- Get ready to write comments. While Democrats campaigned on an agenda of using taxpayer funding to pay for abortions and removing health and safety regulations, a divided government would frustrate some of those goals. The action is going to be in the administrative state, where we will expect to see an executive orders and regulations rolling back Trump administration policies. These would include rescinding the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance guidance (the Mexico City Policy) and reestablishing funding streams to foreign NGO’s that provide or promote abortion. He said he will remove the Title X rule which clarified the requirements for recipients of family planning funding to ensure compliance with longstanding federal law.
- Expect clashes between the Biden administration and states. Candidate Biden pledged to once again support Obama-era guidance that the states cannot refuse Medicaid funding for abortion facilities. A number of state court cases challenging this are winding their way through the courts, so don’t think litigation is slowing down just because we’ve got a new administration. Biden also pledged to enforce the ACA contraception mandate against the Little Sisters of the Poor and others seeking to apply the conscience exemption. Guess he and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro want to go 0-4 against nuns at the Supreme Court.
As we learn more about the incoming administration’s first 100 days plan, we’ll keep you updated. Check out AUL.org and past A4L blogs for more highlights of what’s coming in 2021.
