Monica Kerrigan made it a point to slam President Donald Trump’s pro-life policies in what appears to be her first interview as the new director of Planned Parenthood Global.
Though Kerrigan mentioned important health issues that women face across the globe, she primarily attacked the Trump administration in her interview with Devex. The interview serves as more evidence that Planned Parenthood’s focus is primarily on politics and abortion, not women’s health.
The abortion chain announced Kerrigan’s new role Wednesday, according to the report. Kerrigan is described as a family planning and reproductive health expert who has worked in countries across the globe. Her last job was the vice president for technical leadership and innovation at Jhpiego, a nonprofit that promotes family planning in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.
She told Devex that one of her main goals will be to fight the Trump administration.
“We have daily assaults on global sexual reproductive health and rights. I think it’s important for Planned Parenthood Global, as we look forward to the future, to really stand up to this administration, and to be the critical voice of dissent,” Kerrigan said.
She criticized Trump for reinstating the Mexico City policy, which prohibits taxpayer funding to international groups that promote and/or provide abortions overseas. The policy defunded Planned Parenthood of approximately $100 million and the British-based abortion chain Marie Stopes International of about $73 million.
“More women are having unintended pregnancies and more women are [contracting] HIV because of the bad policies of this administration,” Kerrigan said, without providing any evidence to back up the assertion.
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The real blame falls on Planned Parenthood’s bad decisions, though. It easily could be receiving those funds to fight STDs, provide birth control, prevent maternal mortality and serve other health care needs if it just stops killing unborn babies in abortions. Its refusal to do so indicates that Planned Parenthood is more committed to abortions than actual women’s health.
Hundreds of other groups continue to receive international aid from the U.S. to provide critical services to people in need. The truth is the Mexico City policy only hurt the abortion industry. It affected just four groups out of more than 700 that receive international aid, according to a report by the U.S. Department of State.
Kerrigan told Devex that her motivation comes from the horrific things she witnessed in Africa while working in the Peace Corps in 1979.
“It’s where I saw firsthand the struggle of women and girls that were forced into early marriage, no access to contraceptives and frequent childbearing,” she said. “Many of my friends died during childbirth, and also put their life in their hands with unsafe abortions. That experience changed my life.”
Kerrigan and Planned Parenthood Global easily could be providing important medical care to women and children in third world countries. Instead, they choose to push abortions, which are not health care and which many women only turn to as a last resort because they did not receive the support that they and their babies deserve.
The Trump administration set priorities straight when it enacted the Mexico City policy. The measure ensures that American tax dollars are supporting the whole family, not paying for the destruction of its most vulnerable members.
