Congress to investigate Biden’s abortion blackmail of African country

By | December 19, 2024

Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ)

NEW YORK, December 20 (C-Fam) Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) accused the Biden administration of threatening to withhold aid to Sierra Leone, unless the West African country’s parliament adopted a bill that legalizes abortion throughout nine months.

“The Biden Administration’s pro-abortion bullying tactics and raw attempt at ideological colonialism is unacceptable. Abortion always ends the life of the unborn baby and harms the mother,” said Smith in a press statement released Monday.

“Pro-life countries should be celebrated and respected for protecting unborn children and their mothers—not penalized by a pro-abortion lame duck Biden Administration,” Smith’s statement continued.

Smith, chairman of the U.S House subcommittee for Global Health and Global Human Rights said, “Let me be clear, abortion is not health care, nor is it an internationally recognized human right.”

The “Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health” bill was introduced in the Sierra Leone Parliament this week after years of collaboration between the Sierra Leone government and abortion advocates including Marie Stopes Sierra Leone and European governments that back the global abortion giant.

In a statement of support for the bill earlier this year Marie Stopes Sierra Leone said they and other civil society organizations worked with the Minister of Health and women parliamentarians “towards the drafting and passage of this critical legislation.”

Though marketed as a “Safe Motherhood” bill, Marie Stopes’ statement said the most significant aspect of the bill is “the expansion of access to abortion, addressing the current restrictive environment in the country.” It also points out the loophole to permit abortion throughout nine months. “The bill would allow abortion in cases of rape, fetal abnormality, and for the overall well-being of women, encompassing both physical and mental health considerations,” the statement reads.

Sexual rights advocates have been pushing for the legalization of abortion in Sierra Leone since 2015 when a “Safe Abortion” bill was introduced and passed by the Parliament. President Julius Maada Bio did not sign the legislation due to a public outcry. Abortion advocates changed directions deciding to re-package the bill to “Safe Motherhood” in response to the country’s high maternal mortality, yet the bill includes a lengthy section on “Termination of Pregnancy”, including for minors.

African countries find themselves under increased pressure to change their pro-life laws through direct pressure from Western countries and through interference by Western-funded advocacy groups.

For example, the U.S. registered African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) active in Sierra Leone was the recipient of $41M in 2023. Donors include Western countries and foundations such as Gates, Rockefeller, Packard, MacArthur and Hewlett. In 2020 APHRC targeted seven pro-life African countries announcing a 4-year initiative to study “unsafe abortion.”  APHRC trained “safe abortion advocates” to lobby Sierra Leone’s parliament and issued a policy brief in support of the new bill asking that the bill be “fast-tracked.”

Congressman Smith said he intends to work with the Trump Administration “to conduct a thorough review of actions by all U.S. agencies” … “to determine whether U.S. laws were violated by U.S. government staff through misallocation—or threat of misallocation—of U.S. funding in order to pressure countries to change their pro-life laws.”

“Forcing a pro-abortion and woke agenda on financially vulnerable and democratic sovereign nations harms both the U.S. and our allies and is bad diplomacy. It must end,” the Smith statement concludes.

The Sierra Leone Parliament is holding hearings on the bill this week.

 

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