Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) is pushing back against what he sees as growing uncertainty in Washington over abortion policy, rejecting any flexibility on federal abortion funding and warning against loosening long-standing pro-life protections.
“Federal dollars should not pay for abortion, period,” Cassidy told Blaze News.
'The president is the straw that stirs the drink. He needs to be engaged. If he's not, we won't get a deal. If he does get engaged, we can get a deal.'
Cassidy made the remarks in response to questions from Rebeka Zeljko of Blaze News following a Senate hearing that examined chemical abortion and federal health policy.
President Donald Trump said pro-life advocates may need to be “flexible” on the Hyde Amendment, a decades-old provision that prevents taxpayer dollars from being used to pay for most abortions.
For many conservatives, Hyde has long been viewed as one of the final federal safeguards limiting government involvement in abortion.
“I’m still not quite sure what he meant by that,” Cassidy said of Trump’s remarks, noting that the White House later appeared to walk them back. “Because he backed off on it a little bit.”
As chair of the Senate Health Committee, Cassidy said the larger concern is not campaign rhetoric but policy decisions that, in his view, have quietly expanded abortion access through the back door, particularly with the abortion drug mifepristone.
“It's not like Tylenol,” Cassidy told Blaze News.
Cassidy pointed to Biden-era changes that allow mifepristone to be prescribed without an in-person doctor visit, a shift he said removed basic medical and ethical guardrails.
"This pill is only supposed to be given up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. If a woman who's at 20 weeks of pregnancy takes the pill, she could have a complication, a terrible complication. A woman with an ectopic pregnancy can have a complication."
Cassidy also warned that the lack of oversight has opened the door to coercion and abuse.
“The fact that you can go online, click in your name as Michael Smith — not a female, but Michael Smith — you can get a pill and then give it to your girlfriend without her knowledge, or force her to take it, is wrong,” he said.
He argued that returning to pre-Biden rules would restore physician oversight, protect women from medical harm, and ensure that abortion is not treated as a routine, consequence-free decision.
Cassidy was also asked about recent reporting that the Trump administration restored tens of millions of dollars in Title X funding to Planned Parenthood after a lawsuit was dismissed.
Cassidy said he had not reviewed the specifics of the report but made his position clear.
“I voted for Planned Parenthood to be defunded,” he said.
The funding move has raised alarms among pro-life advocates, who argue that even restricted federal dollars ultimately prop up the nation’s largest abortion provider. The decision has added to frustration within the conservative base, particularly as chemical abortions now account for a growing share of procedures nationwide.
Cassidy confirmed he is part of a group engaged in ongoing discussions with the White House as health care negotiations continue, including talks tied to the Affordable Care Act.
'The president is the straw that stirs the drink," Cassidy said. "He needs to be engaged. If he's not, we won't get a deal. If he does get engaged, we can get a deal."
While Cassidy said he remains hopeful the administration will ultimately strengthen pro-life policies through regulatory action, he acknowledged growing concern among conservatives that early promises are being tested by bureaucratic inertia.
Asked about reports of rising abortion rates since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Cassidy said the issue goes beyond legislation.
“We [members of Congress] are a reflection of culture,” he said. “We need our culture to change.”
Cassidy pointed to pregnancy resource centers, adoption services, and community support as the real front lines of the pro-life movement.
“It isn’t a congressman or a senator that makes that decision,” he said. “It is the people in our communities.”
For now, Cassidy is drawing a clear line: no flexibility on Hyde, no normalization of chemical abortion, and no retreat from the pro-life safeguards conservatives have fought decades to secure.
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For decades, the United States focused its counterterrorism efforts on the Middle East and Asia. Meanwhile, a dangerous convergence of international terrorism and transnational crime took root much closer to home. Across Latin America — centered in Venezuela — hostile networks quietly expanded. The Trump administration has finally acted. How the United States manages Venezuela’s transition to legitimate leadership now carries direct national security consequences.
The media frames U.S. action against Venezuela as a narco-trafficking problem. The threat runs far deeper.
Allowing hostile powers to entrench themselves in the Western Hemisphere threatens not just economic interests but national survival.
Hezbollah, backed by Iran, began building a Latin American presence as early as the mid-1980s. What started as fundraising and money laundering in the tri-border area of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay grew into a sprawling criminal-terrorist network. That network carried out devastating attacks in Argentina during the 1990s. Over time, Hezbollah expanded into recruitment, training, and operational planning, embedding itself across the region.
The threat escalated sharply in 2012, when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad forged a strategic alliance with Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez. That partnership gave Iran a state sponsor in the Western Hemisphere and dramatically expanded its reach. Iran gained the ability to move money, oil, and personnel throughout the region and even established drone-production capabilities inside Venezuela.
U.S. law enforcement recognized the danger. The Drug Enforcement Administration launched Project Cassandra to investigate Hezbollah’s evolution into a global crime syndicate. The DEA tracked cocaine shipments from Latin America through West Africa into Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. Investigators uncovered a network believed to generate roughly $1 billion annually through drug trafficking, weapons smuggling, and money laundering.
The Obama administration later curtailed Project Cassandra in pursuit of a nuclear agreement with Iran. That decision left much of the criminal-terrorist infrastructure intact. Its consequences persist. Hezbollah-linked networks still operate across the region with minimal interference.
Under Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela functioned as both a failed state and a logistical lifeline for Iran. The regime facilitated the movement of operatives and equipment throughout Latin America and beyond. In return, Iran supplied Venezuela’s oil sector with blending materials and refining equipment, helping Maduro evade sanctions and cling to power.
Venezuela also issued hundreds of passports and national IDs to individuals from the Middle East, including figures linked to Hezbollah. Those documents allowed operatives to travel freely under new identities, posing a direct threat to U.S. and regional security. The ability to move undetected across borders remains one of the most valuable tools available to terrorist organizations, and Venezuela provided it willingly.
Recognizing the gravity of the threat, the Trump administration took unprecedented steps. After imposing an oil blockade and designating the Maduro regime a foreign terrorist organization, U.S. authorities captured Maduro to face justice in the United States.
For the first time in a century, the Western Hemisphere now anchors the U.S. National Security Strategy. The Trump administration’s corollary to the Monroe Doctrine commits the United States to denying non-hemispheric powers — including Iran, Russia, China, and Turkey — the ability to position forces or control strategic assets in the Americas.
RELATED: The pernicious myth that America doesn’t win wars
Evidence of coordination with America’s adversaries is not speculative. Russia’s Foreign Ministry openly acknowledged Venezuela as a strategic partner, citing what it called the “deliberate escalation of tensions” around a friendly nation. Russia arms Venezuela’s military, built a Kalashnikov rifle factory inside the country, and protects key installations with S-300 surface-to-air missile systems.
China played a parallel role. Beijing became Venezuela’s largest oil customer and financed more than $60 billion in projects. Roughly 7% of China’s oil imports came from Venezuela, propping up the Maduro regime while fueling China’s economy.
As left-wing governments across Latin America gave way to more pro-American leadership, Venezuela’s isolation only increased its value to hostile powers. It became a forward operating base against the United States.
Consider the implications. Iranian ballistic missiles — capable of inflicting serious damage even without nuclear warheads — stationed in Venezuela would sit on America’s doorstep. Add Russian or Chinese nuclear capabilities, and the risk escalates from strategic challenge to strategic catastrophe.
Allowing hostile powers to entrench themselves in the Western Hemisphere threatens not just economic interests but national survival. The fusion of terrorist and criminal networks inside Venezuela posed a clear and present danger that demanded decisive action.
The United States must remain firm in its commitment to a secure, sovereign hemisphere. Ignoring threats in our own back yard invites disaster. And the regime in Tehran understands that reality better than most — nervously, right now more than ever.
Start with the fact that if you have to use a phrase like “more culturally normal” in politics, you’re already weird as hell. That’s California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom. Newsom said in an interview this week on CNN that it’s a substantial liability for his party that most voters don’t share its enthusiasm for transgendering […]
Blue states, and blue cities, have gone floridly and relentlessly insane. There is no problem they can solve.
The Border Patrol and the military need clear authority to deploy counter-drone systems in sensitive areas without endless FAA vetoes.
Marijuana is not benign. It is dangerous. And it is long past time for The New York Times to finally admit that.
'Is two enough,' he asked, 'or do I need to put in another one?'
She totally misrepresented a study on the dangerous side effects of chemical abortion drugs.
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