Abortion should not be permitted after an unborn baby has grown in the mother’s womb for 20 weeks, President Donald Trump told a large group of pro-life activists who had gathered in the White House Rose Garden and the Washington Mall.
Trump said Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortions prior to the last months of a pregnancy, set up a permissive legal environment that has more recently led to in many cases allowing what effectively amounts to abortion on demand.
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The United States is one of only seven countries to allow late-term elective abortions. That puts the United States in league with China and North Korea, Trump said.
“It is wrong; it has to change,” said Trump. “Americans are more and more pro-life. In fact, only 12 percent of Americans support abortion on demand at any time.”
Trump said the “right to life” is mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, and will always be defended in his administration.
Trump was pushing a House bill passed in October. The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is stalled in the Senate, though, where it is likely to be filibustered by Democrats to block a vote on final passage.
Trump was the first president since 1974 to address the March for Life, an annual event in Washington, D.C., by video, made as he stood outside with Vice President Mike Pence in the Rose Garden. His remarks were delivered near the event, across the street at the Mall. Marches and rallies against abortion were also held in about 70 localities across the United States, according to media reports.
Before the presidential remarks, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) revoked an Obama-era Medicaid guideline that limited the way states could take action against medical services that provide abortion services, according to CNN. States could guide money away from health care providers who also offer abortions, if they break regulations and laws. It is already illegal for federal monies to pay for abortion.
Former President Barack Obama gave states less leeway to make those Medicaid-related decisions. An HHS official said the states were forced in ways to make policy that favored abortion.
“This is part of the Trump administration’s commitment to rolling back regulations that the Obama administration put out to radically favor abortion,” said Dr. Charmaine Yoest, the department’s assistant secretary for public affairs, speaking to reporters.
PoliZette White House writer Jim Stinson can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter.
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