Trump and Vance back anti-abortion activists in March for Life speeches

In addresses to the March for Life, the nation’s largest anti-abortion rally, Donald Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance, both indicated on Friday that the US justice department would no longer prosecute anti-abortion activists.

“No longer will our government throw pro-life protesters and activists – elderly, grandparents, or anybody else – in prison,” Vance told the thousands-strong crowd that gathered on the National Mall, in the shadow of the Washington Monument. “It stopped on Monday, and we’re not gonna let it come back to this country.”

Vance trumpeted the president’s decision to, on Thursday, pardon several anti-abortion activists who had been convicted of violating the federal Free Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or the Face Act, by blockading an abortion clinic. That law penalizes people who threaten, obstruct or injure someone who is trying to access a reproductive health clinic – or who vandalize a clinic. Anti-abortion activists have, for years, attempted to strike it down or convince the federal government to stop enforcing it.

“I’m releasing the Christians,” Trump said in his own address, which the president pre-recorded and broadcast to the crowd on two giant screens.

However, neither Trump nor Vance talked about any of the sweeping policies that abortion rights activists are now bracing for, such as the enforcement of a 19th-century anti-vice law that could effectively ban abortion nationwide. They did not even mention the Mexico City policy, which is also known as the “global gag rule” and which blocks foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from receiving assistance if they refer people for abortions, counsel them on the procedure or advocate for its access.

Every Republican president since 1984 has enforced this rule, and every Democrat one has rescinded it. The lack of action from Trump on the policy has puzzled abortion rights supporters.

In recent years, the March for Life has at times doubled as a Trump rally. This year’s iteration was no different. Vendors sold marchers red hats with Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan and T-shirts bearing the words “FIGHT … FIGHT … FIGHT!” above an image of Trump holding his fist in the air (which was taken shortly after his attempted assassination in July).

Trump and Vance’s appearances also seemingly garnered the biggest roars from the crowd – far more than any anti-abortion talking point or the appearances of the US Senate majority leader, John Thune, the House speaker, Mike Johnson, or Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis.