Trump is pushing a demand to stop taxpayer funding of abortion

WE SUPPORT THE HYDE SUPPLEMENT: President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order to end the use of federal taxpayer money to fund or promote elective abortions.

• The Executive Order recognizes that Congress has for nearly five decades enacted the Hyde Amendment and numerous other laws to protect taxpayers from being forced to pay for abortions. Contrary to this longstanding sensible policy, the previous administration enshrined federal funding for elective abortions in a number of government programs.
• To restore this long-standing policy, this order rescinds two of President Biden's executive orders that violate the Hyde Amendment:
  • Executive Order 14076 established a government-wide effort to promote and fund abortion and politicized enforcement of the Free Access to Clinics Act (FACE).
    • Federal laws protecting pregnant women's access to emergency medical care under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) and protecting personal health information under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) remain in full force and effect.
• Executive Order 14079 reclassified abortion as "health care" in order to fund elective abortions with taxpayer money. This included the use of Medicaid funds to pay for travel costs for elective abortions.

ENDING FEDERAL FUNDING FOR ABORTION ABROAD: President Donald J. Trump also signed a presidential memorandum renewing Mexico City's policy to stop using federal taxpayer money for abortions abroad.

• The President's 2017 policy is reinstated to ensure that no U.S. taxpayer money will support foreign organizations that perform or actively promote abortions in other countries.
• The first Trump administration extended this policy to global health aid. A 2020 report by the United States Agency for International Development found that this life-sustaining policy does not diminish women's health worldwide.

PROTECTING TAXPAYERS FROM FUNDING ABORTION: For the first time in nearly fifty years, President Trump has returned the question of life to a vote of the people, and from the States.

• Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, 597 U.S. 215 (2022), overruled Roe v. Wade and returned the power to regulate life and safety issues to the people. Three of the justices who decided the case were appointed by President Trump.
• Federal overreach and taxpayer money will no longer enforce violations of faith and conscience or impede the ability of states to determine life policy through a vote of the people.
• For example, under President Biden, the Department of Defense reimbursed travel expenses associated with abortions, the Department of Veterans Affairs allowed hospitals to perform abortions, and the Department of Health and Human Services paid for abortions for illegal immigrants.

PRESIDENT TRUMP PROMISED AND DELIVERED: President Trump has promised to protect and defend the people's vote on the issue of life within the states. Today's executive actions build on a long list of accomplishments by the first Trump administration to uphold the sanctity of all human life and prevent taxpayer funding for abortion. Selected highlights of the first Trump administration's work include

• Renewing and expanding Mexico City's policy to ensure that taxpayer money is not used to fund abortion globally.
• He issued a rule preventing taxpayer funds under Title X from subsidizing the abortion industry.
• He cut all funding to the UN Population Fund, which supports forced abortion and forced sterilisation.
• He signed a law repealing a previous administration regulation that prohibited states from funding abortion facilities as part of their family planning programs.
• Fully enforced the requirement for separate payment for abortion coverage under Obamacare plans on the exchanges.
• He stopped federal funding for fetal tissue research.
• He has worked to protect the rights of health care providers and individuals to conscience and to ensure that no health care worker is forced to participate in an abortion contrary to his or her beliefs.
• He issued an executive order strengthening the requirement that all hospitals in the United States provide medical treatment or emergency transfer to infants who need urgent medical care - regardless of prematurity or disability.
• He led a coalition of countries to sign the Geneva Consensus Declaration, which declares that there is no international right to abortion and commits to protecting women's health.
• The first president in history to participate in the March for Life.

whitehouse.gov/ gnews - RoZ

ILLUSTRATIVE PHOTO by Maria Oswalt on Unsplash