Iowa Pilgrims Prepare for Annual March for Life
by David Dufek | December 29, 2025
To understand the spirit of the Iowa delegation to the March for Life, you have to look back to the year of the blizzard.
It has become a bit of local lore: the year "Snowmageddon" stranded the Iowa bus on the Pennsylvania Turnpike for 24 hours. While other groups hunkered down behind frosted windows, the Iowa students were among the first to empty out into the drifts. They checked on stranded motorists, ensuring strangers had heat and safety. Then, in a moment that defined the group’s character, they constructed an altar out of snow on the highway shoulder so a priest could celebrate Mass.
“I don’t know how much more Iowa you can get than that,” says Maggie DeWitte.
DeWitte, the executive director of Pulse Life Advocates, is preparing to lead the pilgrimage back to Washington, D.C. this January. She uses the word pilgrimage intentionally. Despite the shifting legal landscape three years after Dobbs, she insists the 20-hour bus ride remains a spiritual necessity, a physical testament to a battle that is far from over.
The logistics for the 2026 trip tell a story of a faithful, if competitive, remnant. Currently, the manifest lists 60 pilgrims, which is enough to fill one charter bus completely. They are drawn from all four of the state’s dioceses, though DeWitte admits the northwest corner of the state is currently outpacing the rest.
“Sioux City gets the award this year,” she notes, citing strong numbers from St. Edmond in Fort Dodge and Bishop Heelan Catholic High School.
The Diocese of Des Moines is holding its ground, however, represented by several local families and a contingent of students from Dowling Catholic. The immediate goal is to expand that footprint. DeWitte is looking for just ten more registrations to greenlight a second bus, a move that would allow the delegation to spread out and double their presence in the capital.
Those who make the journey will witness a significant moment for the local church. Sarah Hurm, an Iowa mother, has been selected to give a testimony on the main stage at the National Mall. She will speak on the reversal of a chemical abortion, a topic DeWitte identifies as the new frontier of the pro-life cause as mail-order prescriptions rise.
DeWitte’s resolve to keep the buses running comes from a career spent in the trenches of social work. Long before leading Pulse, she worked in foster care and adoption, guiding families through their darkest hours.
“Having worked with families going through some of the worst experiences of their lives,” DeWitte reflects, it never once “crossed my mind that they would be better off having terminated the life of their unborn child.”
That conviction is what fuels the long drive east.
To learn more about Pulse for Life, visit pulseforlife.org.