FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 28, 2021
Contact: Prudence Robertson, [email protected]
Funding Abortion on Demand Overseas With Tax Dollars Is Deeply Unpopular & Fuels Human Rights Abuses
Washington, D.C. – Today the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPS) will meet to mark up a draft spending bill that forces U.S. taxpayers to fund abortions internationally and funnel money to the abortion industry overseas. The latest in a series of spending bills to be considered in the coming weeks, it follows a Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee bill last week that also dramatically expands domestic taxpayer funding of abortion.
Last month, President Biden released a budget that gutted the decades-old, bipartisan Hyde Amendment and would force taxpayers to fund abortion on demand through birth. Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), backed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has pledged to eliminate Hyde from this year’s budget.
The national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) blasted House Democrats’ budget in a statement:
“Emboldened by the White House, pro-abortion Democrats in Congress will stop at nothing to expand abortion on demand, paid for by taxpayers, at home and abroad,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “For more than four decades, the Hyde family of pro-life policies has protected unborn children and their mothers and helped keep taxpayers out of the abortion business, with the original Hyde Amendment credited with saving nearly 2.5 million lives. Biden-Pelosi Democrats’ push to make the U.S. the world’s top exporter of abortion is deeply unpopular among Americans, offensive to pro-life nations, and enables human rights atrocities under authoritarian regimes like China’s.
“Susan B. Anthony List proudly stands with pro-life House leadership, the Pro-Life Caucus, and all our congressional allies in fighting every spending bill that weakens crucial pro-life protections.”
Anti-life provisions in the SFOPS bill include:
- Eliminates the Helms Amendment, which stops international aid from funding abortion on demand as a method of “family planning,” from global health programs.
- Guts the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, which states that no U.S. funds may be made available to any organization that supports or participates in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization, as determined by the president.
- More than doubles funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). UNFPA has a long history of support for China’s coercive population control activities.
- Funds abortion on demand in the Peace Corps.
Last week SBA List launched a six-figure digital ad campaign targeting two vulnerable U.S. senators and six U.S. House members in competitive districts. The ad exposes congressional Democrats’ efforts to force taxpayers to fund abortion on demand. Additionally, the group strongly supports efforts to immediately consider H.R. 18, which would make the Hyde Amendment permanent government-wide.
Recent polling shows 77% of Americans oppose using taxpayer dollars to promote abortion overseas, and 58% oppose using taxpayer money to fund abortions in the United States.
In May 2021, more than 60 pro-life leaders sent a letter to congressional leadership urging them to fight for the Hyde Amendment and other similar longstanding pro-life riders during the appropriations process. Learn more at sbaprolife.org/hyde.
SBA List is a network of 900,000 pro-life Americans nationwide, dedicated to ending abortion by electing national leaders and advocating for laws that save lives, with a special calling to promote pro-life women leaders.
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