President Donald Trump: A Defender of Preborn Lives
During the 2016 election cycle some in the Pro-Life movement felt uneasily about the selection of formerly anti-Life Donald Trump as the Republican nominee. However, over the course of his presidency, Donald Trump has proven himself to be a staunch defender of preborn lives. Even as our country braces for the impending anti-Life Biden administration, we can reflect with gratitude on what President Trump and his administration have accomplished over the past four years to protect all lives, born and preborn, across our nation.
Building a conservative judiciary
President Trump has made a lasting impact with his nominations of three Pro-Life justices to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) – Justice Neil Gorsuch in 2017, Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, and Justice Amy Coney Barrett in 2020. Beyond these three, President Trump appointed more than 200 conservative judges to various circuit and district courts. These appointments are incredibly significant, will impact the judiciary for a generation, and will provide the opportunity for more substantial Life-protecting legislation to be affirmed by SCOTUS despite assured extreme opposition in the White House and Congress.
Defunding the abortion industry
President Trump and his administration did far more than any previous administration to restrict funds to the abortion industry at the state, national, and international levels, in total equating to billions of American tax dollars that were redirected and withdrawn from supporting the evil of killing preborn babies.
In 2018, Trump provided protection for states to defund Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers through an executive order on which numerous states have since acted, including Texas.
In 2020, the Trump Administration granted Texas a waiver reinstating federal funding for the Healthy Texas Women program. In 2012, the Obama Administration refused to provide federal funding to this program unless abortion providers were included. Texas stood strong, identifying a statewide network of medical providers not involved in abortion and continuing the program with 100% state funding instead. This waiver by the Trump Administration released $350 million in reinstated funding for low-income women in Texas.
President Trump also enacted a new Title X rule preventing family planning programs from funding abortions. Planned Parenthood would not comply with the rule, and lost around $60 million by removing themselves from this federal funding stream. Internationally, President Trump defunded the International Planned Parenthood Federation by $100 million and defunded the British abortion organization, Marie Stopes International, by $73 million. He also redirected $32.5 million from the United Nations Population Fund, an organization that has worked with promoting forced abortions in China, to go toward the U.S. Agency for International Development instead. And in 2017, the Trump administration reinstated the Mexico City Policy, blocking federal funding to international organizations that perform, refer, or advocate for abortion by roughly $9 billion dollars.
Standing for Life
In 2020, President Trump became the first sitting president to physically attend, and address, the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. He proclaimed numerous holidays and memorial months that all revolved around the protection and sanctity of human Life, and he repeatedly criticized the United Nations and several other countries for their stance on abortion. He ended the Affordable Care Act rule that penalized individuals who chose to not participate in insurance plans that cover abortion. Finally, his administration strengthened the mandate for hospitals to treat the babies born alive after a failed abortion.
Protecting conscience rights
In 2018, President Trump created the Office of Civil Rights within the Department of Health and Human Services, which enhanced enforcement of conscience protection statutes. These provisions protect medical professionals from being forced to commit abortions and limited other procedures against their personal convictions.
The Biden-Harris Administration will be working from day one to destroy what President Trump and the Pro-Life movement have fought to build over the past four years. Now more than ever is time to boldly stand for life and work toward ending the silent holocaust of preborn children in the United States. Now is the time for Texas to proudly lead in reinstating the United States as the nation of freedom and hope for every Life. We thank President Trump for his tremendous and tireless work on behalf of preborn Americans, and we will continue to boldly fight until every preborn child is assured the Right to Life.