Trump, Pence give surprise addresses at anti-abortion March for Life
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence surprised thousands of protesters demonstrating against abortion on the National Mall by making unannounced speeches at Friday’s March for Life.
Pence and his wife, second lady Karen Pence, strode out onstage to the delighted cheers of a roaring crowd carrying anti-abortion posters and banners. Then Pence concluded his remarks with a second surprise: Trump, who addressed the march by video feed last year, had again prepared videotaped remarks for the marchers.
“When we look into the eyes of a newborn child, we see the beauty and the human soul and the majesty of God’s creation. We know that every life has meaning,” Trump said in his video, before listing his administration’s anti-abortion actions and vowing to reject any legislation passed by the new Democrat-controlled House that “weakens” the campaign to prevent abortion access.
He said he signed a letter to Congress on Friday announcing his intent to veto any such law.
Pence gave a similar list of anti-abortion actions, including Trump’s appointment of conservative judges to powerful appellate courts across the country, and his reinstatement of the Mexico City policy that bans U.S. government funding for any foreign aid organization linked to abortion. And Pence, too, spoke with religious overtones: “Listen to the truth,” he said, then cited one of the anti-abortion movement’s favor- ite Biblical verses. “Know that He who said, ‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you’ also said ‘I will never forsake you.’”
Daniel Pierini, 16, was among those cheering, thrilled to hear Pence describe the president’s reinstatement of the Mexico City policy, which he supports. “I like how he explained what the president had done so far for the pro-life movement,” he said, adding that he is a fan of Trump and Pence except for their opposition to rights for transgender Americans, because he has transgender friends.
Standing with classmates from his Christian school in Forest Hills, Pennsylvania, Pierini said his own mother had a troubled pregnancy – a doctor told her that she was at risk of a miscarriage or could die from carrying her pregnan- cy to term, Pierini said – but she chose not to abort and give birth to him. Now, he hopes, the Supreme Court with two conservative justices appointed by Trump will overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion legal nationwide.
Julia Wierzbicki, 18, agreed, calling Pence and Trump’s speeches “awesome.” She came to the march with her church from Flemington, New Jersey.
Since the March for Life began in 1974, the year after the Roe v. Wade decision, the crowd has been largely youthful, including Catholic school students who ride buses from all over the country to attend the march. In recent years, march organizer said they have tried to welcome a broader group of people who oppose abortion.