Biden Targets Abortion Restrictions as Fight Looms in Congress -- Update

By Catherine Lucey and Kristina Peterson

WASHINGTON -- President Biden ended a policy that prohibits federal funds from going to foreign-aid groups that perform abortions or provide related services, one of several moves likely to spark renewed debate over abortion access.

Mr. Biden can make some of his intended changes quickly, but others will likely run into hurdles in Congress, where Democrats hold narrow majorities. Echoing many Democrats and abortion-rights advocates, he has said he backs ending a provision in spending bills known as the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funds from being used for abortions except in limited cases.

Many Republicans say they will oppose any spending bill that doesn't include the amendment.

Mr. Biden on Thursday issued a "presidential memorandum to protect and expand access to comprehensive reproductive health care," as part of a series of health-care-related actions. Among its effects will be to reverse a rule known as the "Mexico City policy" -- or, to critics, the "global gag rule."

The policy bars foreign nongovernmental groups that get U.S. funding from providing abortions or abortion information. Recent Democratic administrations have ended the policy, and Republican administrations have reinstated it.

The memorandum will also direct the Department of Health and Human Services to review a Trump administration rule that cut off federal funding for family-planning organizations such as Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Any change would have to go through a regulatory process. A White House official said Thursday that the final decision will be at the discretion of the agency.

In the Oval Office on Thursday Mr. Biden described the health-care actions as an effort to "undo the damage [former President Donald] Trump has done."

"It is a good down payment, absolutely," Ilyse Hogue, president of Naral Pro-Choice America, said of Mr. Biden's anticipated early moves, adding that advocates of wider abortion access know the hurdles facing a repeal of the Hyde Amendment.

"We're not blind to the fact that we're going to have some recalcitrant individuals in both chambers on our hands," she said. "We think we have the polling, we think we have the movement, we think we have the energy."

Polls show most Americans say abortion should be legal, but support is much higher among Democrats than Republicans. Overall support has grown in recent years.

Democrats assumed control in Washington after years of conservative efforts to challenge federal law allowing abortions. A number of Republican-led states have pushed limits or effective bans, while some Democratic-led states have sought to loosen restrictions.

Antiabortion groups criticized Mr. Biden's early moves.

"This is a clear payback to the abortion lobby, which heavily supported the Biden-Harris ticket during the campaign," said Mallory Quigley, spokeswoman for the antiabortion group Susan B. Anthony List. "And it's a cold shoulder to millions of Americans across the political spectrum who are opposed to taxpayer funding of abortion and abortion businesses."

The 1976 Hyde Amendment bars federal funding for abortion with exceptions for victims of rape or incest or if the mother's life is in danger. Abortion opponents say it ensures tax dollars don't go to paying for the procedure.

Abortion-rights advocates say it disproportionately affects low-income women who are Medicaid recipients because the program doesn't pay for abortions with federal funds except in limited circumstances.

Mr. Biden supported the Hyde Amendment for years before reversing his position during his presidential campaign, under pressure from Democrats and advocates. He cited Republican efforts to limit access to abortions and overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

While many Democrats have opposed the amendment, they have found it difficult to remove it from spending bills. The party currently has a razor-thin 221-211 hold on the House, where spending bills can pass with a simple majority. But in the Senate, split 50-50, most legislation must win 60 votes, and most Republicans oppose abortion access.

Democrats hold the Senate majority because Vice President Kamala Harris has the tiebreaking vote, and efforts have reignited among abortion-rights advocates to make dismantling the Hyde Amendment a priority. But Senate Democrats don't appear to have enough support to lower that 60-vote threshold, making it unlikely they could eliminate the amendment now.

A group of 200 House Republicans said in a letter to congressional leaders this week that they will oppose any spending bills that strip out or weaken the Hyde provision.

"At the outset of the Congress, it's the right time to draw a line in the sand and say for the 200 of us who signed the letter, we will not vote for any spending measures that don't provide Hyde protections," said Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks (R., Ind.), who organized the letter.

Meanwhile, new House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro (D., Conn.) has said she won't include the amendment in House spending bills, calling it "one of the biggest barriers to low-income women's access to health care."

Rep. David Price (D., N.C.), a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, said removing the provision would be a challenge, but "I think we've got to try."

Democrats are now mostly opposed to the Hyde Amendment, and the party's 2016 platform called for the repeal of the amendment for the first time. But for decades, Democrats have included the amendment in legislation that required bipartisan support. In 2019, Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania voted in support of a permanent ban on federal funding for most abortions.

A coalition of abortion-rights groups have outlined demands for this administration, including a review of a Food and Drug Administration requirement that women make in-person visits to pick up prescriptions for abortion drugs, even during the coronavirus pandemic.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Alexis McGill Johnson said the coalition intends "to hold Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and this administration to the highest standard and ensure that they enact policy that advances sexual- and reproductive-health access."

Write to Catherine Lucey at [e-mail] and Kristina Peterson at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-28-21 1509ET