President Biden's Budget Prioritizes Abortion

Each year, the President initiates Congress’ appropriations process by submitting a proposed budget. While the President’s budget does not have any force of law—in fact, it doesn’t even have the possibility of enactment into law—it still serves a critical role in setting policy priorities. In fact, its impact on policy is in many ways outsized due to the fact it can reveal the most fervent of a President’s policy preferences. It also often drives the priorities that ultimately do get funded by Congress.

This phenomenon is on full display this year after President Biden released his proposed budget for fiscal year 2023. The proposed budget is a whopping $5.8 trillion overall, with virtually every agency of the federal government being proposed a dramatic expansion. This is alarming on any number of levels, but maybe nowhere more so than on the issue of the sanctity of life.

President Biden’s budget lays out a clear and consistent hostility to the sanctity of life, and it does so across numerous provisions, including:

• Elimination of the Hyde Amendment – The Hyde Amendment is a long-standing (first enacted in 1976) policy that protects U.S. taxpayers from directly funding abortions. This provision enjoyed wide bipartisan support—including from then-Senator Joe Biden—for decades. However, true to his pledge from the campaign trail, President Biden has now flip-flopped on the issue by proposing that this important protection be eliminated. If accomplished, this would mean that Americans would be forced to pay directly for abortions with their tax dollars through federal programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and other “healthcare” programs.

• Increased Title X Funding – Title X funding is the second-largest federal funding source for the abortion giant Planned Parenthood. This is true despite the fact that the underlying statute prohibits taxpayer dollars from the program from being used for abortions. During the Trump Administration, this prohibition was finally honored; but now the Biden Administration has not only restarted funding to Planned Parenthood, but now proposes a 40% increase to the Title X account.

• International Promotion of Abortion – In yet another reversal of a proper policy, the Biden Administration has reinitiated the direct funding of abortions overseas. President Trump had reinstituted and expanded the Reagan-era “Mexico City policy,” which directs international family planning dollars only to entities who do not use or promote abortion, but President Biden rescinded the policy. Now, in this most recent budget, President Biden proposes a massive 72% increase for funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which has a long track record of abortion support, and even support for population-control programs like China’s infamous “one-child rule.”

• Elimination of the Dornan Amendment – Because Congress has legislative powers for the District of Columbia, the Dornan Amendment has protected U.S. taxpayers from funding abortions in D.C. The President’s budget proposes eliminating that protection.

These are just the top line lowlights of a budget that proposes a massive federal government that is committed to central governance and is especially hostile to protections for the innocent pre-born.

Enactment of these proposals and funding increases would not only be catastrophically unwise, but it would also literally cost countless innocent lives. The solution is clear—the President’s proposals must be defeated.

Now that the President has made his policy objectives clear on these issues, the real work begins. The ACLJ is mobilizing to counter these proposals, and we invite you to add your voice to our objections about them. You can do so by signing our petition to Stop President Biden From Forcing Us To Pay for Abortions.