Biden on Plethora of Executive Orders: “I’m Not Making New Law, I’m Eliminating Bad Policy”

With a stroke of his pen, President Joe Biden reversed more of former President Donald Trump's immigration policies.

"I'm not making new law," Biden said. "I'm eliminating bad policy."

The first executive order establishes a new task force to try and reunite families separated at the southern border.

"I think it will be an excruciating task, almost near impossible, because so much time has passed," immigration attorney Mana Yegani said.

Yegani said by committing to trying to get separated kids back with their parents, the United States is sending a message of hope and humanity.

Check out Twitter's reaction to Biden's definition of "bad policy"

One of Biden's alleged "good policies" is allowing American funding and support for abortions in foreign countries, according to ABC News:

President Joe Biden on Thursday rescinded a regulation that barred U.S. foreign aid from being used to perform or promote abortions. His decision, while expected, was cheered by abortion-choice advocates and some humanitarian groups and denounced by anti-abortion groups.

The move also included a restoration of American funding to the U.N. Population Fund and withdraws the U.S. from an international accord that promotes anti-abortion policies. The steps came just a week after he was inaugurated and fulfills a campaign pledge to reverse a policy that previous Republican presidents, including his immediate predecessor, Donald Trump, had instated immediately on taking office.

The policy — known as the “Mexico City” rule, after the place where it was first announced at an international population conference, or the “global gag rule” — has been a political ping-pong ball, bouncing back and forth between Republican and Democratic presidents since it was first enacted in 1985 during President Ronald Reagan's second term.

“These excessive conditions on foreign and development assistance undermine the United States’ efforts to advance gender equality globally by restricting our ability to support women’s health and programs that prevent and respond to gender-based violence,” Biden said in a memorandum to his Cabinet.

“The expansion of the policy has also affected all other areas of global health assistance, limiting the United States’ ability to work with local partners around the world and inhibiting their efforts to confront serious health challenges such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, among others,” he said. “Such restrictions on global health assistance are particularly harmful in light of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.”

Accompanying Biden's determination was a decision to restore funding to the United Nations Population Fund, which Trump had ended over its alleged support for forced abortions and sterilizations in China. The fund has denied those allegations. The year before Trump terminated the funding, the U.S. had provided $69 million to the UNFPA.

In addition, Biden directed the State Department and Department of Health and Human Services to withdraw from the so-called Geneva Consensus, an October 2020 document signed by 34 countries that sought to promote anti-abortion policies and others deemed "pro-family" worldwide. The consensus had been co-sponsored by the U.S. and was signed by numerous nations critics consider to be undemocratic or authoritarian.

Critics of Trump's policies say they had hurt women’s reproductive health care and contributed to poverty worldwide. Supporters argue they are essential to preserve the sanctity of life.