Pro-life demonstrators listen to President Donald Trump as he speaks at the 47th annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 24, 2020. Trump was the first U.S. president to address in person the country’s biggest annual gathering of pro-life campaigners. / Credit: OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images
CNA Staff, Jan 17, 2025 / 16:35 pm (CNA).
As President-elect Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day approaches, leaders of the pro-life movement are highlighting important policies and sharing their hopes and expectations for the new administration.
While the Trump-Pence administration is remembered for its role in overturning Roe v. Wade, Trump was criticized by many for pledging during his campaign to veto an abortion ban and for his support of in vitro fertilization.
Nevertheless, pro-life advocates and policy experts are hopeful that the new administration will take concrete actions on behalf of the unborn in the post-Roe landscape.
Cut public funding for U.S. abortion providers
Pro-life advocates and policy experts are hopeful that the Trump-Vance administration will undo Biden-era pro-abortion policies that fund or subsidize abortion both domestically and abroad.
Taxpayer funding of abortion giant Planned Parenthood totalled $1.6 billion from 2019–2021, averaging $533 million per year according to a 2023 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
Pro-life advocates “hope the Trump administration will be even more aggressive in their efforts to cut taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood,” Michael New, professor at The Catholic University of America and senior associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, told CNA.
“DOGE,” the Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, is seen by some leaders as an avenue for cutting funding to abortion providers.
“Defunding Planned Parenthood should be one of the items recommended by DOGE as a great way to reduce the federal budget deficit and removing a highly objectionable organization from government funding,” said Joseph Meaney, past president and senior fellow of the National Catholic Bioethics Center.
Noah Brandt of Live Action called on Trump to “defund Planned Parenthood for every taxpayer dollar it receives.”
“During its last reported year, Planned Parenthood committed 392,715 abortions, killing an average of 1,076 preborn babies every day, nearly 45 every hour, and one every 80 seconds,” Brandt told CNA.
Restore Mexico City Policy
Addressing funding for abortion providers internationally is another high priority for pro-lifers. The Mexico City Policy, which Biden rescinded early on in his term, prevents the federal government from funding abortion providers abroad. Pro-lifers hope Trump will quickly restore this policy.
“One of the most important policies to restore is the Mexico City Policy that restricts U.S. international aid recipients to entities that do not provide or advocate for abortion,” Meaney told CNA.
Reintroduce safety protections for abortion pill
Pro-life policy experts also highlighted the importance of regulating the abortion pill to protect women’s health.
New suggested that Trump’s FDA should require medical professionals to report complications arising from chemical abortions, a requirement dropped in 2016.
Alison Centofante of Americans United for Life — a policy-oriented pro-life advocacy group — called for an evaluation of the safety of the chemical abortion pill regimen by implementing the FDA’s Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) on the abortion pill.
“These commonsense safety regulations, which were recklessly removed by the previous administration, are vital to protecting women,” Centofante told CNA. “Without REMS, women are at higher risk of life-threatening complications such as hemorrhage and infection as well as being left without proper follow-up care.”
“Ensuring that the abortion pill is regulated with appropriate safeguards is critical to upholding medical standards and protecting women’s health,” Centofante said.
Melanie Israel, a visiting fellow at the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family for the Heritage Foundation, said it is important to show people “just how unsafe these pills are.”
“It gives us additional tools to be able to convince people who are on the fence that we need to be doing more to protect women and girls from those drugs,” Israel said.
Pro-lifers also called for an end to telemedical chemical abortions where the pills are received by mail, citing safety concerns. The new administration, Live Action’s Brandt said, should “curtail the deadly abortion pill, revoke its illegitimate approval, and immediately end dangerous tele-med chemical abortions.”
Implement pro-family policies
Many pro-life advocates hoped the upcoming administration in a post-Roe America would implement more pro-family policies.
Live Action’s Brandt called on the administration to “work to make America the most welcoming country for raising a family by supporting policies like expanding the child tax credit.”
“For the first time since Roe was overturned, we are hopeful to see a federal administration that prioritizes mothers and their unborn children,” AUL’s Centofante added.
Centofante advocated for “preferential treatment to mothers and families at all stages” by the new administration as well as “practical resources to help women carry their pregnancies to term.”
In the post-Roe landscape, the new administration can look to policies that help families flourish.
“Because we do want people to feel empowered to choose life,” Heritage’s Israel said. “We don’t want people to feel that they need to have an abortion, that that’s their only option; that they need to go to great lengths to travel to another state or to order pills from some sketchy online pharmacy overseas.”
“We’re interested in turning to these other ways of, how do we truly help families flourish? How do we help people feel that they can provide for a family and raise a family?” Israel said.
Prioritize bioethics regarding IVF
Pro-life advocates highlighted the bioethical concerns surrounding in vitro fertilization (IVF), a fertility treatment that involves the lab creation of a large number of human embryos — most of which are never brought to term.
Meaney of NCBC — a leading Catholic voice in bioethics — said that educating people on the bioethical concerns surrounding IVF is “a very high priority for pro-life groups.”
“This technique is not a harmless or beneficial solution to infertility,” Meaney said. “It is a horrific practice that results in the death or permanent freezing of upwards of 90% of the human embryos conceived in labs. In many countries, more children die from IVF than from abortion every year.”
Trump has been criticized by pro-life leaders for his promise to make IVF more widely available.
Israel noted that Europe has much “more robust” policies in place for IVF, while in the U.S. “it’s more a Wild West of policies.” She advocated for research into “some of the alternative protocols with restorative reproductive medicine.”
Centofante added that she hoped the new administration “will recommission the President’s Council on Bioethics to guide ethical policies on emerging biomedical issues.”
Appoint a pro-life Cabinet
Pro-lifers also highlighted the importance of having pro-life personnel.
Leadership in the Cabinet positions across departments, Centofante noted, is “critical in ensuring the protection of long-standing pro-life statutes … which prevent taxpayer funding from being used for abortion.”
The Trump administration’s staff appointments are a key concern for pro-life advocates, especially at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The HHS plays an important role in abortion-related issues as it manages regulations protecting conscience rights for medical professionals and federal funding for abortion providers.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the pro-choice former Democrat nominated for the role of secretary of the HHS, recently came out in support of pro-life policies. He pledged to reinstate the Mexico City Policy, end domestic funding for abortion, and reinstate conscience protections for health care providers. Former vice president Mike Pence, however, urged senators to oppose the RFK Jr. appointment over his stance on abortion.
At the Department of Justice, pro-life leaders are hopeful that Trump’s attorney general pick Pam Bondi will end the prosecution of pro-life activists under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.
At her Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday, Bondi vowed to end the weaponization of the FACE Act against pro-life activists.
Live Action’s Brandt called on the upcoming administration to “pardon every unjustly imprisoned peaceful pro-life activist, including Joan Bell, Bevelyn Williams, Lauren Handy, and others, who are unjustly prosecuted and imprisoned by the current DOJ.”
“If confirmed as attorney general, she is not going to stand for the FACE Act being used to unevenly target pro-lifers,” Israel noted. “That’s an example where it really matters to have that pro-life presence throughout the administration, not just one agency.”
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