House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Friday abortion opponents are “entering a new era” with President Trump and Vice President Vance in the White House.
Speaking at the March for Life, Johnson praised the new administration for anti-abortion actions taken in the first week, including pardoning nearly two dozen anti-abortion activists.
He also pointed to Trump’s executive order on gender, which stated that a person became either “male” or “female” beginning at conception, rather than birth.
Abortion experts said the language itself has no legal meaning, but it sends a message to anti-abortion social conservatives and could be seen as the start of a “personhood” campaign to give fetuses the same rights as people.
Johnson touted Thursday’s passage in the House of the first piece of anti-abortion legislation in the new Congress, a bill that would require health providers to give care to a child born alive after a failed abortion.
A 2002 law already requires it, but the legislation would threaten providers with up to five years in prison for a violation. It also penalizes the “intentional killing of a child born alive,” which is already considered a homicide.
Johnson bemoaned that only one Democrat, Rep. Henry Cuellar (Texas), voted for the bill, eliciting boos from the crowd.
“It’s incredible, really, but it demonstrates just how important events like this today are,” Johnson said. “House and Senate Republicans are committed to protecting innocent life. We will do it.”
The same bill failed in the Senate earlier this week, as Republicans did not have the 60 votes required to begin debate and break a filibuster.
Speaking just before Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) praised the marchers and pledged to stand with them as they fight “for the right to life.”
“I stand with you in this fight, and so do many of my colleagues in Congress,” Thune said.
