Over the 2014, 2016 and 2018 election cycles, SBA List worked to put the Pro-Life Movement on offense politically. This culminated in securing from President Trump four very important pro-life commitments when he asked our president Marjorie Dannenfelser to head up his campaign’s Pro-Life Advisory Committee. On this page you will find information on the key pro-life accomplishments of the Trump-Pence administration on behalf of unborn babies and their mothers.
During the 2016 campaign, then-candidate Trump promised he would nominate pro-life justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the final presidential debate, Trump stated, “I am pro-life, and I will be appointing pro-life judges.” President Trump has already made significant progress on this commitment to the Pro-Life Movement.
In April, 2017, Justice Neil Gorsuch was successfully confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In October, 2018, Justice Brett Kavanaugh was successfully confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court. And in October 2020, Justice Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed, succeeding the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
To date, 220 of President Trump’s judicial nominees have been confirmed, including three Supreme Court justices, fifty-three U.S. Courts of Appeals judges, 162 District Court judges and two judges on the U.S. Court of International Trade.
In April 2017, Congress sent a bill to President Trump’s desk that permits states to defund Planned Parenthood of Title X family planning funds passed in Congress. President Trump signed the bill which reverses an Obama-era rule that disbarred states from doing so. Because this was passed using the Congressional Review Act, future Administrations cannot enact a similar rule to Obama’s.
President Trump not only reinstated the Mexico City Policy, but expanded it to the new Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance program. This new policy ensures that our tax dollars are protected from funding the abortion industry overseas across ALL global health spending, not just family planning dollars. The Bush-era Mexico City Policy protected roughly $500 million in spending – the new Trump policy protects over $8.8 billion overseas aid from funding abortion.
The UNFPA has long been complicit in China’s oppressive population control activities, including birth limitation policies and forced abortions. President Trump’s State Department cut U.S. Taxpayer funding to the UNFPA.
The Trump Administration Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) issued a rule requiring that insurers specify in each plan Summary of Benefits whether the plan covers abortion. The administration also requested input on how to better enforce the limited abortion provisions contained in Obamacare. Until Obamacare is overturned and replaced with a system that does not subsidize abortion coverage, insurers must make abortion coverage clear to persons shopping for a plan.
The Departments of HHS, Treasury, and Labor issued two interim final rules, which means they took effect immediately, while allowing a comment period, that provide permanent, enforceable relief from the previous HHS mandate for both religious objectors, such as Little Sisters of the Poor, and moral objectors, such as Susan B. Anthony List. The new rule also exempts private employers and educational institutions that have sincerely held religious beliefs or moral objections against providing contraceptives or abortifacient drugs.
President Trump has consistently appointed strong pro-life leaders to serve in key roles in his administration, including Vice President Mike Pence, Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
In May 2019, the Trump administration finalized new regulations to strengthen enforcement of federal laws protecting the conscience rights of health care workers who do not want to participate in abortion. The regulations clarify what recourse is available to victims of discrimination under the law and what penalties the HHS Office of Civil Rights may enforce for violations. Additionally, in January 2018, the Department of Health & Human Services announced the creation of the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division within the Office for Civil Rights. This new office works to protect health care professionals who do not want to participate in abortion. In May, 2019, HHS issued a proposed rule amending Obama-era regulations, clarifying that Section 1557 shall not force a recipient of federal funding to provide or pay for an abortion. It shall also be consistent with the First Amendment and with pro-life provisions, conscience provisions and religious liberty protections in current law.
The Obama administration attempted to prevent states from defunding Planned Parenthood of Medicaid dollars, issuing guidance claiming this may be a violation of federal law. In January 2018, the Trump administration rescinded this guidance, allowing states to defund Planned Parenthood of Medicaid dollars as they see fit.
In February, 2019, the Trump administration finalized the Protect Life Rule to redirect Title X family planning program funds away from the abortion industry. The rule advances President Trump’s promise to stop taxpayer funding of abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood, who will no longer receive Title X funding if they choose not to comply.
In June, 2019, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced they would not renew a major contract with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to fund research using the body parts of aborted babies. (learn more)
In January, 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) granted the state of Texas a Medicaid waiver to fund the Healthy Texas Women program which does not include abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood. This decision reverses the Obama administration’s decision to deny a similar waiver to the state in 2013. (learn more)
In January, 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it will take action against California for violating the Weldon Amendment by discriminating against organizations that do not cover abortion in their health care plans. (learn more)
In June 2020, Trump administration finalized a new rule to clarify that the federal definition of sex discrimination under Obamacare (ACA) does not include abortion. Proposed last year, the new rule brings ACA regulations into compliance with longstanding conscience protection laws. (learn more)
On January 24, 2020, President Donald J. Trump made history when he became the first president in history to speak at the annual March for Life. Responding to the announcement he would address pro-life marchers, SBA List president Marjorie Dannenfelser said, “President Trump has governed as the most pro-life president in history. His presence at the March for Life, the world’s largest pro-life event, signals a watershed moment for the Pro-life Movement.”
On September 25, 2020, President Trump signed an executive order to ensure that newborns, no matter the circumstance of their birth, receive the care they deserve and to increase funding for neonatal research. The order will require that if a child is born alive during an abortion, they must be given the same level of medical care as would be afforded any other child born alive at the same age. Read the Executive Order.
How We Got Here: The Largest Pro-Life Grassroots Campaign for Three Election Cycles
5.3 Million Voter Contacts
2,595 Pro-Life Canvassers
4,362,099 Voters Visited at their Homes
3.9 Million Pieces of Campaign Literature Distributed
928,423 Live Phone Calls
1.8 Million Voters reached online
Elections Won by SBA List & Women Speak Out Campaign Team (2014 – 2018)
Presidential Election Won:
President Donald Trump
2018: 6 out of 8 Senate Elections Won:
Marsha Blackburn (TN)
Kevin Cramer (ND)
Josh Hawley (MO)
Rick Scott (FL)
Mike Braun (IN)
Cindy Hyde-Smith (MS)
2016: 4 out of 4 Senate Elections Won:
Marco Rubio (FL)
Roy Blunt (MO)
Rob Portman (OH)
Richard Burr (NC)
2014: 5 out of 5 Senate Elections Won:
Joni Ernst (IA)
Thom Tillis (NC)
Tom Cotton (AR)
Bill Cassidy (LA)
