President Donald Trump stopped funding the abortion industry, not health care, when he reinstated the Mexico City policy during his first week in office.
A new report from the U.S. Department of State and other agencies confirmed this Tuesday after an investigation of the policy, which Trump expanded and named the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance policy, the Washington Times reports.
The pro-life policy prohibits international aid funds from going to groups that promote or provide abortions. The move defunded two major abortion chains of hundreds of millions of American tax dollars. The International Planned Parenthood Federation was defunded by approximately $100 million and the British abortion chain Marie Stopes International was defunded by about $73 million.
The Mexico City policy, which began with President Ronald Reagan, historically has been supported by pro-life presidents and rescinded by pro-abortion presidents. Trump went further, though. He not only reinstated the policy but also expanded it by increasing the number of global health assistance funds and government programs that it covers.
Pro-abortion groups have attacked Trump repeatedly for allegedly cutting off access to women’s health care through the policy, but the new report indicates otherwise.
“There has been a minimal disruption in health care,” a Trump administration official told reporters. “Principled pro-life policies can exist hand and hand with … quality health care.”
According to the report, the “vast majority” of global non-governmental organizations agreed to comply with the policy, and it has not significantly disrupted health care services for women.
According to the Catholic News Agency, “in most of the other cases where partners refused to abide by the policy, an alternative health provider was found or foreign governments or donors stepped up to fill health care gaps.”
Just eight of the 1,340 groups that received U.S. aid money under the Obama administration refused to comply with Trump’s new pro-life policy, according to the report. An additional 47 sub-awardees also refused to comply, the report found.
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As a result, “USAID found that, in a few cases, a declination resulted in some impact on the delivery of health care, including for HIV/AIDS, voluntary family planning/reproductive health, tuberculosis, and nutrition programming,” the report states.
Planned Parenthood Global used that language to slam the Trump administration, claiming it proves that his rule “disrupted health care access in countries across the world.”
“The disruptions affect more than family planning. HIV/AIDS, maternal health, tuberculosis, and nutrition programs have all been impacted. And the #globalgagrule hits communities who already face the greatest barriers to care the hardest,” the pro-abortion group wrote on Twitter.
However, the few, limited disruptions were due to Planned Parenthood’s own decision to refuse to comply with the policy. In doing so, it placed the killing of unborn babies in abortions at a higher priority than real, life-saving health care for impoverished women and families.
The truth is the pro-life policy only hurt the abortion industry. In 2018, Reuters reported IPPF shut down 22 programs in sub-Saharan Africa as a result of the policy, and several more were slated to close. Marie Stopes International also shut down several of its programs in Africa as a result of the policy.
The two pro-abortion groups received millions of American tax dollars under President Barack 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. In 2017, 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.
