Lust for Life

I want be clear: I think good people can be for or against abortion. And while I don’t agree with their conclusion, I do not doubt the sincerity of anybody who truly believes that life begins at conception. I am pro-choice, but I also understand why somebody might not be. This piece is not about litigating anybody’s beliefs.

The 2026 March for Life descended again on Washington DC today. I have no idea why. The anti-abortion group has already accomplished pretty much what they set out to do when they held their first march in 1974, vowing to return every year until Roe v Wade was overturned. Uh…

So why not disband?

Couldn’t tell you exactly, but I’m going to guess the answer is twofold: money and power. Hey, I don’t blame them for wanting to hold onto their influence. If I had any influence, I’d probably do the same. What concerns me about the March for Life is that their mission statement is a declaration of grift, which makes me think March for Life itself is likely to be the same. It can be found on the “About us” page of their website under the title “The Mission We Embrace.” The mission statement reads:

“We promote the beauty and dignity of every human life by working to end abortion—uniting, educating, and mobilizing pro-life people in the public square.”

Can we break down this drivel for a moment? Because it’s actually kind of beautiful in its banality. The first part is standard anti-abortion fare. They “promote the beauty and dignity of every human life.” Ok, sure. That’s what I would expect them to say.

And who would be against any of that? Not I!

Because these are good and smart people, they’ve already anticipated we are likely to have a follow-up question. After all, they understand that the doubtful may very well consider the ambition of such a statement - every human life to be shown their worth, their beauty, their inherent dignity! They know that any smart consumer will read the first part of that mission statement and ask, “How exactly will you promote the beauty and dignity of every human life?”

The first “National March for Life.”

To me, the answer to that question ought to be multifold. Perhaps they are going to fight for better education for those who don’t have access to it? Perhaps they are lifting up the poor or bringing together different cultures? Maybe they’re working on initiatives against domestic violence. Some other ideas - tax credits, universal pre-school, universal health care, an expansion of the social safety net. Maybe all of the above.

Or, in the case of March for Life, none of the above.

Their answer to the question about lifting up human life is to point to a cluster of cells and declare it more worthy than the human who carries it. More worthy of our attention and love than those already in this world. More worthy of our care. Our consideration. Our money. Because they believe in the worth, beauty, and dignity of every human life just so long as the human life in question is neither human nor alive. Their solution to promoting human life has, literally, nothing to do with humanity.

How does “uniting, educating, and mobilizing pro-life people in the public square” do anything to “promote the beauty and dignity of every human life”? How does working to end abortion do that? I understand the argument that ending abortion, by definition, does so. But guess what? It doesn’t.

This is a movement which has now become little more than rage masquerading as compassion. Before 2022, one could have plausibly argued, perhaps, that any rage was due to a wrongly-decided Supreme Court decision. Now, though, now that they’ve achieved their stated goal, why do thousands still come to Washington DC every year?

Well, consider the remarks given today by our Vice President. JD Vance began by speaking of joy and celebrating the sanctity of life before segueing into lacerating remarks about the previous administration that had nothing to do with his stated purpose for being there - to “celebrate life,” per the day’s theme. Why? Because the unstated purpose- furthering the culture war – is the purpose.

Over the past few decades, the powers that be have figured out that advocacy groups for one issue can be highjacked on behalf of other issues. The NRA, for example, have been helpful in promoting other rightwing causes like border control and anti-immigration legislation that have, on their face, almost nothing to do with the Second Amendment. This isn’t limited to the Right.

What’s galling about March for Life, though, is that their entire stated mission in 1974 has now evolved from overturning the legislation they were formed to overturn to now existing purely to continue existing. Because one does not promote the worth and dignity of every human life by marching up and down the street once a year yelling about something that has nothing to do what they say they care about.

Because they may have cared about abortion once upon a time, and I think they still probably still do, but abortion is now what keeps the lights on and the checks coming in. But what they really are is a mercenary arm of the culture war. March for Life and their ilk (on the Left as well as the Right) keep stirring the pot because it keeps the lights on and the checks coming in. It serves their interests to betray ours.