A boon for babies overseas

The Trump administration took steps last week to close loopholes in foreign policy that have allowed taxpayer money to flow indirectly to groups that support abortion. The so-called Mexico City policy, now known as the Global Protect Life policy, will stop U.S. foreign aid from going to nongovernmental organizations that give financial support to other groups in the global abortion industry.

Connor Semelsberger, a legislative assistant for the Family Research Council, told me he was excited about the announcement, made Tuesday by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “I think this is his way to say, we’re going to be a pro-life administration from top to bottom,” Semelsberger said.

The Mexico City policy, first enacted in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan, states that nongovernmental organizations that receive funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) may not perform or promote abortion as a method of family planning. After President Barack Obama rescinded the rule, President Donald Trump reinstated it in 2017 and expanded it months later to include all nongovernmental organizations rather than just family planning groups. (President Bill Clinton similarly struck down the policy set by Reagan, which President George W. Bush later brought back during his administration.)

“We will enforce a strict prohibition on backdoor funding schemes and end runs around our policy,” Pompeo said.

Stefano Gennarini, director of legal studies at the Center for Family and Human Rights, told me it’s hard to know how many groups the change will affect. “Once funding goes to these sub-awardees, nobody knows what happens to the money,” he said. Most funding recipients have signed an agreement with the United States not to perform or promote abortion as a method of family planning, but they could easily funnel money to outside abortion groups. “I’m not sure that even the State Department knows exactly how many are [funding abortion],” Gennarini said.

Pro-abortion groups like Marie Stopes International and International Planned Parenthood Federation haven’t signed the agreement.

Pompeo also announced that the White House will enforce the 1981 Siljander Amendment, a federal law that prohibits using USAID funds to lobby for or against abortions. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a body of the Organization of American States (OAS), has been lobbying for abortions, he said, and the United States will reduce its OAS contributions by $210,000, the likely equivalent of expenditures on abortion lobbying.

“The institutions of the OAS should be focused on addressing crises in Cuba, in Nicaragua, and in Venezuela, not advancing the pro-abortion cause,” Pompeo said.

Abortion groups and some news outlets have dubbed the Mexico City Policy a “global gag rule,” but Pompeo called that notion silly, saying, “This is a policy designed to protect human beings.”

Gennarini called the move “a warning shot to the United Nations,” which actively champions abortion around the world.

Semelsberger pointed out that total U.S. funding for global health hasn’t changed.

“Not a single dollar is cut from foreign affairs for global health,” Semelsberger said. “It’s just that they ensure that all organizations that are going to be funded by our government are going to abide by these rules, and that actually leaves [resources] for even better comprehensive healthcare across the globe.”

A patient receives an ultrasound at an Obria Group clinic. Facebook/Obria Group

Healthcare wishes granted

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the recipients of Title X family planning grants for fiscal year 2019, which go into effect Monday. In February, the Trump administration announced it would fund only family planning facilities that did not share physical space with abortion centers.

Eight Planned Parenthood facilities received a total of $16.12 million of the $255.8 million in the most recent round of grants, but four of the abortion giant’s facilities that previously received Title X money did not. Not all Planned Parenthood facilities offer abortions.

One pro-life organization, the Obria Group, received a $1.7 million grant, which it will distribute to affiliate pregnancy centers in California. And it expects to receive $5.1 million in Title X funds over the next three years. Obria Group President Kathleen Eaton Bravo said in a statement that this year’s grant “opened up a new avenue of healthcare choices for low-income and underserved women and their families in California.” She added, “Many women want the opportunity to visit a professional, comprehensive healthcare facility—not an abortion clinic—for their healthcare needs; today HHS gave women that choice.”

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America and a member of the national advisory board of Obria Group, said in a statement that the reallocation of funds is a “win for taxpayers,” adding, “Life-affirming programs and medical centers deserve our support. Redirecting scarce resources to locations that care about women—born and preborn—is a win and overdue.” —S.G.

A patient receives an ultrasound at an Obria Group clinic. Facebook/Obria Group

Across the nation

Alabama: Republican state Rep. Terri Collins announced last week that she plans to introduce a bill that would make it a felony to perform an abortion at any point during pregnancy. Collins said she hopes a legal challenge to the law would go to the U.S. Supreme Court and potentially lead to the overturning of the high court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

Indiana: The Whole Woman’s Health Alliance, an abortion provider, requested emergency relief from the state’s abortion facility licensing laws after a health department administrative panel rejected its application. The Texas-based nonprofit group wants to open an abortion facility in South Bend.

Utah: Gov. Gary Herber, a Republican, signed a bill on March 25 that will protect the unborn from abortion after 18 weeks of gestation. Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union said they will file suit against the law.

North Carolina: A federal judge ruled on March 25 that a North Carolina law protecting the unborn from abortion after 20 weeks of gestation is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge William Osteen gave the legislature 60 days to change the law or appeal.

Georgia: Lawmakers sent a measure to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk on Friday that would safeguard babies who have a detectable heartbeat from abortion. Kemp, a Republican, is likely to sign it.

Maryland: By a single vote, state lawmakers killed a bill that would have allowed assisted suicide for terminally ill patients ages 18 and older. —S.G.

A patient receives an ultrasound at an Obria Group clinic. Facebook/Obria Group

Sending the wrong message

Pro-life advocates in Michigan are decrying a Sanilac County Health Department billboard that juxtaposed two young women and included the slogan, “You Can Choose … this or this … Take Control of Your Future.” One woman, burying her face in her hands, was pregnant. The other, arms crossed and wearing a graduation cap and gown, had a triumphant smile.

Protect Life Michigan posted a photo of the billboard on Facebook with the caption, “Is it just us, or does it seem like they’re telling women that we have to choose between being mothers or being successful?! Watch us do BOTH!”

People flooded the county health department with phone calls and negative reviews on its Facebook page.

“The billboard you have up is completely disgusting!” reviewer Amber Bell wrote. “A woman is completely capable of keeping a pregnancy AND becoming a career woman if she chooses. You are trying to convince women that they aren’t good enough.”

The Sanilac County Health Department later posted an apology on its Facebook page. “We now realize, and apologize, that our original intent for the billboard was not correctly portrayed by its content,” it wrote. “We believe in strengthening the health and wellness of all our community members; women, children, and men, and this billboard did not accurately portray that.” —S.G.