Bright lines blurred

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Up next on The World and Everything in It: a pro-life retreat.

A year into Trump 2.0, it’s unclear to some pro-lifers whether the current administration is with them.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: President Donald Trump has often called himself the most pro-life president in history, and it’s not without some justification. During his first term, he appointed three pro-life Supreme Court justices who in 2022 voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.

REICHARD: But in the years since, Trump has been less vocal about the pro-life cause. Many advocates are growing impatient with his administration’s failure to address some of their top concerns. 

WORLD’s Lauren Canterberry has the story.

LAUREN CANTERBERRY: Days after his swearing-in last January, Vice President J.D. Vance took the stage for the National March for Life in Washington.

VANCE: It is an honor to be standing with you here today for life. We are proud to march with you and yes, we will be back next year.

Vance pointed to policies he said would strengthen the family and he reminded pro-lifers of President Donald Trump’s support.

VANCE: I want to be clear that this administration stands by you, we stand with you, and most importantly, we stand with the most vulnerable.

In the administration’s first few days, Trump moved quickly on long-standing pro-life priorities: backing a bill on infants born alive during failed abortions and pardoning pro-life activists jailed for blocking entrances to abortion centers.

Vance is set to return to the March for Life stage again this Friday. But for some pro-lifers, confidence in the administration’s direction is beginning to waver.

That confidence faltered a few weeks ago, when Trump addressed House Republicans at their annual policy retreat in Washington.

TRUMP: Now, you have to be a little flexible on Hyde, you know that.

Trump raised the issue while urging Republicans to break a stalemate over Obamacare subsidies. The Hyde Amendment bars federal funding for abortion—and for decades, pro-life groups have treated it as a bright line.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the comment did not represent a departure from administration policy—even though last January, Trump had signed an executive order pledging to enforce the Hyde Amendment.

Meanwhile, Trump last week unveiled his long-awaited healthcare plan that made no mention of Hyde.

Senator James Lankford says Hyde began as a compromise. In 1976, some pro-life lawmakers pushed for the amendment instead of a federal ban on abortion.

LANKFORD: Obamacare is a workaround on it. And that’s why this is so contentious to say. They created a way to try to ignore the compromise that we had set 50 years ago.

A week and a half ago, 17 Republicans joined House Democrats to advance a funding extension on the Affordable Care Act without Hyde protections. The bill’s unlikely to pass in the Senate. 

But Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America said it would withhold political support from members of Congress who backed it. SBA’s Kelsey Pritchard says Hyde remains a requirement, not a bargaining chip:

PRITCHARD: We are emphasizing to Republicans: any healthcare proposal that they bring needs to incorporate Hyde.

Pritchard said another key failure of the administration for some pro-life advocates is a lack of safety reviews of the abortion drug mifepristone. Under a Biden-era rule change, women can obtain the pill online without ever seeing a medical professional in-person.

PRITCHARD: They can get rid of this rule today. There is nothing stopping them, holding them back. 

Over the last few months lawmakers, medical associations, and advocacy groups have called on Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary to conduct a review he’d promised. And a Senate committee last week heard testimony about major health risks of mifepristone taken without medical oversight.

PRITCHARD: The disappointment is on the end of the administration and Makary, hence why we’ve called for him to be fired for not doing this very basic common sense thing.

Makary has yet to respond to repeated letters urging him at least to review data on the risks. Senator Josh Hawley told WORLD that Makary’s silence is telling and that he now regrets voting to confirm him.

Pro-life advocates say at a minimum, the Department of Health and Human Services should reinstate pre-COVID restrictions on mifepristone. Before the Biden administration, women were required to see a medical professional in person and pick up the drug from a certified dispensing facility or hospital.

HAWLEY: This is something certainly that conservative voters want and voted for, but I hope the Congress will consider acting if for whatever reason the HHS feels it can’t, Congress can certainly impose these guidelines legislatively, and I hope we would.

As election season approaches, some say the administration needs to firm up its stance on key pro-life issues if Republicans want to maintain control of Congress. The GOP holds a slim majoritie in both the House and the Senate, and the pro-life voters could play a decisive role in November.

March for Life President Jenny Bradley Lichter:

LICHTER: There is a narrative out there that abortion is a losing issue politically, or would be a liability for Republican candidates.

But Lichter says that story doesn’t hold up.

LICHTER: There’s plenty of counter-examples where people, politicians who have really fronted their pro-life convictions and have taken strong pro-life actions, have been re-elected.

She points to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, both of whom ran for re-election while backing pro-life policies—and won.

Wherever abortion falls in a voters’ list of priorities, pro-life advocates say Americans want to know where their candidates and President land on the topic.

Senior Policy Director for the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission Katy Roberts:

ROBERTS: We’re kind of at this tension point where both Congress and the administration is kind of needing to reveal what their commitment is to the issue of life.

As pro-lifers gather in Washington this weekend…and after they return home, they say they’ll be watching closely to see how the Trump administration responds—and whether lawmakers can hold onto their votes.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lauren Canterberry. My colleague Carolina Lumetta provided additional reporting.

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