It’s time to repeal Biden’s pro-abortion policies and restore Trump’s pro-life legacy at HHS
By U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) | January 13, 2024 | World Magazine
Inauguration Day is at hand. A new political era awaits. And on Day One, President Donald Trump can set the moral tone for his second term with the stroke of a pen. He can restore the full suite of pro-life policies that his own Department of Health and Human Services developed during his first term. No priority should be—could be—higher than protecting America’s unborn children.
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Many Americans don’t realize just how consequential agency actions truly are. These rules set the direction of policy for the whole of the government—and federal agencies influence policy in the states, too, through extensive grant programs and other means. Because Congress regularly delegates massive authority to federal agencies, the rules and regulations they promulgate carry the force of law. For those reasons, directing the federal bureaucracy is one of the president’s greatest powers.
President Trump should use that power to protect life, just as he did in his first term. In the first Trump administration, HHS advanced a broad slate of pro-life measures critical to defending the unborn.
First, it correctly determined that federal funding for family planning through the Title X grant program shouldn’t mean federal funding for abortion providers. That’s because abortion doesn’t build families—it destroys them.
Second, HHS made pregnancy resource centers eligible to receive federal funding through grants designed for the support of needy families. That’s because these centers—which provide ultrasounds, diapers, counseling, and a host of other resources to expectant mothers, often at no cost—serve as critical lifelines for struggling families across the nation.
Third, President Trump implemented the Mexico City Policy that blocked federal funding to international aid groups that promote abortions. That’s because American foreign aid should be aimed at nurturing life, not ending it. American taxpayers should never be forced to subsidize abortions in other countries.
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Predictably, these achievements came under immediate attack once Joe Biden arrived in the Oval Office. Pro-abortion activists in the Biden administration spent years trying to dismantle President Trump’s work at HHS. In the hands of President Biden, HHS tried to force federal grant recipients to make referrals for abortions, cut off funding for pregnancy resource centers, and use American tax dollars to help pay for abortions overseas.
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Thankfully, it’s a new day. And President Trump has the power to start protecting life again—immediately. He should use that power boldly to protect those who most need it: the innocent unborn.
Read Senator Hawley’s full op-ed here.