President Donald Trump told thousands of pro-life advocates at the March for Life that he plans to veto any bill that would promote abortion.
Now that Democrats are in control of the House, they’ve already passed a bill to fund Planned Parenthood’s International abortion agenda. And the next item on their list is forcing all Americans to fund abortions here in the United States.
But President Trump issued a letter promising to veto any legislation that may weaken federal pro-life policy. The President announced the letter in a video message to participants in the March for Life, the nation’s largest annual pro-life demonstration.
“Today I have signed a letter to Congress to make clear that if they send any legislation to my desk that weakens the protection of human life, I will issue a veto,” Trump said. “And we have the support to uphold those vetos.”
“We know that every life has meaning and that every life is worth protecting, as president I will always defend the first right in our Declaration of Independence, the right to life,” he said.
“As president, I will always defend the first right in our Declaration of Independence, the right to life,” Trump said in remarks recorded in the Oval Office, a right he said extended to “unborn children.”
The full text of his remarks to March for Life participants appears below:
Today, I am very proud to welcome tens of thousands of families, students, and people of all faiths and backgrounds to our nation’s capital for the 46th annual March For Life.
This is a movement founded on love and grounded in the nobility and dignity of every human life.
When we look into the eyes of a newborn child we see the beauty in the human soul and the Majesty of God’s creation. We know that every life has meaning and that every life is worth protecting. As President, I will always defend the first right of our Declaration of Independence, the right to life.
During my first week in office, I reinstated the Mexico City policy. We have taken bold action to protect the religious freedoms of doctors, nurses, and charities, like the Little Sisters of the Poor. We issued a new proposal to prohibit Title X taxpayer funding from going to any clinic that performs abortions. We are supporting the loving choice of adoption and foster care, including through the support of faith-based adoption services.
And I am supporting the US Senate’s effort to make permanent the Hyde amendment, which prohibits taxpayer funding for abortion in spending bills.
Today, I have signed a letter to Congress to make clear that if they send any legislation to my desk that weakens the protection of human life, I will issue a veto. And, we have the support to uphold those vetoes. Every child is a sacred gift from God.
As this year’s March For Life theme says: “Each person is unique, from day one”
That’s a very important phrase, ‘unique from day one.’ And so true.
I want to thank Americans who traveled all across the country to march for life. And, I especially want to thank so many young people who give us hope for the future.
Together we will work to save lives of unborn children so that they have a chance to live and to love, to thrive and to dream, and to bless our nation and reach their full and glorious potential.
Thank you and God bless you and your family and God bless America.
One leading pro-life advocate was delighted by the news.
“Today President Trump sent a bold message to Nancy Pelosi that popular pro-life policies like the Hyde Amendment that save unborn children and protect taxpayers are here to stay, despite her extreme attacks,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “A strong majority of Americans oppose taxpayer funding of abortion, domestically and abroad. President Trump is the most pro-life president our nation has seen and is keeping his promise to the pro-life Americans who swept him into office. Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats can continue pushing an extreme pro-abortion agenda at their own political peril.”
Democrats want to restore the $100 million President Donald Trump took away from Planned Parenthood when he defunded its International arm during his first week in office. The Trump policy prohibits taxpayer funding to international groups that promote and/or provide abortions overseas.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2019 repeals President Trump’s Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance policy, which stops U.S. taxpayer funding of the abortion industry overseas.
The House voted 241 to 190 for the bill with all Democrats voting for it and all but 7 Republicans voting against it.
Despite passing the pro-abortion measure, in a Statement of Administrative Position for President Trump, the White House said the president will veto the bill.
“If either H.R. 21 or H.J. Res. 1 were presented to the President, his advisors would recommend that he veto the bill,” it said.
The statement mentioned the pro-life concerns about the bill:
The Administration opposes passage of H.R. 21, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019, providing appropriations for the fiscal year (FY) ending September 30, 2019, for the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Justice, Interior, State, Transportation, Treasury, and for other purposes. The Administration also opposes passage of H.J. Res. 1, providing appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through February 8, 2019, and for other purposes.
It includes $700 million more than requested for the United Nations, including restoring funding for the United Nations Population Fund. The bill would also undermine the President’s Mexico City Policy (Presidential Memorandum of January 23, 2017), which prohibits the funding of foreign nongovernmental organizations that promote or perform abortions.
The Democrats’ bill doesn’t just force Americans to fund the abortion giant Planned Parenthood:
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The bill also would increase funding by $5 million for the United Nations Population Fund, to $37.5 million. Anti-abortion organizations oppose the program because they say it participates in coercive abortions and involuntary sterilizations.
Democrats plan to vote on two separate bills Thursday to fund the federal government, one of which will focus on homeland security as they refuse to meet Trump’s demands for $5 billion to fund a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
The bills face dim prospects in the GOP-controlled Senate. The federal government has faced a partial government shutdown for 12 days , and Democratic leaders announced Wednesday that they still had not been able to reach an agreement with Trump.
The International Planned Parenthood Federation performed more than 1 million abortions in 2016, an increase of 13.5 percent over 2015, and received more than $27 million in U.S. government grants in 2015-2016 under pro-abortion President Barack Obama.
The new Trump administration policy did not cut any international funding either, meaning more funds are available to groups that provide true medical care to struggling communities across the globe.
The policy only hurt the abortion industry. It has affected just four groups out of more than 700 that receive international aid, according to a report by the U.S. Department of State. IPPF and Marie Stopes International, a British-based abortion chain, are two of the four that refused to comply.
In May, Reuters reported IPPF shut down 22 programs in sub-Saharan Africa as a result of the policy. Marie Stopes International also shut down several of its programs in Africa.
The two pro-abortion groups received millions of American tax dollars under Obama to push abortions in Africa. Most African countries prohibit the killing of unborn babies in abortions.
Marie Stopes has been accused of doing hundreds of illegal, unsafe abortions in Africa. And late last year, parents and community leaders in Kitui, Kenya were outraged after learning that Marie Stopes workers allegedly came into their children’s school and implanted long-lasting contraceptive devices into girls as young as 14 without their parents’ knowledge or consent.
The Mexico City Policy was in place during the entirety of the Bush administration, but President Barack Obama rescinded it during his first week in office. Named for a 1984 population conference where President Ronald Reagan initially announced it, the policy made it so family planning funds could only go to groups that would agree to not do abortions or lobby foreign nations to overturn their pro-life laws.
