Abortion foes worried before his election that President Donald Trump had moved on, now that Roe v. Wade is overturned and abortion policy, as he said on the campaign trail, "has been returned to the states." Their concerns mounted after Trump named Robert F.
Kennedy Jr., a longtime supporter of abortion rights, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services — and then as he signed a slew of Day 1 executive orders that said nothing about abortion. As it turns out, they had nothing to worry about.
In its first two weeks, the Trump administration went further to restrict abortion than any president since the original Roe decision in 1973. Hours after Trump and Vice President JD Vance spoke to abortion opponents gathered in Washington for the annual March for Life, the president issued a memorandum reinstating what's known as the Mexico City Policy, which bars funding to international aid organizations that "perform or actively promote" abortion — an action taken by every modern Republican president. But Trump also did something new, signing an executive order ending "the forced use of Federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion" in domestic programs — effectively ordering government agencies to halt funding to programs that can be construed to "promote" abortion, such as family planning counseling.
Dorothy Fink, the acting secretary of Health and Human Services, followed up with a memo early last week ordering the department to "reevaluate all progr.