Pro-lifers Bid Goodbye to a Year of Political Disappointments

This year has not gone the way pro-lifers planned.

January started with ushering in a new administration—one that made firm commitments to pro-life groups—and Republican majorities in the House and Senate. Newly sworn-in Vice President Mike Pence stood before the 2017 March for Life and declared hope for a new era in the pro-life movement: “Life is winning again in America.”

Nearly a year later, March for Life is finishing preparations for its next big event but not much has changed.

“We’re definitely moving in the right direction, slowly,” March for Life president Jeanne Mancini told me. “Cultural change takes a really long time, and so we can’t give up.”

Mancini and other pro-life advocates had high hopes for 2017: defunding Planned Parenthood, repealing Obamacare, passing legislation to limit late-term abortion. The Republican-controlled Congress did not deliver on any of those initiatives, despite promises made to voters.

But ahead of the 45th annual March for Life next month, pro-lifers remain hopeful. Mancini insists public opinion is shifting in the pro-life direction. More Americans are uncomfortable with late-term abortions, and the number of abortion centers and procedures performed each year are on the decline.

“If you’re not optimistic, you’re not pro-life,” said Tom McClusky, president of March for Life Action.

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