On the same day that tens of thousands participated in the March for Life, President Joe Biden and his allies announced an aggressive push to expand abortion in the United States and abroad. The vehicle is a Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access that will run out of the Department of Health and Human Services, an agency that has control of approximately $1.5 trillion.
More abortion seems to have become an administration priority because the Supreme Court may overturn or seriously weaken Roe v. Wade when it decides Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization this summer.
News of Biden’s abortion task force has received limited coverage, but it could have an outsize effect on abortion policy in the U.S. That is because the HHS task force has been given a broad mandate to weaponize the federal government against pro-life people.
According to the announcement, Secretary of Health of Human Services Xavier Becerra, a Planned Parenthood ally, formed the task force “to prepare a plan outlining measurable actions the agency is considering or will take to protect and bolster access to sexual and reproductive health care.” Additionally, the task force will focus on “Identifying and eliminating any existing policies or barriers within Federal programs and services.”
What this means in plain English is that HHS will attack all existing federal constraints on abortion and generally make life more difficult for pro-life people. Biden’s Food and Drug Administration has already eliminated restrictions on mail-order abortion pills that too often have serious side effects. If Becerra and Biden get their way, many more safeguards will fall.
Conscience protections will also be weakened or eliminated altogether. They currently allow doctors and medical workers to decline to participate in abortions, but these popular protections are opposed by pro-abortion administrations, in part because they expose that many doctors and nurses don’t view abortion as an authentic medical procedure.
Additionally, Becerra charges the task force with “Identifying and advancing policies that improve reproductive healthcare access within Federal programs and services.” This is code for partnering with groups, including abortion business Planned Parenthood, that push abortions both domestically and overseas.
The president has already expanded the federal funding of abortion by rescinding the Mexico City Policy. First enacted by President Ronald Reagan, this policy stopped the federal government from funding abortions abroad. The new task force is charged with finding new avenues through which the federal government can funnel money to abortionists.
Forming this task force flies in the face of new scientific and medical advances which have left abortion supporters behind the times and in the minority. We now know that the viability standard used to decide Roe is flawed and, frankly, unscientific. Similarly, 95% of biologists believe life starts at conception, according to a 2018 survey. The more scientists learn about when a baby’s heart starts to beat and when a baby can feel pain, the more people discover that science supports life.
Meanwhile, a majority of the public already agrees that abortion should be limited. A recent Marist poll found that 71% support significant legal limits on abortion. Similarly, 63% of respondents object to the Biden administration’s efforts to facilitate mail-order abortions, and 73% oppose using taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions overseas. Putting the economic weight of a $1.5 trillion agency behind unpopular policies that ignore the democratic process will no doubt provoke a backlash.
One silver lining of all of this is that the administration’s actions show how pro-abortion forces are increasingly worried about the rising pro-life tide. This task force might target pro-life people and attempt to federalize abortion, but it can’t stop the momentum we’ve been building for decades. With the truth and beauty of life on our side, the pro-life movement will continue to flourish.
Jeanne Mancini is president of March for Life.
