Presidential ProLife Actions

The following list contains ProLife accomplishments achieved by presidential and administration actions from 2017 through September 2019. This list was compiled with data from the White House, Wikipedia, and several other ProLife websites.

The data list is divided into three sections for “Policy” achievements, “Personnel” for appointments and nominations or ProLife-friendly staff, and “Support” for general showing of support.

Policy Achievements

1. 2017-Jan: reinstated the the Mexico City Policy, which defunded International Planned Parenthood and other organizations that promote foreign abortions. However, the Trump Administration expanded the policy to include ALL global health assistance funding.
2. 2017-Apr: halted U.S. funding of the UN Population Fund, which links to inhumane abortion programs such as China’s one-child policy.
3. 2017-Apr: signed into law a bill allowing states to discriminating in awarding Title X family planning funds based on whether the local clinic also performs abortions. Because this was passed using the Congressional Review Act, future Administrations cannot enact a similar rule to Obama’s.
4. 2017-May: broadened the scope of the Mexico City Policy to restrict funding to any international health organization that performs or gives information about abortions from $600,000 to $8.8 billion.
5. 2018-Jan: Created a new office for Conscience and Religious Freedom, so that people who, for example, are being forced to participate in abortion, can have their rights vindicated more effectively.
6. 2018-Jan: US HHS made several pro-life actions, rescinding a 2016 Obama guidance that made it harder for states to defund Planned Parenthood, and it began the process of enacting a regulation to require healthcare providers to follow laws that protect workers’ from being forced to perform services, such as abortions, that violate their consciences.
7. 2018-Feb: HHS changed its Title X family planning grants to promote conservative priorities, like not allowing grants to be used for abortions.
8. 2018-Apr: ended the Obama-era policy of listing abortion as a “human right” in the State Department’s annual human rights report, and it added a section on population control.
9. 2018-Apr: HHS released an ObamaCare rule that exempted pro-life Americans from the individual mandate penalty for not buying healthcare plans if the only plans available covered abortion. Also, issued a rule requiring insurers to specify which health insurance plans cover abortion.
10. 2018-Nov: finalized two rules allowing employers with religious objections to opt out of the ObamaCare contraceptive mandate and ensuring that taxpayer-funded health care subsidies would not be used to fund abortions. (e.g. religious objectors, such as Little Sisters of the Poor, and moral objectors, such as Susan B. Anthony List)
11. 2018-Dec: National Institutes of Health to give out $20 million in grants to look for alternatives to fetal tissue in medical research.
12. 2019-Feb: enacted federal regulation blocking the use of federal funds for clinics that provide or discuss abortion.
13. 2019-Feb: released its final rule for a policy, announced in May 2018, to defund any clinic that either provides abortions or refers people to abortion clinics, something that would reduce Planned Parenthood funding by about $60 million.
14. 2019-Mar: announced that for 2019 it would give a $1.7 million grant to the Obria Group, a crisis pregnancy center which opposes abortion and contraceptives, and it would continue giving grants through 2022.
15. 2019-Mar: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the U.S. would expand the Mexico City Policy so that any organization that supports pro-abortion organizations would lose U.S. funding.
16. 2019-Apr: got the UN to remove pro-abortion language from a sexual violence resolution. Also lobbied other countries to support pro-life policies.
17. 2019-Jun: end research at the National Institutes of Health that uses fetal tissue, & ended government funding to University of California (UCSF) for such research. HHS also to conduct ethics reviews before funding private research projects.
18. 2019-Jul: CMS released guidance requiring hospitals to treat survivors of abortion along with babies born prematurely.
19. 2019-Jul: For the third year in a row, the Trump Administration withheld funding for the United Nations Population Fund, an international organization that promotes abortion and population control.

Personnel Achievements

1. 2017-Jan: strong pro-life supporter Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed by the Senate.
2. 2017-Mar: appointed Scott Lloyd to lead the HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement, which led the fight against allowing illegal immigrants obtaining abortions.
3. 2017-Apr: appointed Dr. Charmaine Yoest, a strong pro-life advocate and former president of Americans United for Life, as assistant secretary of public affairs for HHS, replacing a strong Planned Parenthood supporter.
4. 2017-Apr: pro-life Neil Gorsuch confirmed by the Senate as Supreme Court Justice.
5. 2017-May: appointed Shannon Royce, (Family Research Council and the Southern Baptists’ Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission), to the HHS Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
6. 2017-May: appointed Teresa Manning (pro-life advocate, Family Research Council and the National Right to Life), as HHS deputy assistant secretary for population affairs.
7. 2017-Jul: appointed Bethany Kozma, conservative activist, stated in March 2018 that the U.S. “is a pro-life country” at a private n meeting, as Senior Adviser in the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment division of USAID.
8. 2018-Jun: appointed Dr. Diane Foley, a pro-life OB/GYN, to run the HHS’s family planning program.
9. 2018-Oct: pro-life Brett Kavanaugh confirmed by the Senate as Supreme Court Justice.
10. 2018-Nov: appointed Dr. Maureen Condic, a pro-life neurobiologist to the National Science Board.

Support Achievements

1. 2017-Jan: VP Mike Pence became the 1st VP in US history to speak at the annual March for Life march in Washington D.C. – Trump strongly expressed his support for the march.
2. 2017-Oct: Becoming the first president since Bill Clinton in 1993 to recognize Down Syndrome Awareness Month, President Trump issued a strongly pro-life statement.
3. 2017-Nov: proclaimed this month National Adoption Month, stating that “no child in America—born or unborn—is unwanted or unloved.“
4. 2018-Jan: first incumbent U.S. president to speak to the March for Life via live video feed, speaking strongly against abortion.
5. 2018-Jan: proclaimed this day National Sanctity of Human Life Day.
6. 2018-Mar: an official reportedly stated that the U.S. “is a pro-life country” at a private United Nations meeting.
7. 2018-Apr: declared this month National Child Abuse Prevention Month, & included unborn children in his proclamation, stating that “they are endowed from conception with value, purpose, and human dignity.”
8. 2018-Apr: the U.S. and African countries rejected a UN resolution because it included pro-abortion language while failing to include language upholding national sovereignty.
9. 2018-May: issued a pro-life statement criticizing the World Health Organization for promoting abortion.
10. 2018-May: spoke at the Susan B. Anthony List’s annual gala and gave a strong pro-life speech.
11. 2018-Jun: (@G7 summit) blocked Canada – the host country – from using the group’s joint statement to promote abortion.
12. 2018-Oct: recognized Down Syndrome Awareness Month, issuing a pro-life statement that condemned Down syndrome-selective abortions.
13. 2018-Nov: proclaimed this month National Adoption Month, calling for adoption for children whether “born or unborn.”
14. 2018-Nov: UN Ambassador Nikki Haley stated the U.S. would continue defending the unborn at the United Nations.
15. 2019-Jan: (interview w/Daily Caller) criticized a radical pro-abortion bill in Virginia and Democrats’ statements in favor of it.
16. 2019-Jan: Both President Trump and Vice President Pence made surprise appearances – with Trump speaking through a video feed – at the March for Life, making strong pro-life statements.
17. 2019-Jan: declared this day National Sanctity of Human Life Day.
18. 2019-Feb: commemorated Susan B. Anthony’s birthday, noting that “pursuit for equal rights demands respect for all human life, including innocent unborn babies.“
19. 2019-Feb: In his State of the Union Address, strongly condemned abortion, stating that “all children — born and unborn — are made in the holy image of God,” and he called on Congress to ban late-term abortions.
20. 2019-Feb: met with several pro-life advocates in the Oval Office, expressing his support for their efforts.
21. 2019-Feb: Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast, President Trump, called for “a culture that cherishes dignity and sanctity of innocent human life,” and stated that “all children, born and unborn, are made in the holy image of God.“
22. 2019-Mar: commemorated World Down Syndrome Day by reaffirming his support for life and inviting several individuals with Down syndrome and their families to the White House.
23. 2019-Apr: The White House hosted a screening of the pro-life movie Gosnell (story condemning a horrible abortion doctor).
24. 2019-Sep: the U.S. and eighteen other pro-life nations released a joint statement at the United Nations General Assembly stating that no international right to an abortion exists and calling on the UN to remove mentions of “reproductive health” from its documents.