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President Trump has not only promised institutional change in our bloated government bureaucracy but also surrounded himself with impressive Cabinet picks, such as Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to accomplish those aims. To achieve conservative goals, however, Trump will need to staff federal agencies with both his visionary picks and pro-life leaders. Nowhere is that more necessary than where I used to work, the Department of Health and Human Services, where appointing pro-life personnel is critical.

HHS handles health care policy in the United States — or, at least, they meddle in it. As Kaiser reports, “Of the $4.5 trillion the U.S. spent on health in 2022, the federal government was responsible for roughly a third of all health services.” That much money, passing through that many hands, means plenty of people can get in the way of what President Trump and his pick for HHS secretary, RFK Jr., want to accomplish. People like Roger Severino (a first-term Trump administration alum and Heritage Foundation leader) are desperately needed — pro-lifers who have experienced hands and know how the HHS game is played. 

Especially at HHS, balancing the proverbial ticket — of vision and values, and of inside- and outside-the-Beltway experience — assures those committed to the success of the presidency that it will be done right. Personnel is policy, meaning that bringing on committed pro-life conservatives would communicate a hopeful direction for health care change that embraces all Americans, born and preborn.

While I disagree with President Trump about whether abortion is a federal and state or a state-only issue, pro-life Americans can work with this team, especially if it’s staffed with administration officials who will represent all our interests. Pro-lifers seek a serious course correction, as the federal government in the hands of the Democrat Party went on a weaponized hunt for political opponents, especially those who disagreed with them about abortion.

Enacting President Trump’s goal of less federal government engagement with abortion means cutting the tax money flowing to an industry that profits from intentional abortion. First up, the Trump administration must debar and defund Planned Parenthood, which gets one-third of its revenue from taxpayers.

The administration must also address agency policies and programs weaponized against pro-life Americans, including by providing presidential pardons for pro-life protesters. These peaceful men and women face prison time for prayers, unlike President Biden’s son who walks free. 

Americans need RFK Jr. and a motivated team underneath him to do a serious examination of the Department of Health and Human Services, which long ago abandoned the goal to Make America Healthy Again for abortion zealotry. Funding and mandates for abortion infiltrate HHS like a cancer that needs to be cut out. Those who have seen the inside must be engaged in that kind of operation. 

It’s worth noting that one of Trump and RFK Jr.’s major pushes — making sure America has crystal-clear water — directly intersects with the abortion issue. During the Biden-Harris administration, chemical abortion pills were fundamentally deregulated, allowing for the online distribution of a deadly combination of pills designed to cause the end of a child’s life in the womb. In changing the regulations at the Food and Drug Administration, the abortion activists allowed a de facto permit for water pollution. As our team at Students for Life of America has argued, chemically tainted blood, placenta tissue, and human remains are now being flushed into America’s drinking water. 

There is no policy more federal than chemical abortion pill policy. Three Democrat Party presidents — Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden — worked to force the pills onto the market and then stripped away health and safety regulations for mothers, allowing Big Abortion and Big Pharma to make a fast sale without regard for what happens to women.

The FDA policy, as allowed by the Biden-Harris administration, exposes women to injury, infertility, and death, while it empowers abusers and risks clean drinking water.

The above represents a short list of broken things that need fixing. Making health care about health will rightly and dramatically change the course of federal policy. Nominating movers and shakers like RFK Jr. to key agency rolls is a start, but it’s not enough. To accomplish what voters elected him to do, Trump needs to appoint pro-lifers like Roger Severino to strategic health posts too.

Kristan Hawkins is president of Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action, with more than 1,300 groups on middle and high school, college and university, medical and law school campuses in all 50 states. Follow her @KristanHawkins or subscribe to her podcast, Explicitly Pro-Life.