PROSPECT HEIGHTS — Jennie Bradley Lichter, an accomplished attorney and ardent pro-life advocate, has been elected as the next president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, the organization announced.
Lichter will take over for Jeanne Mancini, who has led the organization since fall 2012.
Most recently, Lichter served as deputy general counsel at the Catholic University of America (CUA), where she founded an initiative to provide tangible resources and support to expectant mothers and their children. Her role at CUA follows years of legal and policy experience in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, including in the federal government.
Lichter has also been a longtime participant in the national March for Life.
“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,” she said in a Sept. 12 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.”
Lichter added that she is humbled by her election to the role and eager to get started.
“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,” Lichter said.
Timothy Saccoccia, March for Life Chairman of the Board, highlighted the type of leader he expects Lichter to be.
“She will truly be a leader in the tradition of her amazing and dedicated predecessors at a time when the need to march in Washington and our state capitals has never been more important,” he said. “I know marchers across the country will enjoy the opportunity in the years ahead to meet Jennie and march with her until abortion is unthinkable.”
Lichter will join the organization in November as president-elect and will officially assume leadership on February 1, 2025, a week after the 2025 national March for Life.
Mancini, who will continue to serve on the board of directors, said leading the organization has been “the honor and opportunity of a lifetime.”
“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,” she said.
“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 continued. “I am more than delighted to watch how the organization will continue to grow under Jennie Bradley Lichter’s leadership.”
Saccoccia also thanked Mancini, the second March for Life president, for her “12 years of leadership during some of the most historic moments for our movement” and credited her for helping “change hearts and minds across America.”
The organization was founded and led by Nellie Gray in 1974 in response to the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide the year prior. In 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, placing abortion law in the hands of the states, which has seen states both restrict and expand abortion access.
Even with Roe overturned, which was the organization’s original goal, the national march has continued, with the organization proclaiming that “the fight to end abortion in our country is not over.” The national march now follows a route that focuses less on the Supreme Court and more on the Capitol. The organization has also placed more of an emphasis on state marches.
In recent years, about 100,000 people have traveled to Washington, D.C., annually for the march, including Catholic bishops, clergy, religious people, and lay faithful. Annually, the U.S. bishops hold the National Prayer Vigil for Life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., the night before the march, which also brings together thousands.
At the 2024 vigil, Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, the U.S. bishops’ conference Pro-Life Committee Chair, reminded those in attendance that there is still much work left to do.
“God’s work is not finished. Our story is not over. Dobbs was a great victory, and for that, we must rejoice, but a new chapter is unfolding in our pro-life work,” Burbidge said. “We must never negotiate the truth but speak it in love, bring it to the darkest places, and continue to serve mothers, fathers, and families in need. We must find our bearings and press forward in hope.”