President Donald Trump on Jan. 24 used executive authority to block taxpayer funds from paying for elective abortion procedures both in the U.S. and abroad.
Trump reinstated a policy, commonly referred to as the Mexico City Policy, which bars taxpayer funds from going to nongovernmental organizations abroad that perform or promote abortions. He also signed an executive order to further enforce a ban on federal funding for abortion known as the Hyde Amendment.
The Mexico City Policy, referred to as the "global gag rule" by opponents, was first enacted by former President Ronald Reagan in 1984. Each Republican president since that time has authorized it, and each Democratic president has rescinded the policy. In 2021, the Trump administration expanded the policy's family-planning scope to cover most federal global health assistance, renaming it the "Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance" policy.
Trump's executive order to enforce the Hyde Amendment alleged that "the previous administration embedded federal funding of elective abortion in a wide variety of government programs." It rescinded some executive orders issued by former President Joe Biden including one directing strict enforcement of the Federal Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act, which prohibits actions including obstructing the entrance to an abortion clinic, and another defining abortion as "healthcare."
The order said federal statutes "protecting access to emergency medical care for pregnant women 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 effect."
RealClear Politics first reported that he did so while aboard Air Force One, just hours after delivering a virtual, prerecorded message to the Jan. 24 March for Life earlier the same day.
Neither Trump nor Vice President JD Vance, who addressed the national March for Life in person, mentioned his plans to do so in their comments to the annual pro-life demonstration in Washington.
Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America, argued in a statement that as a candidate, "Trump tried to downplay his role in overturning Roe v. Wade. And now he has spent his first week in office handing down anti-abortion directives gutting federal protections."
"These policies inflict harm on those who need access to reproductive health care, including abortion, in our country, and around the world -- and we will fight back," Timmaraju said.
But Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which works to elect pro-life candidates to public office, praised the orders in a statement, arguing, "With this action the president is getting American taxpayers out of the abortion business and restoring sanity to the federal government."
"This is a big win for babies and mothers, and it reflects the will of the majority of Americans who strongly oppose bankrolling the abortion industry at home and abroad," Dannenfelser said. "On behalf of pro-life Americans and the moms and babies that will be saved from the tragedy of abortion, thank you, President Trump."
In a Jan. 26 statement, Bishop Daniel E. Thomas of Toledo, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee for Pro-Life Activities, praised the actions, saying, "A significant majority of Americans oppose being forced to support abortion through their tax dollars. I am grateful for the strengthening of policies that protect us from being compelled to participate in a culture of death, and that help us to restore a culture of life at home and abroad."
The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, and as such, opposes direct abortion.
After the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health Organization in June 2022, church officials in the U.S. have reiterated the church's concern for both mother and child and called to strengthen available support for those living in poverty or other causes that can push women toward having an abortion.
