Updated January 25, 2025
Summary
- Officially states that, if H.R.21 passes, Trump will sign it into law
- Ordered enforcement of the Hyde Amendment–something that was already being enforced
- Revoked a Biden order to make sure that people had access to contraceptives and accurate information regarding abortion access
- Revoked a Biden order to make sure that medical practitioners had accurate information as to what is and isn’t covered by federal law regarding abortion access
- Re-establishes the “Mexico City Policy” and Trump’s overly restrictive expansion of said policy
Statement of Policy: “Statement of Administration H.R. 21 – Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act”
- Officially states that, if H.R.21 passes, Trump will sign it into law
- HR.21 is a bill that passed the house on January 23, 2025, that states “To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit a health care practitioner from failing to exercise the proper degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or attempted abortion”
- https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/21/all-info
- Note: This means that, in a case where early induction occurs due to the fetus not being compatible with life (what anti-choice activists call a “late term abortion”)–one where the medical team and the parents have made the hard decision to terminate because that is within the best interests of the fetus–and the fetus is born alive, the hospital will be required to admit them and take all “lifesaving” procedures possible, instead of allowing them to die naturally with dignity in the comfort of the parents
- This does nothing but prolong the suffering of both the parents and the baby–the thing that the parents and medical team were trying to prevent
- The fact that doctors are not required to do this is what Trump kept harping on about re “letting babies die at 9 months”
- This is a cruel bill proposed by cruel people
Executive Order: “Enforcing the Hyde Amendment”
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/enforcing-the-hyde-amendment
- Note: The Hyde Amendment prohibits prohibits federal funds from covering abortion services for people enrolled in Medicaid, Medicare and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
- It also has the side effect of withholding abortion coverage for federal employees, military personnel and veterans, people imprisoned or detained by the federal government, Native Americans, Peace Corps volunteers and people with low incomes living Washington, DC–anyone whose health care is covered via federal funding
- States that “it is the policy of the United States, consistent with the Hyde Amendment, to end the forced use of Federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion”
- Note: Neither of the revoked executive orders below violated the Hyde Amendment or stated that federal funds should be used to perform abortions. This order is nothing more than claiming to “solve” something that was never happening to begin with.
- Revokes Executive Order 14076 of July 8, 2022 (Protecting Access to Reproductive Healthcare Services)
- Ordered the Secretary of Health and Human Services to submit a report identifying actions that may be possible to:
- protect and expand access to abortion care
- increase outreach and education about access to reproductive healthcare services
- promote access to contraceptive services
- identify steps to “ensure that all patients—including pregnant women and those experiencing pregnancy loss, such as miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies—receive the full protections for emergency medical care afforded under the law, including by considering updates to current guidance on obligations specific to emergency conditions and stabilizing care”
- Ordered the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall consider actions “to ensure the safety of patients, providers, and third parties, and to protect the security of clinics (including mobile clinics), pharmacies, and other entities providing, dispensing, or delivering reproductive and related healthcare services”
- Established an Interagency Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access
- Revokes Executive Order 14079 of August 3, 2022(Securing Access to Reproductive and Other Healthcare Services)
- Ordered the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to “consider actions to advance access to reproductive healthcare services, including, to the extent permitted by Federal law, through Medicaid for patients traveling across State lines for medical care”
- In order to ensure that individuals are not denied necessary healthcare on the basis of any ground protected by Federal law, ordered the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to “consider all appropriate actions to advance the prompt understanding of and compliance with Federal non-discrimination laws by healthcare providers that receive Federal financial assistance”
- Ordered the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to evaluate research and data collection to measuring the effect of access to reproductive healthcare on maternal health outcomes and other health outcomes
- Ordered the Secretary of Health and Human Services to submit a report identifying actions that may be possible to:
Memorandum: “Memorandum for the Secretary of State the Secretary of Defense the Secretary of Health and Human Services the Administrator of the United States for International Development”
- Revokes the Presidential Memorandum of January 28, 2021, for the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (Protecting Women’s Health at Home and Abroad)
- Rescinded the “Mexico City Policy” and Trump’s expansions, therein
- Reinstates the Presidential Memorandum of January 23, 2017, for the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (The Mexico City Policy)
- Requires foreign nongovernmental organizations receiving US global health assistance to certify that they do not use their own non-US funds to (this has been the case for this policy since the 80s):
- provide abortion services,
- counsel patients about the option of abortion or refer them for abortion
- advocate for the liberalization of abortion laws
- Trump’s expansions apply to US family planning funds, which is used by organizations to assist with:
- funding for assistance with family planning and reproductive health
- maternal and child health
- nutrition
- HIV/AIDS—including The President’s Plan for Emergency Relief for AIDS (PEPFAR)
- prevention and treatment of tuberculosis, malaria (including the President’s Malaria Initiative), infectious diseases, neglected tropical diseases
- water, sanitation, and hygiene programs
- Note: This means that any organization that received funding from the US for any of the above cannot use their non-US provided funds for any kind of abortion access or care
- Requires foreign nongovernmental organizations receiving US global health assistance to certify that they do not use their own non-US funds to (this has been the case for this policy since the 80s):
- Orders a plan to “extend the requirements of the reinstated Memorandum to global health assistance furnished by all departments or agencies”
- Orders the Secretary of State to take all necessary actions to ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars do not fund organizations or programs that support or participate in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization