Anti-abortion groups keep pressure on White House after March for Life olive branch

The conservative movement wants to see the White House walk back its middle ground approach to abortion access, even as President Donald Trump handed the movement new policy victories ahead of the March for Life.

Federal funding from the National Institutes of Health will no longer go toward research or grants that use aborted fetal tissue, the administration announced on Thursday, one day before thousands are expected to converge on Washington for the annual rally.

The White House also announced in a meeting with anti-abortion groups that it is expanding the Mexico City policy, which prohibits federal funding for international nongovernmental organizations that provide abortions. The Small Business Administration will also review whether Planned Parenthood illegally received $88 million in pandemic-era loans.

“All of these things are fantastic news,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a press call with reporters. “Let there be no question about how positive we think that is in a pro-life administration.”

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“Life is winning! Planned Parenthood is losing,” tweeted Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, who attended the White House meeting.

“We have been heard. This is why it matters that we continue to stand up and speak out. This is why we keep saying, defund and debar Planned Parenthood,” she also said in a video message.

While Dannenfelser applauded the efforts, she also pointed to other priorities for the movement, which include ending the mail order of abortion drugs and a strengthening of the Hyde Amendment, which largely prohibits federal funding for abortions, as part of any deal to revive Obamacare subsidies.

Tensions have flared with the White House last month over reports that the Food and Drug Administration slow-walked a long-promised safety review of the abortion pill mifepristone to push it beyond the 2026 midterm elections.

The groups are hoping that Vice President JD Vance will announce that the administration is rescinding its drug policy during his speech at the March for Life rally on Friday. But it is not clear whether the White House is willing to do so. Trump has generally tried to steer the Republican Party away from conservative orthodoxy on abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

“What an incredible thing it would be to address the most urgent and consequential issue in the pro-life movement right now, and that would be the reinstitution of Trump’s policy from his first administration,” Dannenfelser said. “What would happen, of course, is it would give states back their sovereignty. States would be allowed to enforce their laws. Because, as you should know by now, the abortion rate has gone way up.”

Bob Vander Plaats, president of the Family Leader group in Iowa, also echoed concern over the proliferation of mifepristone during Thursday’s press call.

“We’re very concerned here, as a pro-life state in Iowa, that mifepristone, the abortion pill, it undermines our law. Not only does it kill the baby, but it’s reckless and dangerous for women,” Vander Plaats said. “We believe there needs to be some common sense restrictions, restore it back to where Trump 1 was. But at minimum, it should be doctored-administered, and there should be doctor oversight.”

In December, leading anti-abortion advocates called for FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary to be fired over the delayed review on mifepristone, although Makary still remains on the job.

Hawkins said that she questioned administration officials about the drug during the meeting and was assured that the “FDA is undergoing research right now on the safety of chemical abortion pills, or the unsafety of chemical abortion pills.”

“It’s going to take months before it’s completed,” she said. “Their concern at the FDA is nothing can be done rushed or hastily, because they know litigation around chemical abortion is going to be some of the toughest litigation they’ve ever seen.”

Anti-abortion movement leaders were miffed over Trump pressuring Republican lawmakers to be “flexible” on the Hyde Amendment earlier this month, with SBA Pro-Life America claiming it would stop supporting Republicans who vote to revive enhanced Obamacare subsidies without new Hyde language. The group has already pledged to invest $80 million to reach 10.5 million voters across several battleground states, including Iowa, Georgia, Michigan, and North Carolina. 

“Anyone who we have targeted in a positive way to support and help during this election, if they voted for that, those operations are immediately suspended,” Dannenfelser said. “We certainly are not going to assist someone who is undermining the bedrock that the Hyde Amendment has been in the Republican Party and in the country for so long.”