(LifeSiteNews) — Personnel is policy, and this is particularly true when it comes to pro-life policy. The Trump administration, fortunately, appears to understand this.
One of the pro-life movement’s key concerns leading up to the 2024 presidential election is that Donald Trump and many other GOP politicians were pivoting away from the pro-life movement after a string of state-level referendum losses. Trump’s deal with the movement in his first term had been a pragmatic one, and he delivered. But would the new administration bring a new deal?
In Trump’s first term, his administration was stacked with pro-life appointees who were singularly committed to the anti-abortion agenda. Vice President Mike Pence, for example, joined politics in large part to further the pro-life agenda; other key appointees were similarly true believers. Pro-life leaders knew that the policies of Trump II would depend on who was appointed in a new administration with new, aggressive goals.
Some of those fears were assuaged early. Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, made up for earlier, ambiguous statements on the abortion pill by showing up at the March for Life and affirming his commitment to the cause just days after the inauguration; he was joined by nearly every major GOP figure in the capital. The record of Trump II has been mixed (particularly on the abortion pill)—the administration has both defended access and announced an investigation into the safety of the abortion drug—but it is clear that pro-lifers still have key allies in the administration.
READ: Miracles happen: Disney releases blockbuster pro-life movie ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’
These allies have been initiating a series of policies undoing the aggressive abortion promotion of the Biden administration. In June, for example, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid services quietly removed a 2022 “federal guidance” to healthcare providers stating that people should receive abortions in cases of “medical emergencies,” in contravention of state laws that restrict abortion. It was one of many attempts by the Biden team to neutralize state laws protecting children in the womb.
On August 1, the administration announced another move. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs filed a proposed rule last Friday seeking to roll back a Biden-era policy to expand abortion access; now, according to CNN, “the department said that it is seeking to revoke access to abortions and abortion counseling for veterans and the beneficiaries of the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs.” The Biden policy required the department to provide abortions in a range of circumstances regardless of state laws restricting it.
“We take this action to ensure that VA provides only needed medical services to our nation’s heroes and their families,” the VA stated in their filing. Under the new rule, abortion would only be permitted when “a physician certifies that the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term,” the status quo before the Biden administration attempted to circumvent state laws after the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
“The stated reason for (the expansion) was a reaction to a Supreme Court decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization … that itself was intended to prevent federal overreach and return to States control over the provision of abortion services,” the filing continues. “Yet, the last administration used Dobbs to do the exact opposite of preventing overreach, creating a purported Federal entitlement to abortion for veterans where none had existed before and without regard to State law.” The proposed law will be open for public comment for thirty days, beginning on August 4.
The mainstream press is presenting the move as an attack on “abortion rights,” despite the fact that the Trump administration is, at this point, merely repealing policies implemented by the Biden administration to deliberately neutralize pro-life laws passed by the states. The abortion “deep state” is being combatted by pro-life Trump appointees, and these moves are necessary and welcome.
