A web site created by the Biden administration simply after the Supreme Court docket overturned Roe v. Wade has been shut down by the Trump administration. A Biden-Harris marketing campaign rally in January 2024 is pictured.
/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photographs
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/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photographs
On the second day of the second Trump administration, a search for the time period “abortion” on the web site for the federal Division of Well being and Human Companies brings up 166 outcomes. The prime hit is from January 24, 2020, throughout President Trump’s first time period, and is about how California violated the rights of two non secular organizations that wished to supply well being plans that excluded protection for abortion.
Attempting to type the outcomes to see the latest gadgets first returns no hyperlinks in any respect and the message reads “search unreachable.”
A website the Biden administration launched after the Supreme Court docket overturned Roe v. Wade, ReproductiveRights.gov, is now a damaged hyperlink. (An archived model of the location is nonetheless viewable by way of the Web Archive.)
These adjustments to the data obtainable on authorities web sites displays quiet strikes on the a part of the brand new Trump administration on abortion.
Abortion was not talked about or referenced in Trump’s inaugural handle. It was additionally not a spotlight of the handfuls of govt actions he took after being sworn in. And a sequence of coverage strikes on abortion which might be normally “nearly automated” when a Republican president takes workplace had been notably lacking from Trump’s first orders of enterprise, says Mary Ziegler, regulation professor at UC Davis who has written extensively on abortion.
For instance, she notes that Trump didn’t instantly reinstate the Mexico Metropolis Coverage, also called the International Gag Rule, that limits funding for worldwide organizations that present household planning providers.
“I feel it is too early to say we’re not going to see fairly important motion from the Trump administration on abortion,” Ziegler says. He might, for example, revive the Comstock Act, or restrict the supply of abortion remedy by way of telehealth, however in his first day, he didn’t appear wanting to sign these sorts of insurance policies had been coming. “It could be that Trump merely needs to do these issues when the lights aren’t as shiny, and it could be that he would not need to do them in any respect, nevertheless it’s too early to know which of these potentialities it’s.”
Throughout Trump’s first time period, “conscience rights” dominated the day when it got here to abortion, which was nonetheless authorized in all states. Rights had been oriented in the direction of non secular organizations and suppliers that objected to abortion. The HHS.gov web site seems to have been rapidly edited to replicate that view once more. HHS didn’t instantly return a request for remark.
The Biden administration held that abortion is a person proper. Now, content material that displays that place is tough to search out on federal authorities web sites. Some materials continues to be on-line, nevertheless, together with a 2022 motion plan to “defend and strengthen reproductive care.”
The now-defunct ReproductiveRights.gov website included details about individuals’s rights to contraception, abortion remedy and procedures, and emergency and preventive care whereas pregnant. It additionally directed individuals to AbortionFinder for details about state restrictions and monetary help for individuals in search of abortions.
Trump’s alternative to guide HHS, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has not but had his affirmation listening to scheduled. Till final yr, Kennedy took a really totally different stance on abortion than Trump, stating he was firmly in favor of abortion entry. It’s an open query whether or not anti-abortion Republicans within the Senate will help him.
