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Vance, a Republican, has spent years passionately advocating for Americans to . He repeatedly expressed alarm about declining birth rates as he launched his political career in 2021 with a successful bid for the U.S. Senate in Ohio, and as vice president he has continued on that mission.

“I want more babies in the United States of America," Vance said in addressing last year's March for Life.

Earlier this week, Vance and his wife, , announced in a social media post they are , their fourth child, in late July.

“Let the record show, you have a vice president who practices what he preaches," Vance said on Friday.

Vance cited the Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs decision, which , calling it "the most important Supreme Court decision of my lifetime.” He said President leadership and appointment of conservative jurists “put a definitive end to the tyranny of judicial rule on the question of human life.”

He also lauded the “historic expansion of the Mexico City policy," the broadening of for groups supporting abortion services, to include assistance going to international and domestic organizations and agencies that promote gender identity as well as diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

“We believe that every country in the world has the duty to protect life," Vance said, to a sea of supporters waving signs reading “Choose Life,” “Make More Babies” and “I am the Pro-Life Generation.”

“It’s not our job as the United States of America to promote radical gender ideology,” he said. "It’s our job to promote families and human flourishing.”

On Thursday, an official said the Trump administration was implementing new rules, halting foreign assistance from going not only to groups that provide abortion as a method of family planning but also to those that advocate “gender ideology” and DEI. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of the rules’ publication in the Federal Register on Friday.

First established under President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, the policy was rescinded by subsequent Democratic administrations and was reinstated in Trump’s first term.

With its origins in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that nationally enshrined federal protection for abortion rights, the March for Life developed an entrenched presence among conservatives arguing against abortion. In 2017, Trump addressed the march by video, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to make live remarks. Three years later, he attended the event in person, further cementing its role in conservative politics.

In a video address to this year’s crowd, Trump recounted his administration’s “unprecedented strides to protect innocent life and support the institution of the family like never before,” enumerating his appointment of “judges and justices who believed in interpreting the Constitution as written” and “reflecting on the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

Since that overturned Roe, the march has become more celebratory, with organizers in legislatures around the country and urging a continued fight until abortion is eliminated.

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at .

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Follow the AP's coverage of abortion at .