This is an ongoing documentation of President Biden’s policies that clash with Catholic teachings.
January 9, 2024—The Biden administration rescinded a 2019 Trump administration rule that provided conscience protections to doctors and health care providers that consciously object to the performing of abortions and gender-affirming procedures. While the Trump rule never officially went into effect, this action by Biden once again shows his prioritization of abortion and transgender rights while failing to provide the simplest of religious freedoms.
September 28, 2023—HHS announced a proposal that would target the rights of foster parents. The proposal states that “LGBTQI+ children can be transferred from any entity that will not provide a safe and appropriate placement,” suggesting that foster parents can have their children removed from them if they fail to affirm the incorrect sex of the child. This is a evisceration of the rights of foster parents who believe in the Catholic Church’s teaching on gender and sexuality and could have tremendous consequences for the rights of parents who adhere to traditional moral values.
June 23, 2023—On the eve of the 1st year anniversary of the Supreme Court Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, President Biden spoke at an abortion rights rally sponsored by several prominent pro-abortion organizations. During his remarks, he described the effects resulting from the Dobbs decision as “devastating” and reaffirmed his commitment to “restore these protections of Roe v. Wade and make it the law of the land once again.” The following day, the anniversary of the Dobbs decision, Biden issued another statement where he labeled attempts to prohibit abortion at the state level as “extreme, dangerous, and out-of-step with the vast majority of Americans.”
February 2023—A leaked memo from the FBI Richmond field office found that the Bureau, which is under the control of the Justice Department, sought to investigate Orthodox Catholics who celebrated the Traditional Latin Mass, referring to them as “Traditional Radical Catholics.” In addition, other FBI documents mention the targeting of “mainline Catholic parishes” and “local diocesan leadership” by the Bureau because of their alleged “radicalization” within the Church. These documents show the Biden administration’s willingness to go after law-abiding people of faith while refusing to prosecute pro-abortion terrorist groups that vandalize Catholic Churches.
February 22, 2023— The Department of Education announced a proposal that would rescind a Trump administration rule that withholds federal funding from universities that restrict faith-based student groups and activities. If this rule were to be removed, Christian organizations could have their recognition status revoked by their college and students of faith could be sanctioned or disciplined simply for freely and publicly expressing their religious beliefs on campus.
January 3, 2023—The Federal Drug Administration under Biden announced that it would approve rule changes that will allow for easier access to abortion-inducing drugs. Previously, the drugs could only be accessed through the prescription of a licensed medical physician at a medical facility. The rule change allows drugs to be approved through a virtual medical consultation and gives drug stores and pharmacies the ability to fill prescriptions.
December 13, 2022—President Biden showed his support for same-sex “marriage” when he signed into law the Respect For Marriage Act. The law repealed the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which affirmed that marriage is between one man and one woman, as well as required states to officially recognize same-sex marriages. In addition, Biden personally invited drag queen Marti Gould Cummings to the signing ceremony, who has a history of exposing children to the ideology of gender identity.
October 26, 2022—Biden affirmed his support for the mutilation of sexually confused people during a White House forum on transgender rights. At the forum Biden was asked by transgender TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney what he thought about states banning the right to gender-affirming care. Biden responded by saying that, “as a moral question and as a legal question. I just think it’s wrong.”
August 4, 2022—HHS announced a proposed rule change to Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. ObamaCare) that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex to include “sexual orientation and gender identity.” The changes would gut the religious liberty rights of Catholic doctors and hospitals who would be required to perform abortions or gender reassignment surgeries or face reduced federal funding.
July 8, 2022—President Biden once again expressed his passion for abortion by signing an executive order that protects access to abortion rights in the wake of the Dobbs Supreme Court ruling. In addition to being a full-throated endorsement of abortion, the order directs HHS to establish a Task Force on Reproductive Health Care Access to protect abortion access. It also directs the Justice Department to establish pro-bono legal counsel to represent pro-abortion persons and organizations.
April 19, 2022—Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services announced that they plan to rescind conscience rules for religious healthcare workers that object to participating in morally detestable operations, such as abortion. The gutting of these rules would mean that Catholic doctors and nurses would be forced to perform abortions and gender-reassignment surgery even if it went against their consciously held religious beliefs.
December 2, 2021—As part of Biden’s Build Back Better Act, it was discovered that child-care services who receive federal funds would have to comply with discrimination guidelines based on sexual orientation and gender identity. This would mean that Catholic child-care services would have to go against their religious beliefs on gender and sex in order to receive any government funds.
December 2, 2021—In response to oral arguments being held in the Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, President Biden reaffirmed his support for Roe v. Wade saying that he “will continue to support” it.
November 18, 2021—In a leaked memo from Office of Civil Rights to the Department of Health and Human Services, the Biden Administration is seeking to roll-back Trump administration regulations that provide religious liberty as part of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Under the changes, Catholic hospitals would be required to perform gender transition surgeries as well as perform abortions. In addition, hospitals could no longer refuse to hire doctors that perform abortions.
November 5, 2021—Biden’s Build Back Better Act unequally discriminates against child care run by religious groups. His bill states that “a recipient of funds under this subsection may not use the funds for modernization, renovation, or repair of facilities that are primarily used for sectarian instruction or religious worship” This would discriminate against religious run child care agencies that use religious based facilities would be limited in the amount of funding they receive.
October 20, 2021—The Biden State Department recognized International Pronouns Day. They also listed the numerous policies and orders that the Biden Administration has implemented to encourage usage of gender pronouns that are opposite of one’s biological sex.
October 19, 2021—President Biden nominated Dr. Atul Gawande for Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Global Health at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Gawande, a Harvard Medical school professor, is a strong supporter of infanticide and partial-birth abortion.
October 18, 2021— The Senate Appropriations Committee proposed a bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education that failed to include any pro-life protections, most notably the Hyde and Weldon Amendments.
October 8, 2021—President Biden announced that he would nominate former U.S. Senator Joseph Donnelly to be the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See. Though described by many as a “pro-life Catholic,” Donnelly continually went against Catholic teachings on abortion, same-sex marriage, religious liberty, and school choice while in the Senate.
October 7, 2021— A federal district court judge in Texas granted an injunction that prevented the Texas fetal heartbeat law from going into effect. The ruling was the result of a motion filed by Biden’s Department of Justice on September 14 that sought to block the enforcement of the bill. Both the Justice Department and President Biden praised the judge’s decision.
October 4, 2021—The Biden Administration announced the rescinding of a Trump-era rule that prohibited family planning clinics that receive Title X federal funding from providing referrals to abortions. Trump’s rule was a major safeguard for the protection of the sanctity of life and is yet another example of the steps Biden has taken to allow for increased access to taxpayer funded abortion.
September 20, 2021— Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration objecting to the EEOC’s workplace guidelines on transgender persons. The lawsuit states that the guidelines, which require employers to accommodate employees based on their gender identity, violate the religious liberty rights of Texans by forcing faith based businesses to allow employees to use facilities that are opposite their biological sex.
September 20, 2021— The Biden Administration released a statement in support of H.R. 3755, the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021, a bill that goes beyond codifying Roe v. Wade. This bill would threaten the rights of doctors, nurses, and religiously affiliated hospitals to not violate their moral or religious convictions and also prevent states from enacting policies that protect children after they can survive outside the womb. In the statement, the Biden Administration said the president, “looks forward to working with Congress as the Women’s Health Protection Act advances through the legislative process.”
September 17, 2021—In response to Biden’s call for a whole-of-government approach to fight the Texas heartbeat law, Biden’s HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra will increase abortion access by 1) allowing for increased Title X funding for providers of abortion and contraceptive services, 2) extending the Church Amendment protections designed to protect the conscience rights of health-care workers so that they are not forced to provide and abortion, to abortionists ensuring they do not force employment discrimination for their actions, and 3) reinstating the Enforcement of Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which allows physicians to perform abortions if they deem it an emergency regardless of state or federal restrictions.
September 17, 2021 — In response to the omission, the USCCB released a statement on denouncing the committees’ decision, saying that “Congress can, and must, turn back from including taxpayer funding of abortion, in the Build Back Better Act.”
September 13, 2021 — Archbishops Joseph Naumann and Paul S. Coakley, Chairmen of the USCCB committees on Pro-Life Activities and Domestic Justice and Human Development respectively, sent a letter to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce urging them to keep protections from federal abortion funding in their markup of the spending bill. The bishops’ request was not heard as the committees advanced the bill without these protections.
September 7, 2021 — On behalf of the USCCB, the chairmen of several USCCB committees sent a letter to all members of the U.S. Congress urging that the spending bill include, “the longstanding Hyde Amendment principle of not funding elective abortions.” The letter further emphasized that “the destruction of human life through abortion is not a form of health care, and taxpayers should not be compelled to fund it.”
September 2, 2021—President Biden explicitly rejected what the Catholic Church [and science] says about the beginning of life. While he said he respects the view that life begins at conception, he said, “I don’t agree.” He did not say when he thought life begins.
August 30, 2021—The Attorneys General of 20 states filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education and the EEOC in response to their June 2020 directives that include one’s gender identity in Title IX federal sex discrimination. The states argue that the Directives unlawfully “prohibit employers from maintaining dress codes based on biological sex or from requiring an individual to comply with the dress code that corresponds to the individual’s biological sex.”
August 19, 2021—The Department of Education announced that it would be rescinding parts of a Trump Administration rule that provided religious exemptions to faith-based organizations on public colleges and universities. The potential changes could exclude Christian organizations that believe in Judeo-Christian values from being funded by their university.
August 12, 2021 — Biden’s Department of Justice dismissed a 2019 case against the Vermont Medical Center that violated the religious freedom of an employee. The case was filed during the Trump Administration after the HHS Office of Civil Rights found that the medical center forced a nurse to participate in an abortion against her conscience-based beliefs.
August 9, 2021 – A federal judge granted a permanent injunction against an Obama-era rule that would remove exemptions for religious and Catholic hospitals that refused to provide transgender services and procedures that go against their religious beliefs. The Biden Administration sought to place the rule back after the Trump administration removed it.
July 29, 2021—For the first time in 45 years, the U.S. House passed a budget that does not include the Hyde Amendment, an amendment which prohibits the usage of Federal funds to pay for abortions. This move is in line with President Biden who has, on several occasions, emphatically supported the removal of the Hyde Amendment.
July 12, 2021—In keeping with President Biden’s proposed budget, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies advanced a spending bill for the Department of Health and Human Services that excludes Hyde Amendment protections that ban federal funding of abortion.
July 7, 2021—Twenty-one state attorneys general sent a letter to President Biden criticizing the EEOC’s June 2021 guidelines that force employers to identify and accommodate employees based on their perceived gender identity. The letter stated that the guidance “fundamentally misconstrues and improperly extends” the Bostock decision by “ignor[ing]…protections provided to religious employers.”
June 30, 2021—The State Department announced that transgender persons will now have the option to update their gender markers on federal passports to correspond with their gender identity. In addition, the Department will also be adding a third gender option to passports for “gender non-conforming, non-binary and intersex Americans.”
June 28, 2021—HHS issued a notice that would rescind the Trump-era rule regarding abortion funding and coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The new proposal could potentially force participants to pay for abortion procedures, even if it violates their conscience rights. [In August, a federal judge granted a permanent injunction that would prevent the rule from being re-established.]
June 25, 2021—In remarks commemorating Pride Month, President Biden said that he was “proud to lead the most pro-LGBTQ equality administration in U.S. history.” The same day he signed an executive order requiring Federal agencies to provide support and resources for “transgender and gender non-conforming and non-binary employees who wish to legally, medically, or socially transition.”
June 16, 2021—The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) denied the 501(c)(3) tax exempt status of a Texas based Christian non-profit for promoting Christian teachings on life, marriage, and biblical justice. The IRS concluded that these Christian teachings were only representative of the Republican party and thus the non-profit engaged in political affiliation.
June 16, 2021—In adherence to President Biden’s January 2021 Executive Order on the Federal implementation of the Bostock decision, the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights issued a notice of interpretation that will include sexual orientation and gender identity as part of its Title IX sex discrimination.
June 15, 2021—Charlotte Burrows, President Biden’s appointed chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), issued new EEOC guidelines that require employers to recognize and validate an employee’s gender identity. This would include requiring employers to use a employee’s gender pronouns and allowing employees to use bathroom and shower facilities based on their gender identity.
June 14, 2021 – The Department of Justice rescinded its promise to defend several Christian colleges that are fighting to keep religious exemptions for Title IX rules. The exemptions would allow the schools to issue guidelines regarding housing and sexual conduct in alignment with their Christian belief.
June 14, 2021 – Archbishop Joseph Naumann, Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, sent a letter to the members of Congress opposing the Equal Access to Contraception for Veterans Act (H.R. 239). This proposed legislation would go against the Church teaching on abortion and contraception by allowing the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide free abortion-inducing drugs to veterans. President Biden has not spoken out against the bill.
May 28, 2021 – Biden released his budget proposal for FY2022, and it allocates money for abortions since it has no Hyde Amendment language. This is the first budget proposal since 1993 that does not include conscience protections to ensure federal funds are not used for abortions.
May 17, 2021 – After the Supreme Court said it would take up a case involving Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks, White House press secretary Jen Psaki informed reports that Biden was “committed to codifying” Roe v. Wade no matter what the Court decides.
May 14, 2021 – The White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships met with leaders of six secular organizations: Freedom From Religion Foundation, the American Humanist Association, American Atheists, Center for Inquiry, Ex-Muslims of North America and the Secular Coalition for America. They expressed their displeasure with the pro-religious liberty policies of the previous administration, accusing it of fomenting “Christian nationalism.”
May 12, 2021 – HHS Secretary Xavier Beccera, who voted against a law that banned partial-birth abortion when he was a congressman, was asked if he would respect this law. He made it clear he would not. He justified this stance by falsely claiming that there is no such law. In 2003 Congress passed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act and President George W. Bush signed it.
May 10, 2021 – The Department of Health and Human Services announced that it would reinstate an Obama-era rule that would remove exemptions for religious and Catholic hospitals that refused to provide transgender services and procedures that go against their religious beliefs. The rule interpreted “sex discrimination” under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act to include “gender identity.” This is a major blow to the religious liberty rights of Catholic doctors and hospitals. It would force doctors and hospitals to provide sex reassignment surgeries, even if these surgeries go against their religious beliefs, as well as cover these surgeries and procedures in their insurance policies.
April 25, 2021 – The DOJ issued a statement of interest in favor of a Georgia transgender prisoner who is suing the Georgia Department of Corrections for failing to house him based on his gender identity because Georgia does not want to house people of one biological sex with those of the other.
April 22, 2021 – The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced changes to the Equal Access Rule, which would require participants in the Department’s Office of Community Planning and Development programs to accommodate transgender persons based on their gender identity. This would compel Catholic shelters to house individuals of the opposite sex.
April 20, 2021 – After a group of Catholic doctors and hospitals won a case over an HHS rule that would compel them to provide gender-transition surgeries, regardless of their conscientious beliefs, the Biden administration appealed to keep this mandate in place.
April 16, 2021 – Under Biden, the National Institute of Health removed restrictions on human fetal tissue research.
April 14, 2021 – HHS introduced the Title X changes outlined by Biden’s “Memorandum on Protecting Women’s Health at Home and Abroad.” Under these new rules, grantees would be required to refer for abortions, despite moral or religious objections, effectively banning otherwise pro-life grantees from participating.
April 13, 2021 – Under Biden, the USAID Middle East Bureau renamed the “Religious and Ethnic Communities Office” to the “Equity and Diverse Communities in the Middle East and North Africa Office” to shift the Bureau’s focus away from protecting the rights of religious minorities in the Middle East and emphasize other groups such as LGBT.
April 13, 2021 – Under Biden, the Food and Drug Administration is no longer enforcing the “in-person dispensing requirement” for the chemical abortion pills.
March 31, 2021 – The Department of Defense released a statement affirming Biden’s executive order on transgender persons in the military stating that the Department will “provide a path for those in service for medical treatment, gender transition, and recognition in one’s self-identified gender.”
March 30, 2021 – Secretary of State Antony Blinken disbanded the “Commission on Unalienable Rights,” because it overemphasized religious liberty. This was commissioned by Secretary Pompeo to “..advice and recommendations concerning international human rights matters…[and] fresh thinking about human rights discourse where such discourse has departed from our nation’s founding principles of natural law and natural rights.” Instead, Blinken would rather treat religious liberty as a coequal right, diminishing its status freeing the State Department to promote LGBT and abortion rights.
March 18, 2021 – The Office of Population Affairs at HHS announced the Biden administration’s plan to repeal the Trump-era Protect Life Rule governing Title X by the end of the year. This announcement was in direct response to President Biden’s executive order issued on January 28.
March 17, 2021 – Biden’s White House issued a statement in support of the House resolution to remove the ratification deadline for the Equal Rights Amendment. The ERA would mandate federal funding for abortion and eliminate sex distinctions in the law, thus eliminating the existing legal protections for biological women.
March 11, 2021 – As part of Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act, there was no language that reflects the longstanding, bi-partisan consensus policy to prohibit taxpayer dollars from funding abortions domestically and internationally. The policy was needed because this bill includes many general references to healthcare that, absent the express exclusion of abortion, have consistently been interpreted by federal courts not only to allow, but to compel, the provision of abortion without meaningful limit.
March 8, 2021 – Biden issued a statement on the introduction of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (VAWA), voicing his support for VAWA’s reauthorization. Unfortunately, the reauthorization includes gender identity language that undermines the intended purpose of VAWA and thereby harms the very women it seeks to protect.
March 4, 2021 – Biden supports the For the People Act (H.R. 1), a bill that calls into question the impartiality of those who have religious affiliations. The objectionable provision is directed at a person’s suitability serving on a state’s redistricting commission. It assumes that people of faith – but not atheists – are inclined to be partisan observers, thus coming dangerously close to invoking a “religious test.”
February 25, 2021 – Rachel Levine, a transgender born a biological male, was Biden’s nomination for Assistant Secretary for HHS. When questioned about sex transitioning of minors during his confirmation hearing, Levine did not oppose the idea of allowing minors to receive hormone therapy and puberty blockers.
February 25, 2021 – The House passed the Equality Act. Biden on the campaign trail had made enacting this legislation within his first 100 days in office a top legislative priority.
- The act would effectively gut the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, eviscerating important religious rights.
- State laws that protect religious liberty would be gutted.
- Freedom of speech, belief, and thought, as the U.S. Bishops have said, would be put “at risk.” Conscience rights are the most important of all rights. When they are attacked, all liberties are jeopardized.
- Taxpayer-funded abortions would become a reality.
- The bishops stress that “Houses of worship and other religious spaces will be turned into places of ‘public accommodation.'”
- Adoption and foster care providers would have their rights stripped.
- Catholic hospitals would no longer be allowed to govern as Catholic facilities, threatening healthcare for everyone, especially the poor.
- Starting in kindergarten, students would be indoctrinated in the LGBT agenda.
- Parental rights would be decimated.
- Men who transition to female could compete in women’s sports, effectively working against the rights of women.
- Privacy rights would be a thing of the past. As has already happened, a man who thinks of himself as a woman would be allowed to use the women’s locker room.
February 4, 2021 –Biden signed an executive order allowing for non-married couples to be treated as married for the purposes of the refugee system in certain circumstances.
February 4, 2021 – Biden issued a “Memorandum on Advancing the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Persons Around the World.” This will limit the ability of faith-based organizations to assist in foreign aid.
January 28, 2021 – Biden directed United States Agency for International Development and other United States government foreign assistance programs to ensure that adequate funds are being directed to support abortion rights.
January 28, 2021 –Biden ordered that the necessary steps be taken to resume funding to the United Nations Population Fund, which promotes family planning through the abortion.
January 28, 2021 – Biden instructed the Department of Health and Human Services to immediately move to consider rescinding the Trump administration rule blocking health care providers in the federally funded Title X family planning program from referring patients for abortions.
January 28, 2021 – Biden issued the “Memorandum on Protecting Women’s Health at Home and Abroad.” This memorandum revokes the Mexico City Policy, which is a U.S. government policy that requires foreign non-governmental organizations to certify that they will not “perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning.”
January 25, 2021 – Biden signed an order that would allow transgender persons to serve in the Armed Forces. As part of the order, Biden urged the Defense Department to create a process that would allow individuals to change sexes while serving.
January 23, 2021 – The Department of Justice announced that it would repeal a Trump administration memo that blocked the enforcement of the Bostock ruling in federal law.
January 22, 2021 – Biden issued a statement on the 48th anniversary of Roe v. Wade describing the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision as a “foundational precedent” to which all judicial nominees should commit. Biden called for Roe’s codification.
January 20, 2021 – Biden issued an executive order requiring all federal agencies to implement the ruling in the Supreme Court decision Bostock v. Clayton County, which treats sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes. This is a grave injustice that erases the differences and complementary relationship between man and woman.
January 20, 2021 – Biden signed an executive order affirming that “children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports,” affirming his campaign promise to allow minors to use facilities and participate in high school sports opposite their biological sex. While campaigning, in response to a question from a parent of a transgender child, Biden said that there would be “zero discrimination” when it came to minors seeking to change their gender.
