An Open Letter to Jennie Bradley Lichter, President-elect, March for Life
Dear Ms. Lichter,
I am writing to you with sincere and urgent questions that demand honest answers. You recently stated in a fundraising email on February 10, 2025: “Americans want life-affirming laws that protect both unborn children and their mothers.”This statement, like so many from the pro-life movement, sounds noble on the surface. But what does it actually mean? I ask this not rhetorically, but as someone who truly wants to understand.
Who Are These Mothers in Need of Protection?
Surely, you are not referring to mothers who choose life. Their children are never in danger, and they do not need protection from any legal threat. The only women who require “protection” in the context of abortion are those who—with malice aforethought—seek to have their unborn children killed.
So I must ask: What does it mean to “protect” a mother who willingly commits the death of her child? Does it mean protecting her from feeling guilty? Protecting her because she is the other victim in abortion? Protecting her due to a supposed lack of education? Are we talking about protecting her from coercion? From threats of violence? Or, as I suspect, are we talking about protecting her from facing justice for the intentional killing of her own child?
If you mean offering women the hope of repentance and forgiveness in Christ, then we stand on common ground. But if you mean ensuring that no woman ever faces legal consequences for committing homicide against her own child, then you are not advocating for justice—you are advocating for partiality.
Do you believe that justice should be applied consistently, or do you believe that mothers who choose to murder their unborn children deserve a unique exemption from the law? If so, why?
Would We Apply This Standard to Any Other Crime?
Imagine saying this about any other act of murder: “We must protect children from being murdered, and we must also protect those who murder them.” Would we say this about a father who smothers his infant? About a mother who poisons her toddler? About anyone who takes the life of another human being? Of course not. And yet, when it comes to abortion, the pro-life movement bends over backward to shield the guilty.
So, Ms. Lichter, please clarify: How do you justify extending legal protection to those who intentionally kill their own children? What makes abortion different from every other form of homicide?
The Financial Incentive Behind This Contradiction
I must also ask whether this position is, at least in part, financially motivated. The pro-life movement has become a multi-million-dollar industry, built on incremental regulations and endless fundraising campaigns that ensure abortion remains a perpetual issue.
What happens if abortion is actually abolished? Would the March for Life cease to exist? Would its donors still send in millions if the battle were won? These are not baseless questions—they are essential to understanding why the pro-life movement resists calls for immediate abolition and equal justice.
The Bible warns us: “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” (1 Timothy 6:10). I must ask plainly: Is the March for Life’s refusal to call for the criminalization of abortion influenced by financial concerns?
A Call for Clarity and a Public Response
Ms. Lichter, I do not write this letter in an attempt to score rhetorical points. I write because the lives of unborn children are at stake, and I refuse to accept double standards in the name of political expediency.
So I ask again: What does your statement mean? If you believe that unborn children are fully human and deserving of equal protection, then will you support laws that treat their murder as murder? Or will you continue to advocate for laws that shield their killers?
I will be publishing this letter, and I invite you to respond publicly. I believe the American people—and especially those who have supported the March for Life—deserve to hear your answer.
Sincerely,
Norman Harold Patterson Jr.
Director, Connecticut Foundation to Abolish Abortion
(www.AbolishAbortionCT.org)