The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Monday signaled that it planned to prioritize the enforcement of religious protections.
It sets the stage to revive a policy from President Donald Trump's first term that would protect doctors and other healthcare workers who have moral or religious objections to performing abortions.
HHS acting Secretary Dorothy Fink, M.D., said in a statement that the HHS' Office for Civil Rights will "reevaluate its regulations and guidance pertaining to Federal laws on conscience and religious exercise."
"HHS, through the Office for Civil Rights, is tasked with enforcement of many U.S. laws that protect the fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious exercise. It shall be a priority of the Department to strengthen enforcement of these laws," Fink said.
In 2019, the Trump administration issued a rule giving healthcare workers the right to refuse to perform abortions or other services if they cited a religious or conscientious objection.
During his presidency, President Joe Biden reversed that Trump-era rule.
The HHS announcement on Monday follows Trump's executive order, issued Friday, to end the use of federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion.
Trump's EO rescinded two EOs from Biden which were issued to protect reproductive health in the U.S. following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The Trump administration argues those EOs violated the Hyde Amendment, a provision that prohibits using federal programs like Medicaid to pay for abortions.
"Pursuant to the President’s Executive Order of Jan. 24 (Enforcing the Hyde Amendment) and guidance from Office of Management and Budget, the Department will reevaluate all programs, regulations, and guidance to ensure Federal taxpayer dollars are not being used to pay for or promote elective abortion, consistent with the Hyde Amendment. This review will be conducted consistent with guidance issued by the Office of Management and Budget," Fink wrote in the HHS announcement.
Friday, Trump also signed a presidential memorandum reinstating the Mexico City policy to stop the use of federal taxpayer dollars for abortion overseas. That policy is referred to by critics as the "global gag rule."
The U.S. does not fund abortions abroad, as set down in the Helms Amendment that has been in effect for more than 50 years.
"The Mexico City policy takes it further: It prohibits organizations that accept U.S. global health funding—with limited exceptions—from performing abortions, counseling or providing information on abortion options, or advocating for the liberalization of abortion rights," The Washington Post reported.
The Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America organization praised Trump's actions.
“With this action the president is getting American taxpayers out of the abortion business and restoring sanity to the federal government. This is a big win for babies and mothers, and it reflects the will of the majority of Americans who strongly oppose bankrolling the abortion industry at home and abroad," the organization's president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, said in a statement.
Reproductive rights advocates quickly denounced the Trump administration's actions.
The Center for Reproductive Rights said the Mexico City policy is a "sweeping policy that will decrease abortion access in countries around the world."
"This far-reaching policy defunds health organizations in other countries that provide abortion services or information, even for victims of sexual assault. Many of these critical organizations will likely shutter as a result or be forced to stop providing or even talking about abortion services," the organization wrote in a statement.
Since its introduction in 1984, the global gag rule has disrupted vital health services by cutting off funding for organizations that provide comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care including contraception, maternal care, menstrual hygiene programs, HIV prevention and treatment as well as treatment for tuberculosis, malaria, Zika, Ebola and other infectious diseases, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.
“This move is dangerous,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, in response to Trump's reinstatement of the Mexico City policy. “President Trump is kicking off his second term exactly as anticipated: attacking sexual and reproductive health care. The global gag rule not only disrupts the delivery of health services in areas of the world that are most in need, it also rolls back progress in countries that have fought to advance access to health care and human rights. Elected officials should not be interfering in personal medical decisions, in this country or anywhere in the world. We must reverse and end the global gag rule permanently, full stop."
U.S. Senator Patty Murray, D-Wash., a senior member and former chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, also denounced Trump's executive actions.
“It is unsurprising, but extremely telling, that some of the very first moves of Donald Trump’s second administration prioritize attacking reproductive health care and targeting vulnerable women and girls around the world," Murray said in a statement.
“There is nothing ‘pro-life’ about reinstating a policy that, during Trump’s first term, undermined lifesaving public health work, caused widespread fear and confusion among health workers, and led to worse health outcomes and more unsafe abortions. And in the wake of the Dobbs decision here at home, the Trump administration is also pulling back important executive orders that directed agencies to protect access to reproductive health services," Murray wrote.