Julie Rovner, KFF Health News
Abortion foes fearful earlier than his election that President Donald Trump had moved on, now that Roe v. Wade is overturned and abortion coverage, as he mentioned on the marketing campaign path, “has been returned to the states.”
Their issues mounted after Trump named Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime supporter of abortion rights, to guide the Department of Health and Human Services — after which as he signed a slew of Day 1 govt orders that mentioned nothing about abortion.
As it seems, they’d nothing to fret about. In its first two weeks, the Trump administration went additional to limit abortion than any president for the reason that unique Roe choice in 1973.
Hours after Trump and Vice President JD Vance spoke to abortion opponents gathered in Washington for the annual March for Life, the president issued a memorandum reinstating what’s generally known as the Mexico City Policy, which bars funding to worldwide assist organizations that “perform or actively promote” abortion — an motion taken by each fashionable Republican president.
But Trump additionally did one thing new, signing an executive order ending “the forced use of Federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion” in home packages — successfully ordering authorities businesses to halt funding to packages that may be construed to “promote” abortion, reminiscent of household planning counseling.
Dorothy Fink, the performing secretary of Health and Human Services, adopted up with a memo early final week ordering the division to “reevaluate all programs, regulations, and guidance to ensure Federal taxpayer dollars are not being used to pay for or promote elective abortion, consistent with the Hyde Amendment.”
The emphasis on the phrase “promote” is mine, as a result of that’s not what the Hyde Amendment says. It is true that the modification — which has been included in every HHS spending bill for the reason that Seventies — prohibits the usage of federal {dollars} to pay for abortions besides in instances of rape or incest or to save lots of the mom’s life.
But it bars solely cost. As the current HHS appropriation says, not one of the funding “shall be expended for health benefits coverage that includes coverage of abortion.”
In truth, for many years, the Hyde Amendment existed facet by facet with a requirement within the federal household planning program, Title X, that sufferers with unintended pregnancies be given “nondirective” counseling about all their choices, together with abortion. Former President Joe Biden reinstated that requirement in 2021 after Trump eradicated it throughout his first time period.
So, what’s the upshot of Trump’s order?
For one factor, it straight overturned two of Biden’s govt orders. One was meant to strengthen medical privateness protections for individuals looking for abortion care and implement a 1994 legislation criminalizing harassment of individuals trying to enter clinics that present abortions. The different sought to make sure ladies with being pregnant issues have entry to emergency abortions in hospitals that settle for Medicare even in states with abortion bans. The latter coverage is making its way by federal court docket.
Trump’s order can also be main authorities businesses to reverse different key Biden administration insurance policies applied after the autumn of Roe v. Wade. They embody a 2022 Department of Defense coverage explicitly permitting service members and their dependents to journey out of states with abortion bans to entry the process and offering journey allowances for these journeys. (The Pentagon formally adopted by on that change on Jan. 30, only a few days after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took over the job: Service members are not allowed go away or journey allowances for such journeys.) The order can also be prone to reverse a coverage permitting the Department of Veterans Affairs to offer abortions in some instances, in addition to to offer abortion counseling.
But it might even have extra wide-ranging results.
“This executive order could affect other major policies related to access to reproductive health care,” former Biden administration official Katie Keith wrote within the policy journal Health Affairs. These embody protections for treatment abortion, emergency medical care for girls experiencing being pregnant issues, and even in vitro fertilization.
“These and similar changes would, if and when adopted, make it even more challenging for women and their families to access reproductive health care, especially in the more than 20 states with abortion bans,” she wrote.
Anti-abortion teams praised the brand new administration — not only for the manager orders, but additionally for pardoning activists convicted of violating a legislation that protects bodily entry to abortion clinics.
“One after another, President Trump’s great pro-life victories are being restored and this is just the beginning,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, mentioned in a statement.
Abortion rights teams, in the meantime, weren’t shocked by the actions and even their timing, mentioned Clare Coleman, president and CEO of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association. The affiliation represents grantees of Title X, which has been a longtime goal of abortion opponents.
“We said we didn’t think it would be a Day 1 thing,” Coleman mentioned in an interview. “But we said they were coming for us, and they are.”
HealthBent, an everyday characteristic of KFF Health News, affords perception into and evaluation of insurance policies and politics from KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner, who has lined well being look after greater than 30 years.
KFF Health News is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points and is without doubt one of the core working packages at KFF—an impartial supply of well being coverage analysis, polling, and journalism. Learn extra about KFF.
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