Next week will be the first March for Life event since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and handed the issue of abortion back to states. March for Life President Jeanne Mancini says the federal Hyde Amendment is one example of a measure for which they are marching.
"We fight for that at the national level every year, and it's related to government spending," she tells AFN. "It's included in the appropriations package, and it is arguably the most impactful pro-life policy ever in the United States, saving well over two million babies from abortion. The Hyde Amendment just prohibits taxpayer funding from going for most abortions."
If pro-lifers were to stop engaging in that battle at the federal level, Mancini asserts that "we would immediately lose that battle, and the Hyde Amendment would be no more."
She says a federal heartbeat law or pain-capable protection act are other examples of work that can be done at a federal level.
"It wouldn't mean that states that have a more protective law in place would suddenly get it reversed to that 15 weeks," Mancini explains. "What would happen then are states that have these really wide-open abortion laws would then have to have the limits at 15 weeks or what have you."
But while there is a lot of work to be done at the federal level, she says the states now have more freedom to enact laws in ways that they did not have before Roe was overturned.
The 2023 March for Life schedule begins on Wednesday, January 18th and runs through the evening of Friday, January 20th.
