By Katie Yoder, OSV News
(OSV News) — The 2026 national March for Life promises to bring tens of thousands of pro-life Americans to the nation’s capital to celebrate the beauty of every human person, born and unborn, with the theme “Life Is a Gift.”
“‘Life is a Gift’ is a universal message that speaks to the heart and cuts through the noise,” Jennie Bradley Lichter, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, told OSV News in emailed comments about the 53rd annual March for Life in Washington Jan. 23. “It invites our marchers to join the spirit of joy and celebration that is the March for Life — a spirit inspired by the inherent goodness and beauty of life itself.”
She added: “Through this theme, we are showing the world that we are a movement of compassion for women and love for unborn children, united by the simple yet world-changing belief that, no matter the circumstances, every single life is a gift.”
Every year, the national March for Life, which calls itself the “largest annual human rights demonstration in the world,” takes place on or around the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which once legalized abortion nationwide. This year’s event marks the fourth march since the high court overturned Roe with the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision.
Today, the March for Life seeks to impact laws at the state and federal level and to change American culture until abortion becomes unthinkable. The March for Life’s national march complements its growing state march program that advocates for life-affirming laws on the state and local level.
The 2026 march is the first led by Lichter, who began serving as president last year. The event comes following the news that the new pope, Pope Leo XIV, once attended.
“It’s very moving and very inspiring to know that the Holy Father attended the March for Life as a young man — and was surely formed by it, as so many young people have been over the years,” Lichter, a Catholic, said.
The national march regularly draws tens of thousands of marchers who brave the winter weather to challenge abortion and champion life from the moment of conception. The march attracts a diverse crowd: young and old, women and men, and people of various ethnicities and different political affiliations attend to advocate for life and remember the more than 65 million lives ended in abortion since the Roe decision.
Pro-life chants, music and prayer mark the daylong event filled with colorful banners and handmade signs as people march around the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Court building.
To kick off the march on Jan. 23, the March for Life team is holding a pre-rally concert by Christian band Sanctus Real at 11 a.m. on the National Mall between Seventh and 12th Streets. Following the concert, a noon rally features the national anthem performed by the Friends of Club 21 Choir, a chorus of young adults with Down syndrome, and a slew of speakers.
Announced speakers include Sarah Hurm, a mother of four whose life changed after she sought an abortion pill reversal; Elizabeth Pillsbury Oliver, president of Georgetown University Right to Life; Cissie Graham Lynch, senior adviser and spokesperson for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse; and Lichter.
Lichter confirmed with OSV News that Rep. Chris Smith, a Catholic Republican from New Jersey, will also speak at the 2026 march.
At a launch event last year, Lichter hinted that last-minute speakers could include politicians. At the 2025 march, President Donald Trump delivered a video message while Vice President JD Vance, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Rep. Smith spoke in person.
The march itself is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Marchers will leave the National Mall and trek around the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Court building. Georgetown University Right to Life, a pro-life student organization, will carry the banner leading the march.
For people traveling to Washington, the March for Life recently released a travel planner, which includes the official schedule, travel information and a checklist for marchers.
Lichter spoke about the importance of the march while highlighting its longevity and the persistence of the pro-life movement. She called 2026 a “critical moment.”
“We applaud the many states that have stepped up to the plate and advanced laws to protect life,” she said. “But there’s still so much yet to do in transforming the culture to meet pregnant women with love and help when they need it most.”
The Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in Dobbs overturned Roe and returned abortion policy to the states. Today, 21 states have pro-life protections restricting abortion, according to a tracker by national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
Lichter added: “We’re also still working hard to protect women from the reckless sale of chemical abortion pills, and from the predatory and self-serving Big Abortion industry.”‘
Today, medication-based abortion using mifepristone and misoprostol accounts for the majority of U.S. abortions after Dobbs, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive research organization that supports abortion.
Approved by the FDA for early abortion in 2000, mifepristone — the first of two drugs used in a medication-based abortion — gained the moniker “the abortion pill.” However, the same drug combination has become used sometimes in recent years for miscarriage care, where an unborn child has already passed, a situation that Catholic teaching would hold as morally licit use.
Lichter also called the March for Life a “crucial venue” to “meet young people where they are and speak into their desire for the truth.”
Several events surround the March for Life, including a Capitol Hill Club Breakfast with members of Congress organized by March for Life Action, the March for Life’s political arm, Jan. 23 at 8 a.m. That same day, following the march, the March for Life holds its annual Rose Dinner Gala beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the Westin Hotel in downtown Washington. Together with Alliance Defending Freedom, it simultaneously offers a first-ever cocktail reception for young professionals, “Pour la Vie: For Life,” at the same location.
Other related pro-life events in Washington include the 2026 National Prayer Vigil for Life Jan. 22-23 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. It opens with a 5 p.m. Mass Jan. 22 celebrated by Bishop Daniel E. Thomas of Toledo, Ohio, chair of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, which is followed by a Holy Hour presided by Bishop James T. Ruggieri of Portland, Maine. The event concludes with an 8 a.m. Mass Jan. 23 celebrated by Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, retired archbishop of Boston.
A live television broadcast of the Masses will be provided by the Eternal Word Television Network, or EWTN, and will be available via livestream on the basilica’s website, nationalshrine.org/mass.
The fourth annual Life Fest, a morning rally by the Sisters of Life and the Knights of Columbus, takes place Jan. 23 at 6:20 a.m. at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland. The event features a Eucharistic procession, Mass, confession, musical performances and speakers including pro-life advocate Lila Rose of Live Action. Attendees will have the opportunity to venerate first-class relics of St. John Paul II, St. Teresa of Kolkata, St. Carlo Acutis, the Blessed Ulma family and Blessed Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights. A livestream will be made available.
The day after the march, on Jan. 24, Students for Life of America, together with other pro-life and conservative groups, hosts its annual National Pro-Life Summit at Grand Hyatt Washington. People can sign up to watch a livestream at the summit website, prolifesummit.com/livestream.
The 27th annual Cardinal O’Connor Conference for Life takes place that same day at Georgetown University and features Lichter as the keynote speaker.
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