So now our taxpayer money will be sent to to other countries so they can pay to abort babies.
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.
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.
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.
Trump had expanded the Mexico City rule to include nearly all federal health funding, but its effects were felt most abroad, where U.S. assistance can be an essential part of a country’s health care spending.
Although supporters of the policy argue that the overall amount of U.S. health care aid was not affected, critics maintain it contributed to a rise in pregnancy-related complications as well other issues by forcing some clinics to reduce broader health services, including for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other infectious diseases, if they wanted to retain funding.
“Funneling U.S. tax dollars to abortion groups overseas is an abhorrent practice that flies in the face of the ‘unity’ Joe Biden and Kamala Harris promised to inspire,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the Susan B. Anthony List, which seeks to elect anti-abortion candidates to Congress and other offices.
Echoing the comments of others, she blasted the Biden administration for once again allowing taxpayer money to fund abortions, maintaining the move was payback for a group of “abortion industry giants” that support the president’s campaign for president.
“Pushing abortion on other nations is not compassion, it is ideological neo-colonization,” said Lila Rose of Live Action, a national anti-abortion group. “This decision is a dark day for our nation — it will lead to more deaths of more children and for that, Joe Biden should be ashamed.”