WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Jennie Bradley Lichter will step down as president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, she said in a July 30 statement.

“This note is to wish you the fondest farewell, as I will be stepping down as President of the March for Life effective tomorrow, July 31,” Bradley Lichter said in a statement. “My next chapter will be a new one for me: full-time mom.”

Organizers of the March for Life — first founded in protest of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, which was overturned in 2022 — describe it as the nation’s largest annual human rights demonstration.

Key challenges for pro-life movement

The March for Life will seek new leadership while the pro-life movement faces a number of key challenges, such as preserving the Hyde Amendment, the recent approval of a new generic abortion drug, a policy permitting the distribution of that drug by mail and a rising abortion rate.

Bradley Lichter said in a statement that the role of March for Life president was the “highlight of my professional life.”

“In countless conversations, public and private, I have doggedly made the case for ending the scourge of chemical abortion and for other pro-life policy priorities,” she said. “With our twin goals of speaking to the head and speaking to the heart, the MFL team and I have continued to prioritize communicating the truth about human life and the harms of abortion—because the truth IS pro-life—and also communicating the beauty and joy of parenthood and the infinite preciousness of every single baby, no matter the circumstances.”

But, she said, “it has become very clear that my family needs more of my time and my active presence than I’m able to give while leading the March for Life. And so I must step away.”

Assumed presidency in February 2025

Bradley Lichter, who became president of both the March for Life organization and its sister lobbying organization in February 2025, was previously deputy general counsel at The Catholic University of America in Washington, where she oversaw its Guadalupe Project, a campus-wide initiative to offer tangible support for pregnant and parenting students, faculty and staff.

Lichter previously served in the White House during the first Trump administration as a deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, where she supervised rulemaking and policy efforts at several federal agencies.

Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.