(LifeSiteNews) — “Governor Newsom, take a stand! Protect the babies of this land!”
That was one of the chants recited at the sixth annual California March for Life at the state Capitol in Sacramento on March 16. The event was held on a Monday so Governor Gavin Newsom, state legislators, and other government employees could see and hear some 2,000 Californians standing up for the unborn.
Their witness is sorely needed in the radically pro-abortion state. Newsom declared California an abortion “sanctuary” days after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. He signed a bill into law last September that permits doctors to prescribe chemical abortion pills anonymously and allows the prescriptions to be filled without listing pharmacy information on the label.
Last month Newsom provided $90 million in “emergency funding” to Planned Parenthood despite the state’s severe budget deficit. The nation’s largest abortion provider also happens to be a major campaign contributor to Democratic politicians. Newsom is expected to run for president in 2028.
The opening prayer at the California March for Life rally was delivered by John Randall, pastor of Calvary South OC in San Clemente, California.
“Lord, today we gather and march forward much like your people once walked around the city of Jericho,” he said. “Just as the walls of Jericho fell by the power of God, we pray that the spiritual walls of darkness, of deception, of indifference that surround this Capitol would fall in Jesus’ name.”
READ: Tens of thousands stand for the unborn at Walk for Life West Coast in San Francisco
The next speaker was Assemblywoman Leticia Castillo, a Republican from Riverside County whose parents immigrated to the United States legally from Mexico in search of a better life.
“Lord, if it is your will … send me to Sacramento,” Castillo prayed prior to her election in November 2024. Soon after being sworn into office in January 2025, she was asked to author a bill to strengthen adoption curriculum in public-school sexual education classes for grades 7 through 12. “My first words were, ‘This is why God brought me here.’”
Her bill was killed in committee, however, as members of the aggressively pro-abortion Democratic Party outnumber Republicans in the California Legislature three to one.
Yet Castillo urged rally participants to continue advocating for the unborn in the public square. “Keep showing up, keep speaking out, and keep praying. Keep encouraging one another. Your faithfulness matters, and it is noticed by me, by my colleagues across the aisle, and most importantly, by the One who calls us to defend life.”
California Family Council (CFC) cohosted the event with the national March for Life organization. CFC staff urged attendees to visit their state legislators’ offices after the march and handed out cards with QR codes to help them do so. (I did not bother visiting the office of my assemblymember, Maggy Krell, who previously served as Planned Parenthood’s chief legal counsel in California.)
CFC Vice President Greg Burt said that while bills are regularly introduced to expand abortion even further, two life-affirming bills are now pending and could use constituent support. The measures would strengthen the state’s Safely Surrendered Baby law, which allows a parent who feels they cannot care for a newborn baby to surrender the child without fear of legal consequences.
AB 1628 extends the time frame for a parent to surrender their baby from 72 hours to 30 days, as is the case in most other states with safe-surrender programs. AB 2073 authorizes the use of infant safety devices, or “baby boxes,” at designated safe-surrender sites like hospitals or fire stations. The devices offer an anonymous option for parents who may be unwilling to make a direct face-to-face surrender.
Shon Thornburg, the regional director for the eight Love Life chapters in Southern California, addressed the rally next. The evangelical ministry founded in North Carolina in 2016 conducts prayer walks outside abortion centers across the country. Earlier on March 16, Love Life led about 100 Christians in prayer outside the Planned Parenthood abortuary located one block away.
“We live in the greatest, most abundantly beautiful state in the nation,” Thornburg said. “Anything you don’t like about California has to do with the building behind me.” Government policies on crime, homelessness, and affordability—along with general hostility toward Christian values—continue to result in heavy outmigration from the state.
He stressed that pro-lifers “don’t fight against flesh and blood. We fight a spiritual battle that spills over into the physical realm.” He said that “if you live in California and you’re going to stay, and I hope you’re all going to stay … you are already in the fight. Friend, if you live in California, you are in the octagon.” The reference was to a mixed martial arts fighting cage.
“Satan’s game is to keep you and I distracted,” he said, pointing out that the state’s number of abortions has increased since Roe v. Wade was overturned. This has largely been due to the promotion and easy availability of chemical abortions. “We need to spiritually armor up and get into the fight.”
“This whole area is lined with ministries and opportunities to get involved,” Thornburg said, pointing toward the 20 or so information booths set up in front of the Capitol’s West Steps by a variety of pro-life groups. “Get involved beyond today.”
CFC Outreach Director Sophia Lorey then welcomed directors and staff members from 12 pregnancy centers across California to the stage. “While politicians debate,” she said, “pregnancy centers open their doors, offering care, truth, and hope to women who need it most.”
Ashley Lundberg, executive director at CareNet Pregnancy Center in Paradise, California, said her facility offers women facing unplanned pregnancies medical services including pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, STD testing, and well-woman visits.
READ: California March for Life confirms there is hope for even America’s most pro-abortion state
Lundberg added that male peer counseling is also available because the presence and support of the biological father of an unborn baby greatly reduces the likelihood that the mother will abort her child. “We want to see them choose life together because every heartbeat matters.”
Seventy percent of abortions now occur as the result of the abortion pill, according to Lundberg. That’s why CareNet also offers Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) for pregnant women who regret their decision to begin the two-pill chemical abortion regimen.
APR consists of prescribing progesterone, a naturally occurring hormone that has been safely used clinically for decades. When taken by a pregnant woman after the first abortion pill, progesterone counteracts the medication’s intended lethal effect.
“We are offering her and her baby a second chance,” she said, noting that more than 8,000 babies have been saved nationally through APR.
Lundberg was followed to the podium by Elizabeth Barrett, who in 2023 became CareNet Pregnancy Center’s first Abortion Pill Reversal patient. Barrett gave birth to a healthy baby girl in January 2024. She also spoke at the 22nd annual Walk for Life West Coast in San Francisco last January.
Barrett recounted the rushed, impersonal care she received at the Planned Parenthood clinic where she took the first abortion pill. She regretted her action almost immediately.
She and her ex-boyfriend, the unborn baby’s father, then found the phone number for an APR hotline buried on page three of Google search results. “I called and within 10 minutes they connected me with a doctor in my area. And within 45 minutes, I was on progesterone,” she said to loud applause.
“That was able to reattach what I call my baby, what the world might call a fetus, back to the uterine wall and get her all the nourishment she needed,” Barrett said. She was joined onstage by her two-year-old daughter Evelyn and other family members.
Jennie Bradley Lichter was the keynote speaker. She is president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, which has long been at the forefront of restoring a culture of life in the U.S. The 53rd annual national March for Life was held in Washington, D.C., on January 23, while last week’s event in Sacramento was one of 20 state marches.
Attendees “stand shoulder-to-shoulder with all of those marchers that came before us through all of those years,” Lichter said. “Do you know what will bring down the abortion rate even in states like this one with terribly permissive abortion laws? Supporting pregnant women.”
She said there are nearly 3,000 pregnancy resource centers and 400 maternity homes nationwide, and that supporting local facilities is a “crucial way you can make a difference for life when today’s march is over. Remember that if our mission begins and ends in the state house or the courtroom, we have missed the heart of what it means to be pro-life. At the heart of our mission is love.”
“Young people, your generation is the tipping point,” Lichter continued, citing polls showing surging support for the pro-life cause among young adults. “There is real unmistakable momentum for life. Real momentum. Keep it going by evangelizing your classmates, your friends, your siblings, your teammates. Keep sharing the truth about the preciousness of every human life and the rights of people in the womb.”
The rally’s closing prayer was offered by Fr. James Tasy, a parochial vicar at Good Shepherd Catholic Parish in Visalia, California.
“We have hope because of Jesus Christ for the conversion of all those who support abortion and for those who remain blind to its disastrous effects on the human family,” said Fr. Tasy, who was ordained in 2023. “Your son Jesus taught us not to curse those people who oppose our efforts, but to pray for them. We too are sinners.”
“May our prayers and our witness to the dignity of the human person, unborn and born alike, be effective at moving our own hearts and the hearts of every legislator and every heart in the state of California closer to the love of God in Christ,” he said.
The California March for Life proceeded around Capitol Park, covering 40 acres and 12 city blocks. The banner used the first year, when smaller numbers of marchers were confined to the sidewalk, could be held by one person. More than a dozen people held the banner for last week’s march, during which downtown streets were closed to traffic.
Recordings of the speakers are available at CFC’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.
Robert Jenkins is a Catholic writer living in Sacramento, California. All photos in the article are courtesy of California Family Council.