Left-leaning abortion groups are, once again, flipping out over President Trump’s conservative agenda. This time, groups such as NARAL and Planned Parenthood are rallying support to #Resist one of President Trump’s more recent regulatory policies, which Democrats are spinning to call it a ‘domestic gag rule.’ The order, in reality, simply prohibits taxpayer dollars, which fund Title X, from indirectly funding abortion; advocates for taxpayer funded abortion like to call this ‘family planning.’
Trump's domestic gag rule would cut off #reprohealth access for over ?? ?????????????? low-income Americans. The comment deadline for demanding HHS drop this devastating policy is 7/31. Take action NOW: https://t.co/e2m1Hxt1dE #NoGagRule pic.twitter.com/OHyh7NvG7Q
— NARAL (@NARAL) July 28, 2018
Instituted in 1970, the law creating Title X explicitly prohibits federal funding’s involvement in the performance of or counseling on abortions:
“None of the funds appropriated under this title shall be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning.”
Later, in the 1970s and 1980s, the interpretation of the law changed; some believed that referring patients for abortions was not a misuse of taxpayer funding, nor breaking the law. President Ronald Reagan famously implemented a regulation on Title X funding that completely barred any organization dependent upon the federal dollars from receiving funding if they performed abortions, counseled on them or referred women out to obtain abortions. This policy completely scrapped the blurred line between abortion counseling and performance. Challenged in the Supreme Court in 1988, but upheld, and quickly eliminated by President Bill Clinton, this regulation was hardly even enforced.
President Trump’s policy, although similar to that of President Reagan, does not prohibit conversations surrounding abortion, nor does the regulation cut any funds from Title X. The policy simply tightens the regulation on federal funds and abortion, and disentangles taxpayers from directly or indirectly funding abortion. This is not a new policy concept, although the media and Leftist groups are treating it as such; the Hyde Amendment, which bars taxpayer dollars from being spent on abortion, is a historic bipartisan compromise on this divisive issue.
President Trump is simply doubling down on the reasonable notion that federal dollars should not be used to fund abortions, and protecting taxpayers from paying for abortions. Women’s health is not put in any harm or compromised in any way via this policy; in fact, women’s health is brought back to the forefront and made a priority, given that taxpayer dollars will be forced to exclusively fund actual healthcare for women.
The outrage from the Left on President Trump’s ‘domestic gag rule,’ or in reality, a protection for taxpayers, exposes the real priorities of the abortion industry. Proponents consistently hide behind the ‘women’s health’ narrative, when, in reality, the only thing that matters to them is their radical abortion agenda. If women’s health were the real priority, taxpayer dollars not funding abortions would not trigger such outrage from supposed champions of women.