March for Life unveils new theme emphasizing hope amid defeats for pro-life movement

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 10, 2024 / 18:05 pm (CNA).

The March for Life unveiled its new theme for the 2025 march, “Every Life: Why We March,” which organizers say emphasizes the pro-life movement’s fundamental messages of encouragement, joy, and that every life matters.

The 52nd annual March for Life will be held on Jan. 24, 2025, at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Professional surfer and pro-life activist Bethany Hamilton will be the event’s keynote speaker, and Christian pop-alternative band Unspoken will perform at the pre-march rally.

 March for Life President Jeanne Mancini said during a press conference on Thursday that the “Every Life: Why We March” theme is meant to send a message of encouragement and joy in a time when many pro-life activists may be discouraged by a string of recent defeats at the ballot box.

“Two and a half years from the overturn of Roe v. Wade it’s going to come as no surprise that some marchers are a little discouraged right now. In my own travels around the country, I’ve even been asked questions along the lines of: ‘Was it worth it?’” Mancini said.

Amid a contentious election and with the pro-life movement facing ballot initiatives to significantly expand abortion in 10 states, Mancini said it is “easy to become disheartened in an anti-life culture embraced by many with loud voices and big platforms.”

“The biggest thing is this confusion over the lie that a right to abortion is good for women. There’s just so much cultural confusion,” Mancini said. “So, it’s onto that backdrop that we want to encourage our marchers, we really deeply want to do everything possible to encourage our marchers that we’re on the right side of history, that we’re in this for the long game, and that we need to lean in.”

Mancini also said March for Life on social media will be emphasizing biological facts about fetal development and the beauty and humanity of unborn life in the months leading up to the 2025 march.

The March for Life released a promotional video on Thursday announcing the new theme on social media. The video begins with a narrator saying that “being on the right side of history isn’t always popular or easy.”

“When culture is spreading lies about the dignity of life and it seems like we’re in a losing battle we might feel like giving up. But we won’t,” the narrator says.

As a newborn baby is shown the narrator says: “This is why we march.”

Speaking with EWTN News after the announcement, Jennie Bradley Lichter, who will take over as president of the March for Life next year, said that despite the pro-life movement’s recent losses “we will win the fight for life.”

“We know that truth wins, and I think we can take encouragement from that,” she said. “Our call to tell the truth and to witness to the dignity of human life doesn’t change no matter what’s going on with politics, no matter what the culture is telling us.”

This will be the third national March for Life since Roe v. Wade was overturned. The March for Life is one of the largest annual human rights demonstrations in the world and regularly gathers crowds of pro-life activists numbering from the tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/259783/march-for-life-unveils-new-theme-emphasizing-hope-amid-defeats-for-pro-life-movement