting abortion practices, highlighting achievements from the Trump administration. Among these was the expansion of a ban on U.S. foreign aid to organizations that support abortion services.

“Though there is still a long journey ahead,” Vance remarked to those gathered at the annual March for Life event, which attracts tens of thousands to Washington each year. The participants initially assembled on the National Mall before marching towards the Supreme Court.

A Republican, Vance has long championed policies to encourage Americans to have more children. Concerned about declining birth rates, he launched his political career in 2021 by winning a seat in the U.S. Senate representing Ohio. As vice president, he continues to advocate for this cause.

Vance previously declared, “I want more babies in the United States of America,” during his speech at last year’s March for Life.

In a social media post earlier this week, Vance and his wife, Usha, shared the news that they are expecting their fourth child, a son, who is due in late July.

“Let the record show, you have a vice president who practices what he preaches,” Vance said on Friday.

Vance cited the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, calling it “the most important Supreme Court decision of my lifetime.” He said President Donald Trump’s leadership and appointment of conservative jurists “put a definitive end to the tyranny of judicial rule on the question of human life.”

He also lauded the “historic expansion of the Mexico City policy,” the broadening of a ban on U.S. foreign aid for groups supporting abortion services, to include assistance going to international and domestic organizations and agencies that promote gender identity as well as diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

“We believe that every country in the world has the duty to protect life,” Vance said, to a sea of supporters waving signs reading “Choose Life,” “Make More Babies” and “I am the Pro-Life Generation.”

“It’s not our job as the United States of America to promote radical gender ideology,” he said. “It’s our job to promote families and human flourishing.”

On Thursday, an official said the Trump administration was implementing new rules, halting foreign assistance from going not only to groups that provide abortion as a method of family planning but also to those that advocate “gender ideology” and DEI. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of the rules’ publication in the Federal Register on Friday.

First established under President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, the policy was rescinded by subsequent Democratic administrations and was reinstated in Trump’s first term.

With its origins in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that nationally enshrined federal protection for abortion rights, the March for Life developed an entrenched presence among conservatives arguing against abortion. In 2017, Trump addressed the march by video, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to make live remarks. Three years later, he attended the event in person, further cementing its role in conservative politics.

In a video address to this year’s crowd, Trump recounted his administration’s “unprecedented strides to protect innocent life and support the institution of the family like never before,” enumerating his appointment of “judges and justices who believed in interpreting the Constitution as written” and “reflecting on the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

Since the June 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe, the march has become more celebratory, with organizers relishing a state-by-state fight in legislatures around the country and urging a continued fight until abortion is eliminated.

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP.

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