Republicans today defeated an attempt by pro-abortion Democrats to restore funding to the International Planned Parenthood abortion business.
Last year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order defunding the International Planned Parenthood abortion business and preventing it and other organizations from promoting or performing abortions in other countries with taxpayer funds. He reinstated the Mexico City policy that has been in place under previous pro-life presidents and was retracted during the administration of proportion President Barack Obama.
A leading pro-abortion member of Congress attempted to restore the funding during a committee markup of a house bill today but was turned back by pro-life Republicans.
Today the House Appropriations Committee approved the FY19 State and Foreign Operations (SFOPs) Appropriations bill. The bill included language again implementing President Trumps’ executive order to defund International Planned Parenthood and other abortion organizations. The language requires foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to agree, as a condition of their receipt of global health assistance grant money, not to perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning.
But pro-abortion Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) offered an amendment to remove the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance (PLGHA) (formerly the Mexico City Policy) from the base bill and prohibit it from being implemented. In response, Chairman Rogers noted that the six-month review released by the State Department showed that, so far, 99.5% of prime partners have accepted the terms of the funding and will not perform or promote abortions overseas.
The Lowey Amendment was defeated 30-22 along party lines, with all Republicans voting pro-life to continue defunding International Planned Parenthood and all Democrats voting to restore funding to the abortion company.
Planned Parenthood has about $100 million fewer tax dollars to abort unborn babies across the world, thanks to the Trump policy.
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he International Planned Parenthood Federation performed more than 1 million abortions in 2016, an increase of 13.5 percent over 2015, and received more than $27 million in U.S. government grants in 2015-2016 under pro-abortion President Barack Obama.
The new Trump administration policy did not cut any international funding either, meaning more funds are available to groups that provide true medical care to struggling communities across the globe.
The truth is the Mexico City policy only hurt the abortion industry. It has affected just four groups out of more than 700 that receive international aid, according to a report by the U.S. Department of State. IPPF and Marie Stopes International, a British-based abortion chain, are two of the four that refused to comply.
In May, Reuters reported IPPF shut down 22 programs in sub-Saharan Africa as a result of the policy, and several more are slated to close this summer. Marie Stopes International also shut down several of its programs in Africa this year.
The two pro-abortion groups received millions of American tax dollars under Obama to push abortions in Africa. Most African countries prohibit the killing of unborn babies in abortions.
Marie Stopes has been accused of doing hundreds of illegal, unsafe abortions in Africa. And late last year, parents and community leaders in Kitui, Kenya were outraged after learning that Marie Stopes workers allegedly came into their children’s school and implanted long-lasting contraceptive devices into girls as young as 14 without their parents’ knowledge or consent.
The Mexico City Policy was in place during the entirety of the Bush administration, but President Barack Obama rescinded it during his first week in office. Named for a 1984 population conference where President Ronald Reagan initially announced it, the policy made it so family planning funds could only go to groups that would agree to not do abortions or lobby foreign nations to overturn their pro-life laws.
