This weekend is the National Celebration of Life Conference in Washington, DC, with today being National Celebration of Life Day with a Rally on Capitol Hill urging Congress to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act with language to completely stop any federal funds from supporting Planned Parenthood. While the Hyde Amendment already bans direct federal funding for abortion under Medicaid, Planned Parenthood receives taxpayer money for other services, which then frees up money to pay overhead so they can perform abortions.
In the previous federal administration, the Hyde Amendment was omitted from budgets, allowing taxpayer funds to be used to pay for abortions under Medicaid. In the current administration, the Hyde amendment has been reinstated to prevent that. This is why the current legislation is needed; we cannot continue to have federal policy flipping back and forth with each president. Note, however, that despite the Hyde Amendment, individual states can use the state portion of Medicaid funding to pay for abortions, which some do.
The Mexico City Policy is a different matter that few people understand. When the policy is enforced, it restricts U.S. taxpayer funding for international organizations that provide abortions, counsel on abortion, or actively promote abortion services, even if they use non-U.S. funds to provide such services. That is to say, if these organizations provide any abortion-related services at all… paid by any country in the world… they get no U.S. funds for any reason.
This has also been a recurring policy, with pro-abortion administrations typically rescinding it and pro-life administrations reinstating it. The Mexico City Policy is a U.S. foreign policy matter…it is currently in effect. It was reinstated by President Trump on January 24, 2025, but it needs to be codified as statutory law.
So, while these matters are still before us, let us celebrate the end of the horrific Roe v. Wade decision by the Dobbs decision on June 24, 2022. Let us also celebrate Pro-Life successes since January 6, 2025:
1. The President and Vice-president attended the National March for Life in January. Then the administration: 2. Reinstated the Hyde Amendment 3. Reinstated and expanded the Mexico City Policy 4. Restricted the use of taxpayer funds for abortions under Title X benefits 5. Cut taxpayer funds to a UN program that promotes abortions and forced sterilization 6. Stopped federal funding for research on tissues from aborted children 7. Ordered emergency care for children born alive after attempted abortion
However, these policy changes are by Executive Order, and they can be reversed by a future pro-abortion president. These policies must be encoded in statutory law so they cannot be easily reversed in future. We have to demand this action.
In other news, the Supreme Court made another important ruling on June 26
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster issued an Executive Order in 2018 directing his state Department of Health and Human Services to remove Planned Parenthood from the state’s Medicaid provider list.
A Planned Parenthood patient sued, arguing that the 1965 Medicare and Medicaid Act gives recipients the right to use any qualified provider of their choice — and she preferred to receive Medicaid services from the nation’s leading abortion provider. A district court and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in her favor.
However, the Supreme Court ruling found that the plaintiffs lacked the standing to sue. While Congress “guarantees” Medicare recipients the use of qualified doctors based on “free choice by the patient,” the justices say the law makes no such assurance to Medicaid recipients. Therefore, they reversed the decisions by the lower court and the Appeals Court.
This is of significant importance. Individual states can now legally remove Planned Parenthood from the list of medical providers available to Medicaid recipients in their states.
Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel John Bursch, argued before the court: “States should be free to fund real, comprehensive [health] care and exclude organizations like Planned Parenthood that profit off abortion …” After the ruling, he also said: “The American people don’t want their tax dollars propping up the abortion industry.”
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins says: “Planned Parenthood hides its abortion-first agenda behind a veil of ancillary health services for women. But, their own 2023-24 annual report tells the real story: a record 402,230 abortions and they received a record $792,200,000 in taxpayer money under the past administration.”
Planned Parenthood also gets hundreds of millions of dollars in donations from individuals and organizations, and they charge for their services. Taxpayer money has helped them accumulate $2.5 billion in assets as of 2023—2024. With all of this excess money, they donate millions of dollars to PACs and Super PACs that donate money to political organizations to try to elect pro-abortion politicians around the country. Through this tactic, U.S. taxpayer money is used to help pro-abortion politicians get elected. [see the full details of how this works in my book Building a Culture of Life.]
White House Press Secretary Karen Leavitt commented on the Supreme Court decision: “The president has always maintained that Americans should not be forced to violate their conscience and their religious liberty by having their tax dollars fund abortions, and we’re glad that the Supreme Court ruled on that side today.”
In an outrageous liberal dissenting comment: “Defunding Planned Parenthood is like ruling in favor of racist mass murderers.” There were additional, equally ignorant and inflammatory comments designed to bolster that assertion these will not be pursued here. It is sufficient to comment that Pro-Life people take exception to that label.
There were also Pro-Life successes in Texas this year. The legislature passed a law prohibiting the use of state tax revenue to fund travel to obtain an abortion, and the legislation approved $200,000,000 to fund the Thriving Texas Families Program (formerly the Alternatives to Abortion Program). A law was also passed to clarify in a formal manner for doctors the exception to Texas law prohibiting abortion. Abortions are legal if the mother’s life is in danger, and the mother’s life does not need to be in imminent danger. The life and health of the mother always comes first.
Lastly, the Texas legislature approved the construction of a “Texas Life Monument” at the State Capitol Complex, specifically on a site outside of the historic Capitol grounds as a way of celebrating the miracle of life, rejecting abortion. The monument will be the same as the National Life Monument in Washington, D.C. https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/20/texas-life-monument-capitol/
And, now for the “Abortion Pill Disaster.” About two-thirds of current abortions in the United States is by use of the abortion pills. Policies by pro-abortion federal administrations have caused much harm to women and endangered the public in ways we are just discovering.
Product info supplied to doctors by the manufacturer recommends an ultrasound before prescribing the pills, because: 1. Not all positive pregnancy tests mean that there is a pregnancy… there can be other serious (life endangering) medical problems such as Hydatidiform Mole and Gestational Trophoblastic Neoplasia (several insidious types). 2. Not all pregnancies are in the womb…ectopic pregnancy…failure to diagnose before giving the abortion pills can (and does) result in death. 3. So the doctor can be sure about the gestational age. The pills are not approved for use beyond 10 weeks but are being given when known dates are as much as 13 weeks. The limit of 10 weeks is related to increased failure rates beyond 10 weeks gestation (leading to unplanned medical intervention and serious complications) and there is an increased rate of serious side effects if the pills are used beyond 10 weeks gestation. 4. To give the doctor the opportunity to discuss risks from taking the pills and alternatives to abortion.
The medical standard of ethics I was taught is that the doctor prescribing abortion pills (or a designated colleague) should be available to treat the woman if there are complications. Attempts to impose this standard on doctors in Texas has been blocked by courts so far. This requires women to make emergency room visits, often after her condition is in grave danger.
The progressive availability of the abortion pills in the United States has been accompanied by political decisions progressively making them more dangerous, causing harm to many women, and distressing side effects for almost all women. And, this does not address the psychological harm (also addressed in Building a Culture of Life.)
In 2000, the Clinton administration approved the pills at up to 7 weeks, requiring 3 doctor visits before a prescription could be given.
In 2016, the Obama administration approved up to 10 weeks, only 1 doctor visit, and providers did not have to report side effects, only the death of the mother
Under Biden, no doctor visit was prescribed, no confirmation of dates of gestation was required, there was no need for a prescription…pharmacies could dispense… and they could mail the pills to women to women “without violating the Comstock Act” (which is still law). Women would take the pills on there own with no advice. There was no requirement to report serious adverse events or even deaths.
These policies remain in effect for now pursuant to the Supreme Court ruling in June 2024. However, we must demand that the Trump FDA return policies to a level of reasonable safety for women.
A return to the policies of the Clinton administration in 2000 is supported by the conclusion and recommendations of the April 2025 study “The Abortion Pill Harms Women: Insurance Data Reveals One in Ten Patients Experiences a Serious Adverse Event.” https://eppc.org/publication/insurance-data-reveals-one-in-ten-patients-experiences-a-serious-adverse-event/
This is an extremely well-done scientific study without bias, that reports 10.9% (1 in 9 women) suffer serious complications after taking the pills, resulting in need of medical care that incurs charges paid for by insurance. The real incidence of serious side effects is undoubtedly much greater since uninsured women would not be included and it is common for medical coding to be for “miscarriage” or for the condition of the patient (such as anemia) rather than for blood loss from taking the abortion pills.
Availability of the abortion pills and women taking them without advice is a huge problem. One can get information from numerous web sites on how to order pills from out of state (if not available within a state) or (astonishingly) directly from a supplier in Mexico. One can even buy the pills off the streets from people who get them in Mexico.
The latest problem to emerge potentially affects the entire public. There is an estimated “40 tons of aborted babies’ bodies” becoming “medical waste — going into toilets, going into sewer systems, going into septic tanks, and ultimately going into the water systems that process our drinking water.”
One observer has commented that “abortion providers issuing chemical abortion pills have been able to use wastewater treatment plants as their de-facto medical waste facilities for decades.”
Much of our waste water is filtered and treated and recycled into drinking water…but it does not remove chemicals in the water. This problem has already been discussed in the context of prescription medications and illegal drugs. As serious as these concerns are, the presence of metabolites from the abortion pills could conceivably cause infertility in women. Since nobody knows what dangers are posed to the public, caution is urged. Lankford Urges EPA to Investigate Environmental Risks of Abortion Drug Mifepristone https://www.lankford.senate.gov/news/press-releases/lankford-urges-epa-to-investigate-environmental-risks-of-abortion-drug-mifepristone/
The report on this concern contends that the use of chemical abortion pills violates the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Clean Water Act defines “pollutant” to include “biological materials” and covers “medical waste,” including “human blood and blood products” and “body parts.”
These comments describe the hideous aspects of the problems we face in a bit more detail than some people are comfortable with, for which I apologize. However,we sometimes need to be shocked a bit in order to be motivated into action.
We must remain active and committed, attending meetings, rallies, marches, prayer vigils…and go to the Texas Rally for Life in Austin in January if you can. Be educated and informed. Know (at least in general) what is going on in Washington and in Austin, and care about it. Subscribe to pro-life web sites and take a glance if there is not much time to read everything.
Let you opinions be heard…write letters, sign petitions….and show up to be seen at Pro-Life events. Finally, encourage others. By having a fund of knowledge and being committed and informed, you will be in a position to convey to others how important it is for us to protect the life and dignity of every person from conception to natural death. Let us not fall short when big things are within our grasp. Remember, the truth always wins out in the long run, so let us voice the truth and demand to be heard.