At the First Post-Roe March for Life, Pro-Lifers Try To Figure Out What Comes Next

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Tens of thousands of pro-life demonstrators gathered on the National Mall today for the 50th March for Life, the first to be held since the ending of national constitutional protections for abortion.

For decades, March for Life’s primary goal has been to see the reversal of the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion. That goal was achieved last summer with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned Roe and greatly expanded the ability of elected officials at the state and federal levels to restrict abortion.

That victory for abortion foes has left a big question hanging over the pro-life movement: What next?

It’s a question of particular interest for libertarians, both pro-life and pro-choice.

The former have to figure out how best to thread the needle between legally protecting the lives of the unborn without falling into the typical pitfalls that await prohibitionists trying to stop something a lot of people want to do. The latter want to know exactly what threats to the individual right to abortion they’ll now have to face down.

For today’s triumphant rallygoers—a healthy mix of out-of-town students, families, and more Dominican friars than one could shake a stick at—the mission remains pretty simple and basically unchanged.

“We will march until abortion is unthinkable,” said March for Life President Jeanne Mancini at today’s rally.

That’s certainly a big goal. New York Times columnist Ross Douthat described it as “genuinely revolutionary, even utopian.” The ending of Roe is merely a first step toward that utopian endpoint.  

“We’re at the start of a new marathon,” Kristi Hamrick, of Students for Life, tells Reason. “The fall of R