From National Right to Life
WASHINGTON — President Biden addressed the nation in his first State of the Union address. In his first year in office, the attack on unborn babies and their mothers has reached unprecedented levels.
During last night’s address, President Biden stated, “The constitutional right affirmed by Roe v. Wade… is under attack as never before, if you want to go forward and not backwards, we must protect access to healthcare, preserve a woman’s right to choose, and continue to advance maternal healthcare for all Americans.”
“It is ironic that President Biden talked about preserving maternal healthcare in the same breath as advocating for the destruction of a mother’s unborn baby,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “But it is not surprising, Joe Biden’s first year in office has been an all-out assault on unborn children and their mothers.”
Tobias continued, “President Biden is the most pro-abortion president in history. He has evolved into a virulent supporter of abortion on demand, solidified by his record number of pro-abortion executive orders, reversal of pro-life policies, and pro-abortion legislation sanctioned by the White House.”
The Biden/Harris Administration and its allies in the Democratic Party have made abortion extremism the core issue of the party.
Radical pro-abortion actions by this White House include supporting the so-called Women’s Health Protection Act which would have quashed nearly all existing protective state laws. In addition, this legislation would have prohibited states from adopting new protective laws in the future, even laws specifically upheld as constitutionally permissible by the U.S. Supreme Court. With this bill, elective abortion would have become the procedure that must always be facilitated – never delayed, never impeded to the slightest degree.
An Executive Order issued by President Biden on January 28, 2021, repealed the pro-life Mexico City Policy that had been reestablished and expanded by the Administration of President Trump. This policy had assured that U.S. tax dollars were not used to perform or promote abortion in other countries.
On the same day, President Biden issued an Executive Order that began the process of overturning the Trump Administration’s “Protect Life Rule” on Title X. That rule had ensured that Title X family planning money did not flow to abortion providers and that Title X grantees could not refer for abortion.
President Biden’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) reversed Trump-era fetal tissue requirements. In its internal research, NIH will fund research using tissue from aborted babies. It will also no longer convene the Human Fetal Tissue Research Ethics Advisory Board, established under President Trump that was designed to review extramural research grant applications.
In addition, Democrats made eliminating the long-standing Hyde Amendment part of their scorched-earth campaign to destroy protective pro-life legislation. President Biden is supporting the elimination of the Hyde Amendment which prevents the use of federal funds to pay for abortions except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. It is estimated that the Hyde Amendment has saved approximately 2.5 million lives since it was first adopted in 1976.
“Biden’s first year in office has been a never-ending onslaught on the lives of unborn children and this administration has taken every opportunity to entrench pro-abortion policies,” Tobias said.
For more about the state of abortion policy and laws in the United States, National Right to Life’s annual State of Abortion in the United States Report can be accessed here.