Trump Breaks Campaign Trail Pledge to Leave Abortion Rights to States, Signs Executive Orders to Limit Access to Abortion and Birth Control

Trump EOs

President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Friday reviving Republican anti-abortion policies after declaring on the campaign trail that he would leave it up to states to regulate the controversial procedure, according to a report.

The two orders reinstate some policies from his first administration and involve banning federal funding for abortions in the U.S. and providing financial support for health programs abroad that distribute contraception. Abortion supporters refer to the order as a "global gag order."

Trump signed the executive orders shortly after he spoke in a pre-recorded video to the annual anti-abortion March for Life in Washington, D.C., Politico reported.

Neither the president nor Vice President JD Vance, who spoke to the group in person, made no mention of changing abortion policy at the rally, the report said.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said the executive orders are "a big win for babies and mothers," Politico reported.

"With this action the president is getting American taxpayers out of the abortion business and restoring sanity to the federal government," she said.

In April, during the presidential campaign, Trump said regulation of abortion should be left to the states after the Supreme Court overturned the landmark ruling Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

"My view is now that we have abortion where everyone wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both. And whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state," Trump said in a video on Truth Social.

One of the executive orders revived the Hyde Amendment that Congress enacted "to prevent Federal funding of elective abortion, reflecting a longstanding consensus that American taxpayers should not be forced to pay for that practice," the order said.

The other directs Secretary of State Marco Rubio to take "all necessary actions ...to ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars do not fund organizations or programs that support or participate in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization."