Trump's return to the White House shifts abortion policy landscape

WASHINGTON (OSV News) -- Within the first week of President Donald Trump's return to the White House, he used executive authority to block taxpayer funds from paying for elective abortion procedures both in the U.S. and abroad and delivered a virtual message to the March for Life rally on Jan. 24, while Vice President JD Vance addressed marchers in person.

Trump's comments and the directives he issued marked something of a return to the pro-life cause after his efforts to strike a moderate tone on the issue during his campaign or even distancing himself from the issue entirely, such as when he stated abortion should be a matter for the states rather than Congress and said he would veto a federal abortion ban if one reached his desk.

But a number of pro-life activists who spoke with OSV News at the annual rally praised Trump as taking decisive action on the issue in the first days of his second term. Others pointed to Congress's failure to pass the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act the same week and ending federal funds for Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider, as significant unfinished business.

The legislation, which would require any infant that survives an abortion procedure to receive appropriate medical care for their gestational age, was passed by the House, but failed to clear a procedural hurdle in the Senate. Asked about the outcome, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., told OSV News, "We're going to keep the conversation going."

"Quite frankly, it's a moment where we can continue to be able to talk about what is the value of every single child," he said.

Asked if he saw more room for cooperation on other pro-life measures in the upper chamber, such as on the child tax credit, he said, "We'll continue to be able to talk about everything we can," saying that policy also "still gets to the core issue, and that is, is every child valuable, or some children are valuable and some children are disposable?"

"And that's still an issue we've got to resolve, and we'll keep the conversation going," Lankford said.

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action, praised Trump for pardoning 23 individuals she said were improperly prosecuted by the Biden administration under the Federal Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act, which prohibits actions including obstructing the entrance to an abortion clinic, as among the first acts of his term.

But Hawkins also told OSV News Trump's job "isn't done," for the pro-life cause, and the movement should push him to strip federal funds from Planned Parenthood.

"President Trump has been very clear he doesn't want to see or he doesn't want to advance a gestational ban" on abortion at the federal level, Hawkins said. "He could defund Planned Parenthood."

Supporters of allowing Planned Parenthood to receive Medicaid funds argue the organization's involvement in cancer screening and prevention services -- such as pap tests and HPV vaccinations -- warrant the funds, but critics argue the funds are fungible and could be used to facilitate abortion. Efforts to strip Planned Parenthood of these funds are sometimes called "defunding."

"I think the president really needs to be educated, and his advisers need to be educated, on the fact that Planned Parenthood is a leading force in Democratic politics," Hawkins said, pointing to campaign spending by the group's lobbying arm. "President Trump should not be funding his political enemies."

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which works to elect pro-life candidates to public office, told OSV News Trump authorized "concrete policies that are being announced that are very strong and the fruit of a lot of work from a lot of pro-life people all over the country," but she also pointed to stripping federal funds from Planned Parenthood as a priority.

"We've been through this drill before," when efforts to do so failed in Trump's first administration, she said, "But we have a better margin in the Senate. It's a little tough in the House, but we'll have a little bit better margin pretty soon in the House, and we've got a lot of enthusiasm for the idea."

A subject of debate among pro-life activists is Trump's selection of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a member of the prominent Catholic Kennedy political clan, for secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy faces a contentious confirmation process in part due to his claims that vaccines are linked to autism, which studies have consistently debunked, and his call to remove fluoride from drinking water.

Kennedy took several positions on abortion during his own failed presidential bid, first supporting then walking back his position on a 15-week ban.

Advancing American Freedom, a public policy advocacy organization founded by former Vice President Mike Pence, has urged the Senate to reject the nomination due to multiple positions taken by Kennedy it called "antithetical to conservatism" including on abortion.

HHS, the top health agency in the U.S., has a budget of nearly $2 billion and enormous regulatory power over federal health programs including Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, as well as federal regulations concerning abortion, such as conscience protections for health care workers who decline to participate in certain procedures to which they have an objection.

Asked about debate among pro-life proponents over Kennedy, Erik Baptist, senior counsel and director of the Center for Life at Alliance Defending Freedom, said "I think it's a time right now where people can look and ask questions of the nominee," but said he thinks Kennedy would have "an open mind."

"We look forward to engaging the new administration on those issues," he said.