Trump's week in review: Trump Accounts for kids, abortion pill lawsuit intervention

2. HHS reverses Biden-era rule forcing pharmacists to dispense abortion drugs

While the DOJ’s intervention in Louisiana's abortion pill case caused much concern for pro-life activists, another decision by the Trump administration was a more welcome development.

In a notice published in the Federal Register Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the rescission of a Biden-era guidance warning that retail pharmacies across the U.S. could find themselves guilty of discriminating against customers on the basis of sex and disability if they did not agree to provide abortion-inducing drugs or contraceptives to patients who sought them. 

The HHS identified the guidance as inconsistent with an executive order signed by Trump designed to ensure that federal taxpayer dollars are not used to fund or promote abortion.

In a statement Tuesday, Matt Bowman of the legal nonprofit organization Alliance Defending Freedom expressed gratitude to the Trump administration for “rescinding Biden-era guidance that forced Americans to dispense abortion-inducing drugs against their conscience.”

“The Biden administration’s HHS had issued its pharmacy abortion mandate in 2022 and partially changed it after a court ruled in favor of religious pharmacies in 2023. But the guidance it left in place still subjected pro-life pharmacies across the country to a looming threat from federal bureaucrats. Now, we are grateful to the current administration for eliminating the remnants of the Biden-era abortion mandate by repealing it entirely,” he said.