The chairman of the bishops’ pro-life committee commended President Donald Trump for his executive order to end Biden administration policies that used taxpayer dollars to fund abortions worldwide.
Bishop Daniel Thomas of the Diocese of Toledo, Ohio, also applauded a memorandum issued by the White House on Friday to reinstate the Mexico City policy to prevent the U.S. from funding foreign organizations that support or perform abortions.
“I am grateful for the strengthening of policies that protect us from being compelled to participate in a culture of death and that help us to restore a culture of life at home and abroad,” Thomas said in a press release issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Sunday.
Trump signed an executive order rescinding two of former president Biden’s executive orders that, the White House said, violated the Hyde Amendment’s ban on the use of taxpayer funds for abortion.
The new order limits the enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. On Thursday, Trump issued pardons for 23 pro-life activists imprisoned under the FACE Act, including several elderly people and a young mother.
“Pro-life Americans have a right to pray in public, to counsel women who are considering abortion, and to peacefully protest. We welcome support for men and women who are exercising these rights to witness to a culture of life and, at the same time, we absolutely reject resorting to force or violence,” Thomas said.
The executive order also cancels a Biden order that “recategorized abortion as ‘health care’ in order to provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions,” the White House said.
Thomas reflected on the new orders and the United States’ announcement that it will join the Geneva Consensus Declaration, a document focused on promoting women’s health, protecting life, and strengthening the family.
“It is important and encouraging to see the United States again taking the leadership in affirming the right to life and fundamental place of the family on the global stage where many pressures can be arrayed against these values,” Thomas said.
