(LifeSiteNews) — Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson encouraged March for Life attendees to double down on the effort to protect life by reminding them that they have the “power to change hearts and minds, and ultimately to save lives.”
Johnson, who shared that he himself is the product of an unplanned pregnancy, told the young crowd before him at the 2026 March for Life rally that America’s founders “understood that we are made in the image of our Creator, and that He is the one that gives us our inalienable rights, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
“Our rights do not derive from the government. They derive from God Himself, and we need to remind everybody of that,” Johnson said.
He reminded the rally’s attendees that “we owe our responsibility to” God and that “we have to exercise that freedom in a responsible manner.”
Johnson went on to point to legislative pro-life victories, such as a working families’ tax cut, child tax cut, and savings “Trump accounts” introduced for children as part of a package of measures in H.R. 1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” designed to reward and incentivize bringing up children.
“We also achieved something that is totally unprecedented. For years now we know that Medicaid funds have skirted the essential protections under the Hyde Amendment and funneled tax dollars to abortion providers, and we said, ‘no more,’” declared Johnson, adding that through H.R. 1, abortion was “finally defunded.”
“The U.S. government should not be subsidizing any industry that profits from the elimination of human life,” he affirmed.
The Speaker of the House again shared that he was “the product of an unplanned teen pregnancy exactly one year before Roe,” and that people tried to convince his young parents to “take care” of the “problem” by aborting him. “But I am truly grateful that they allowed me the chance at life,” he said.
“I think of the millions of children that did not have that same opportunity. And every single child deserves the opportunity to fulfill their God-given potential. And it is up to us to defend that freedom and that right,” Johnson continued.
“Every single one of you has the power to change hearts and minds and ultimately to save lives,” he said.
Johnson has a long history of voting against the murder of the unborn, earning him an “A+” rating from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America’s scorecard. Since becoming speaker in 2023, Johnson has repeatedly voiced his support for defunding abortion giant Planned Parenthood and even suggested redirecting those funds to pro-life pregnancy centers, though these efforts have not come to fruition.
In recent months, Johnson joined over 170 other Republican lawmakers in signing a letter urging the Trump administration to immediately ban the mailing of abortion pills. Johnson recently told reporters he wouldn’t allow compromise on the Hyde Amendment, which forbids most taxpayer dollars from directly funding abortions except for cases of rape, incest, or the supposed threat to a mother’s life, after Trump urged Republicans to be “flexible” on the amendment.
“We are not going to change the standard that we’re not going to use taxpayer funding for abortion. I’m just not going to allow that to happen,” Johnson said.
On the other hand, Johnson has supported access to in vitro fertilization (IVF), with his office celebrating Trump’s 2025 executive order directing his staff to propose strategies to expand IVF access, though in December, it was reported that Johnson had been working behind the scenes to cut its expansion from the defense budget.
