Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Joe Biden’s taxpayer-funded abortion order is government at its worst
Joe Biden’s taxpayer-funded abortion order is government at its worst
Jan 18, 2026 12:23 PM

Today with one stroke of the pen, President Joe Biden vitiated three unalienable rights. Biden signed a presidential memorandum order forcing U.S. taxpayers, including those with religious objections, to fund abortion-on-demand and abortion advocacy around the world.

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan enacted the Mexico City Policy, which excluded foreign non-governmental agencies that “perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning” from receiving U.S. Agency for International Development funds. President Donald Trump’s Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance policy expanded this to include largesse distributed by “all departments or agencies” of the U.S. government. Biden’s action reverses that policy.

Both Reagan and Trump allowed abortion referrals in the cases of rape, incest, or if the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother. Thus, today’s executive action requires U.S. taxpayers to pay for the promotion of elective abortion, or abortion-on-demand, which most Americans find objectionable – and which traditional Christianity teaches is sinful.

“Funneling U.S. tax dollars to abortion groups overseas is an abhorrent practice that flies in the face of the ‘unity’ Joe Biden and Kamala Harris promised to inspire,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-lifeSusan B. Anthony List.

A new Marist/Knights of Columbus poll released on Wednesday found that 77% of all Americans – including two-thirds of voters who describe themselves as “pro-choice” and 55% of Democrats – oppose taxpayer funding of abortion overseas.

A sizable majority of Americans also oppose taxpayer funding for U.S. abortions (58%), including nearly one-third of Democrats (31%) and two-thirds of independents (65%).

Biden also paved the way for U.S. organizations that perform or refer for abortion to receive Title X funding. The Trump administration denied Planned Parenthood $60 million in taxpayers’ dollars when the nation’s leading abortion provider withdrew from the women’s health program rather than stop performing terminations.

Dannenfelser said the reversal creates “a slush fund” for abortion providers and represents “a payout to the abortion industry that backed [the Biden-Harris] political campaign.”

Whatever the reasoning behind the expansion of elective abortion funding, one must seek it outside of the rationale offered up by the Biden administration. The measure fails on its own logic.

Take the White House “fact sheet” on the memo, which asserts that “Black, Indigenous and other people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and those with low es” have been “denied access to reproductive health care” – a euphemism for abortion.

In reality, non-Hispanic black women accounted for 33.6% of all U.S. abortions in 2018, although blacks make up only 13.4% of the U.S. population. “In pared with non-Hispanic White women, abortion rates and ratios were 3.4 and 3.0 times higher among non-Hispanic Black women and 1.7 and 1.4 times higher among Hispanic women,” according to the CDC’s 2018 Abortion Surveillance. “Non-Hispanic Black women had the highest abortion rate (21.2 abortions per 1,000 women) and ratio (335 abortions per 1,000 live births).”

The CDC does not measure the e of women who obtain abortions. However, the Guttmacher Institute conducted a groundbreaking study in 2004 investigating the “Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortions.” It found that 73% of women say they sought an abortion, because they “can’t afford a baby now.”

If this executive action truly sought to redress women’s inability to obtain an abortion on the grounds of race or e, it is a solution in search of a problem. Politicians who wanted to reduce the high rates of abortion or munities’ access to bona fide healthcare would promote economic policies that create prosperity – like limited government and economic opportunity.

Furthermore, it’s unclear why a politician would consider an industry that has decimated the black population a boon rather than a menace. Typically, such an industry would be found guilty of racial discrimination because of its “disparate impact” on minorities – the same standard Biden applies to other industries.

The official explanation also falters when it refers to the Reagan-Trump policy as a “global gag rule.” The most pithy es from a Supreme Court case decided 11 days before Joe Biden was born. The justices ruled in 1942’s Wickard v. Filburn, “It is hardly lack of due process for the [g]overnment to regulate that which it subsidizes.”

Foreign NGOs are free to advocate abortion all they wish – on their own dime. Once American citizens are forced to underwrite their political positions, U.S. citizens have the right to object. And polls suggest campaigning against financing foreign abortions pulsory taxation is a winning issue.

Some government officials have attempted to portray the redistribution of wealth from U.S. citizens to foreign abortion advocates as a coup for human rights. Dr. Anthony Fauci previewed the move last week, telling the World Health Organization that mandatory taxpayer funding of foreign prises one part of President Biden’s mitment to protect women’s health and advance gender equality at home and around the world.”

Forcing U.S. taxpayers to advance abortion around the world violates the purpose of government. Governments exist to secure our unalienable rights. First among these is the right to religious freedom, including the ability to live our lives according to our conscience – particularly the right not to entangle our hard-earned money in the intrinsic evil of abortion.

“The government should never force taxpayers to fund abortions, either here or abroad, but should work to protect the inherent dignity of all persons, born and unborn,” says Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life.

The Founding Fathers said the right to “property” included both the right to life and the right to be free of confiscatory taxation. As the U.S. Commission on Unalienable Rightsexplained:

For the founders, property refers not only to physical goods and the fruit of one’s labor but also passes life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They assumed, following philosopher John Locke, that the protection of property rights benefits all … Without the ability to maintain control over one’s labor, goods, land, home, and other material possessions, one can neither enjoy individual rights nor can society build mon life.

Biden’s taxpayer-funded abortion order is government at its worst: undemocratic, unconstitutional cronyism that pulsory taxation to crush fundamental rights and harm the most vulnerable.

The Founding Fathers understood that losing sight of the purpose of government, and the Source and substance of our rights, assures that we can build mon life at all.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
30 key quotes from ‘Humanae vitae’ (Of human life)
Fifty years ago this week, Pope Paul VI released Humanae Vitae, an encyclical on marital love, responsible parenthood, and artificial contraception. Because contraception profoundly influences so many areas of life—from the family to national policies—this statement on human anthropology and sexuality has e a one of the most significant documents of Catholic social thought. In honor of the anniversary, here are 30 key quotes from the papal encyclical: The transmission of human life is a most serious role in which...
The folly of ‘following your passion’
If you’re a young person in America, you’ve undoubtedly been bombarded by calls to“follow your passion,” “pursue your dreams,” or “do what you love and love what you do.” But do these sugary mantras truly represent the path to vocational clarity, economic abundance, personal fulfillment, and human flourishing? Not according to a new study by researchers from Stanford University and Yale-NUS College, which found that “following your passion” is likely to lead to overly limited pursuits, inflated expectations (career, economic,...
Why religion is a central pillar to the civil society
In an article for the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Kay Coles James, president of the Heritage Foundation, argues that “the health of a civil society is dependent on religious expression and liberty.” James is also the author of Transforming America from the Inside Out and has been featured by the Acton Institute before. Religion has always been a central aspect of civil society because it makes up a very significant portion of those cultural institutions that unite, inspire, and guide...
Radio Free Acton: Discussing the Trump-Putin summit with Mihail Neamtu; Upstream on how to read
On this episode of Radio Free Acton, host Caroline Roberts speaks with Mihail Neamtu, Romanian conservative author, on the Trump-Putin summit, Russia’s economy, and what Trump should have prioritized at his meeting with Putin. Then, on the Upstream segment, Bruce Edward Walker talks to Peter Meilaender, Professor of political science at Houghton College, on literary criticism and how to best read a book. Check out these additional resources on this week’s podcast topics: Read “The Trump-Putin summit: A missed opportunity...
The welfare state threatens vulnerable life
Poland has an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic population, a putatively pro-life government, and a popular initiative to protect the lives of children suffering from genetic conditions like Down syndrome – so, why has it gone nowhere? Politicians candidly admit allowing sick children to survive would cost the state-run health care system too much money. At Acton’s Religion & Liberty Transatlantic website, Polish author Marcin Rzegocki writes: A report from an official parliamentary body, the Bureau of Parliamentary Analysis, stated that “adoption...
Justin Welby reimagines a poorer and less free Britain
“Christian leaders are often guilty of ‘souping up, mon good,” says Noah Gould in this week’s Acton Commentary. “Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, is no exception. In his latest book, Reimagining Britain: Foundations for Hope, Welby sets out to create a new social and political vision for the United Kingdom based on mon good.” The most precise definition Welby offers is that mon good “looks not to averages but to the totality of flourishing in a group.” He uses the...
The ‘idea equation’ and economic growth
Note: This is post #86 in a weekly video series on basic economics. As we’ve seen in recent entries in this series, ideas play a key role in economic advancement. If we can predict the future of ideas we can, in part, predict the future of economic growth. But how do we do that? To answer that question, economist Alex Tabarrok look at the “Idea Equation.” In this video by Marginal Revolution University, Tabarrok explain how Ideas = Population x...
Africa needs trade, not more weapons
The EU is considering a $12-billion peace plan that would supply weapons to war-torn western and central Africa, known as the Sahel region. But Ibrahim Anoba – who hails from Lagos, Nigeria – says trade and economic development, including lower EU tariffs, would go a long way toward bringing peace to the area. At Acton’s Religion & Liberty Transatlantic website, Anoba writes: [T]he recruitment strategy of [al-Qaeda’s regional affiliate] – like most terror organizations – focuses on exploiting munities already...
We are all New Deal socialists now
President Trump is known for public unveiling his inner thoughts on Twitter. But one of the most ments he’s ever made came recently in a private discussion with lawmakers about trade policy. According to Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., when senators visited the White Housethey told the president what farmers want is access to markets, not a payment from government. To this Trump replied, “I’m surprised, I’ve never heard of anybody who didn’t want a payment from government.” Unfortunately, the president...
Adam Smith and the morality of commercial society
Over at Arc Digital today I take a look at Adam Smith’s moral teachings, particularly in light mercial society and Christian theology. This essay serves as a brief introduction to one of the Moral Markets projects I am working on, as well as a teaser for further exploration of the relationship between Christianity and classical political economy. As A.M.C. Waterman describes the developments following the publication of Smith’s Wealth of Nations (WN), “Whether Smith actually intended WN to be read...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved