President Trump’s Decision to Defund International Planned Parenthood Cost It $100 Million

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Jun 6, 2018   |   12:48PM   |   Washington, DC

Planned Parenthood has about $100 million fewer tax dollars to abort unborn babies across the world, thanks to the Trump administration.

The funding cut to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) is the result of the Mexico City Policy, which President Donald Trump signed during his first week in office. The policy prohibits taxpayer funding to international groups that promote and/or provide abortions overseas.

IPPF told ABC News it is losing an estimated $100 million in U.S. funding as a result.

Abortion activists claim the policy is hurting women across the globe. A new report by the Center for Health and Gender Equality (C.H.A.N.G.E.) asserts that the policy has devastated impoverished communities, especially in Africa, that need health care, according to ABC.

Here’s more from the report:

Many organizations have cut those funding ties with the U.S. because of the policy, some out of solidarity or principle. But many are forced to because their work inherently involves reproductive health care and they at least present female patients information about abortion. That includes groups that counsel women on gender-based violence — or focus on HIV/AIDS treatment.

“I think that really creates a fear that HIV rates will go up because there’s no longer this availability of funding,” a representative for WaterAid told CHANGE.

But the report is misleading on several points. Despite what abortion activists claim, the Trump policy does not prohibit international aid groups from mentioning abortion, it only prohibits them from advocating for it.

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The major news outlet also failed to mention that pro-abortion groups believe the killing of unborn babies is health care. ABC cited statistics about HIV treatments and other health care, but it did not mention any of the groups’ numbers related to abortion or abortion advocacy. The 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.