Top Red Flags

Top Red Flags

• Lobbied Congress to pass bills restricting access to reproductive health care, particularly abortions.
• Worked at the anti-abortion Family Research Council and served as Executive Director of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus.
• Contributed to Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for a second Trump term, which advocates for extreme abortion restrictions and the rescission of key protections for reproductive health care and gender-affirming care. 

Legislation

Legislation

As a lobbyist for the anti-abortion Family Research Council, Guernsey lobbied for the following pieces of anti-abortion federal legislation, none of which have been enacted.  

• “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act of 2016” (S. 2066)
  • Uses stigmatizing language and the threat of harsh penalties to shame patients and scare providers from offering safe, quality abortion care.
• “Conscience Protection Act of 2016” (H.R. 4828)
  • Grants anti-abortion health care providers broad discretion to sue on “conscience” claims, making it easier to deny patients access to reproductive health care. 
• “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act” (H.R. 36)
  • Prohibits abortion after 20 weeks gestation with narrow exceptions. 
  • Promotes junk science to stigmatize abortion.
    

Guernsey served as a policy advisor for multiple members of Congress with A+ ratings from the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. This included managing Sen. Roy Blunt’s (R-MO) abortion and religious-freedom portfolios, working for Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) while she chaired the Senate Pro-Life Caucus, and for House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA). These lawmakers consistently sponsored anti-abortion legislation and voted in favor of bills restricting access to reproductive health care. For instance, in addition to the so-called “Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act”, Sen. Hyde-Smith cosponsored the following anti-abortion bills while Guernsey was on her staff and serving as Executive Director of her Caucus.

• “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2023” (S.62)
  • Prohibits the use of federal funds for abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the pregnant person.
  • Requires burdensome administrative reporting in an attempt to dissuade health plans from offering abortion coverage.
• “SAVE Moms and Babies Act of 2023” (Support And Value Expectant Moms and Babies Act of 2023) (S.95)
  • Prohibits the approval or study of new abortion medications, bans investigational use of abortion medications, and imposes additional onerous regulatory requirements on previously approved abortion medications.
  • Requires medically unnecessary in-person administration of medication abortion by FDA-certified health care practitioners.
• “Protecting Life in Foreign Assistance Act” (S.3624) 
  • Restricts the availability of federal funds to organizations associated with abortion, both domestically and internationally.  
    

Statements

Statements

• On an anti-abortion news channel, Guernsey promoted federal legislation to “decimate” Planned Parenthood.
• While serving as Executive Director of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus, Guernsey falsely claimed that the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 “blatantly violates the principles of the Hyde Amendment” and financed “elective abortion” “on demand.”
• Guernsey advocated against the Biden Administration’s 2021 final rule on the Title X Family Planning Program, which restored access to the program for many providers who were pushed out during the first Trump administration. 

Publications

Publications

Guernsey wrote extensively on his anti-abortion stance while working at the Family Research Council, including: 

• A blog post praising the Hyde Amendment, a federal abortion ban that bars people living on low incomes and receiving their medical insurance or health care through the federal government from receiving covered abortion care. 
• A blog post criticizing efforts to protect people from mis- and dis-information at anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers by requiring these fake clinics to offer factual information about abortion care. Guernsey called these laws “harmful, anti-life discrimination.”
  • He also called on Members of Congress to permanently codify the Weldon Amendment, an anti-abortion federal appropriations policy that emboldens providers to refuse to offer reproductive health and abortion services based on their personal beliefs, even in medical emergencies.   
• A blog post promoting the repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that most Americans purchase and maintain health insurance coverage, claiming that this would protect so-called “conscience rights,” especially in states where “there are few or no pro-life health insurance plans that exclude coverage of abortion.” 
  

Extremist Connections

Extremist Connections

• Guernsey worked for the Family Research Council, a prominent anti-abortion group.
• Guernsey served as the Executive Director of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus, working to “educate U.S. senators on the dignity of Life and protect the unborn through the advance of prolife legislation.”
• Guernsey spoke on a panel, hosted by Harvard Law Students for Life, with the President of the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates.
• Guernsey founded “Voice for Life,” an anti-abortion student group.