Contents
David Bereit is the executive director of the organization. The conference was founded by Federalist Society co-chairman Leonard Leo, pro-life philanthropist Ray Ruddy, and Princeton University professor Robert George. 1
Background
The Life Leadership Conference is a members-only pro-life coalition established in 2025 that includes influencers and philanthropists opposed to abortion. 1
The conference is aimed at unifying the disparate views in the pro-life movement behind common goals, messaging, and priorities. 2 Executive director David Bereit said the Life Leadership Conference seeks to reduce overlap and redundancies among pro-life groups and create “a team dedicated to advancing the entirety of the movement.” 3
The organization says it is made up of people “who know how to achieve genuine victories” for the pro-life movement. 1
The Life Leadership Conference was established in tandem with the $30 million Pro-Life Venture Fund that was “to be spent on member projects that will actually reduce the killing of unborn children.” 2 The $30 million Pro-Life Venture Fund was set to be distributed to member organizations working to lower the abortion rate “by making abortions less available, by engaging younger generations that are more skeptical about abortion and are trying to find the right answers, and by providing women in need the assistance and resources that will help them to reject a catastrophic choice that would haunt them for the rest of their lives.” 4
Leadership
David Bereit is the executive director of the Life Leadership Conference. Bereit is the founder and former national director of 40 Days for Life, a pro-life organization. He previously held roles at the American Life League and Students for Life of America. 2 Bereit is a member of the Equal Rights Institute’s board of advisers. 5 He left a full-time job in the pharmaceutical industry to work in the pro-life movement in 2001. 4 His job is to reportedly increase communication among pro-life organizations, manage a budget for gatherings, underwrite research and polling work for pro-life groups, and manage campaigns in pursuit of a culture of life. 6
The conference was founded by Federalist Society co-chairman Leonard Leo, pro-life philanthropist Ray Ruddy, and Princeton University professor Robert George. 1
Leo has been credited with helping the first Trump administration select judges, including helping to select the three U.S. Supreme Court justices who were part of the majority to overturn Roe v. Wade. 1
George is the co-founder of the American Principles Project. 1 George is also the director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. 6
Ruddy founded the Gerard Health Foundation, which funds pro-life causes, in 2001. It is named for Gerard Majella, a Catholic lay brother honored as a patron saint of pregnant women by the Catholic Church. 7
Focus and Priorities
In February 2025, co-founders Leonard Leo, Ray Ruddy and Robert George sent a memo to major pro-life organizations about the new pro-life venture fund and the Life Leadership Conference. 6
The memo to pro-life organizations said, “The Life Leadership Conference is our way of working to ensure that the pro-life movement’s ideals are fully and faithfully operationalized, to the end of winning more, and losing and compromising less.” 2
As for membership, the memo explains: “Membership in the Conference will be extended to those organizations and influencers who know how to achieve genuine victories, as well as to philanthropists and donors with a significant interest and stake in seeing progress towards our goal of building an America in which every child is protected in law and welcomed in life.” 2
The founding memo states that since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, “a whole new set of challenges” faced the pro-life movement, such as states enshrining abortion into constitutions. The memo argued: “It should come as no surprise that, with the passage of time and changes in circumstance, old strategies for building public support and advancing the pro-life cause in legislatures and courts need to be rethought and, in some cases, revised.” 1
The memo says, “the battle over abortion never was, and must never be allowed to become, simply about making sure the issue is delegated to the right government actors.” It went on to say the coalition “will work tirelessly to provide genuine protection to unborn babies and practical assistance to pregnant women in need.” 1
One of the conference’s priorities is to increase awareness about the nation’s more than 3,000 pro-life pregnancy centers that provide free medical and maternity support to expectant mothers and babies. 2
In June 2025, a CRC Research poll done for the Life Leadership Conference found 60 percent of registered voters favored eliminating Planned Parenthood’s public funding, while 29 percent supported taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood, and 12 percent had no opinion. The poll question referenced a New York Times report about “botched care” at Planned Parenthood clinics. The poll also showed 70 percent agree with using public funding for local pregnancy resource centers that offer prenatal care, diapers, cribs, and other services. 8