March for Life organization names Jennie Bradley Lichter as new leader

The March for Life Education and Defense Fund named Jennie Bradley Lichter as its new president-elect Sept. 12, and announced its current president Jeanne Mancini, will leave the role following the organization’s 2025 national March for Life event.

Lichter will initially join the organization, which began as an annual march in protest of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision making abortion a constitutional right — as president-elect and will officially assume leadership of the organization Feb. 1, 2025. Mancini will continue to serve on its board of directors.

“The March for Life is a storied organization that for 50 years has given the pro-life movement and our nation the great gift of a massive, peaceful, joy-filled annual witness to the dignity of unborn human life,” Lichter said in a statement.

“When I first began attending the National March as a college student over 20 years ago, I never could have dreamed that someday I would have the honor of leading it,” she said. “I am humbled by the Board’s confidence in me and thank them for the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of the great Jeanne Mancini, whom I deeply admire, and the indefatigable founder of the March for Life, Nellie Gray. I can’t wait to get to work alongside the terrific team at the March for Life, and committed pro-life Americans across the country, to do our part in building a nation where the unborn are protected, mothers are supported, and abortion is unthinkable.”

Mancini, who is only the second president of the organization after its founder Nellie Gray, said in a statement that leading the March for Life “has been the honor and opportunity of a lifetime; one for which I will be forever grateful.”

“There have been countless highlights during my time as President of March for Life, including the momentous overturn of Roe v. Wade,” she said in reference to the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women Health Organization that toppled Roe and returned the matter of abortion back to legislatures. “The heroes I have been able to work with along the way have made this all possible — from our amazing Board to our supporters to our wonderful staff to, last but definitely not least, the collective millions of Marchers I have walked with over the past 12 years.”

“I’m convinced that building a culture of life through compassionate public witness to the inherent dignity of the unborn and their mothers is as critically important today as it was the tragic day abortion was first legalized in the United States – or at any time since,” Mancini said. “I am more than delighted to watch how the organization will continue to grow under Jennie Bradley Lichter’s leadership.”

The national March for Life first took place in Washington in 1974 in response to the Roe decision legalizing abortion nationwide the previous year. The protest has taken place in Washington each year since, with a smaller-in-scale event during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. Organizers describe the event as the largest annual human rights demonstration.

The march takes place each year on or near the anniversary of Roe, with some variation for events in presidential inaugural years. The 2025 March for Life event is scheduled for Jan. 24.

This article was written by Kate Scanlon, a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington.

Featured image: People carry a banner past U.S. Supreme Court building while participating in the 49th annual March for Life in Washington Jan. 21, 2022. (CNS photo/Jim Bourg, Reuters)