Which presidential campaigns made it to the March for Life? The answer may surprise you.

With the major party presidential primaries seemingly coming to an historically early close, and a Biden v. Trump repeat likely, we look at which candidates made a stop at last week's March for Life.

Jan 26, 2024

Last week, the largest gathering of pro-life advocates nationwide descended on the nation’s capital, just a few days before what would have been the 51st anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

Democratic presidential candidate Terrisa Bukovinac, and American Solidarity Party vice presidential candidate Lauren Onak and presidential candidate Peter Sonski at the 2024 March for Life in Washington, D.C.

They gathered for the annual March for Life, which now takes a route past Congress in light of the shift in focus from the judicial to the legislative branch in efforts to create a culture of life.

Among the estimated 100,000 marchers were two longshot presidential candidates, Democrat Terrisa Bukovinac and Peter Sonski of the American Solidarity Party, who was there along with his running mate Lauren Onak.

Not in attendance? America’s sitting president, Democrat Joe Biden, who wouldn’t likely be caught dead at the march, nor his presumptive Republican challenger, former President Donald Trump, often heralded as the most pro-life president ever. Also not in attendance was Trump’s last remaining challenger, self-described pro-life Republican Nikki Haley.

Given the importance of abortion issues in the upcoming presidential election, it’s interesting that the only presidential campaigns that deigned to appear at the march were candidates whose chances of winning the White House border on the impossible.

We’ve discussed both Bukovinac and Sonski here before. And full disclosure, I’m friends with both candidates and have supported their respective campaigns this cycle.

With much of the activity around pro-life issues shifting to the states, Sonski’s campaign has made a point of attending as many state marches for life as possible.

Bukovinac’s campaign has just wrapped up work in the New Hampshire primary, where she centered the campaign around abortion issues.

Trump has recently made headlines criticizing heartbeat bills like those in former rival Ron DeSantis’ state of Florida as a “terrible misake.” The bills ban abortions after six weeks when fetal heartbeats become detectable.

Trump also refused to endorse a 15-week ban, instead hinting at an amorphous, ill-defined “compromise” he said he would broker.

In 2022, Trump deflected blame for his own role in the lackluster GOP midterm election performance by pinning losses on the “abortion issue”.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee President Joe Biden has called for codifying Roe. His administration has also taken steps to expand access to abortion medication and contraceptives.

With a likely repeat of last cycle’s Biden vs. Trump matchup coming this fall, pro-life voters will clearly have to look elsewhere in the primary and general elections to find a truly pro-life candidate.

They would do well to look at which candidates are walking the walk when it comes to life issues.

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