Senate Foreign Operations Bill Attacks Pro-Life Policies, Could Fund Chinese Population Control

By Lisa Correnti | October 21, 2021

Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee Patrick Leahy releases appropriation bills

WASHINGTON DC, October 22 (C-FAM) Democrats released the annual foreign operation funding bill on Monday night. The bill guts federal pro-life policies and opens new funding streams for global abortion groups and the problematic UN population control agency.

Abortion giant International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) was quick to praise Senate Democrats for the permanent legislative repeal of the Mexico City Policy that forbids American taxpayer money from funding or promoting abortions overseas. It is called the “Global Gag Rule” by abortion advocates.

IPPF tweeted, “Today @SenateApprops released a FY 2022 bill that includes funding & policy provisions that would advance sexual & reproductive health & rights by ending the #GlobalGagRule once and for all! #SRHRforall.”

The Mexico City Policy is something of a political football, instituted early in Republican administrations and cancelled in Democratic presidencies. President Trump expanded the policy to all global health funding to combat abortion groups growing influence in U.S. international programs. President Biden repealed Trump’s version of the policy during his first week in office.

A legislative repeal of the Mexico City Policy, as the one proposed in the 2022 State and Foreign Operations Bill, would prevent future Republican presidents from instituting the policy without a Congressional mandate.

The Senate bill doubles the funding for the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) to $55M and removes reporting requirements for the agency’s programs in China. UNFPA would no longer be required to forfeit U.S. funding equal to the amount it spends on family planning programs in China.

The UN agency has been under Congressional scrutiny for its complicity in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) population control programs and was recently under fire because of coercive population control programs that target Uyghur women.

Democrat appropriators also want to make it more difficult for future Republican administrations to withhold funding from UNFPA for partnering with governments that engage in coercive family planning. The bill requires “direct” involvement of the agency in these programs to trigger the Kemp/Kasten rule, which requires the President to withhold funds from the agency in such cases. Until now, UNFPA’s partnership with the Chinese government’s family planning programs was deemed sufficient to trigger the rule.

Human rights advocates are concerned by this weakening of protections for women against population control. “According to credible reports, the CCP commits forced abortion, sterilization, and even infanticide as part of their genocidal campaign against the Uyghurs,” Reggie Littlejohn told the Friday Fax. The founder and president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers called for an “unbiased investigation” into UNFPA’s activities in China.

“To the extent that the global community is funding the UNFPA without such an investigation, the blood of Chinese and Uyghur women is on our hands.”

The Senate Foreign Operations Bill retains the Helms amendment. But the Biden administration may still try to reinterpret the law which prevents U.S. taxpayer funds from being used for overseas abortion. The Biden administration expressed support in March for the repeal and/or reinterpretation of the Helms Amendment.

The Senate bill may also open the door to purchase manual vacuum aspirators and other equipment used to perform abortion currently prohibited under U.S. law by permitting contraceptive purchases through the HIV/AIDS Working Capital Fund. While the Helms amendment would govern U.S. funds, it would not limit funds deposited by other governments or organizations, and money is fungible.

The fate of the appropriation bills will be determined in December when government funding expires though most will not advance due to the pro-life attacks.

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