Trump’s Parting Gift to Poor Women Overseas Thwarted by Abortion Extremism 

By and Stefano Gennarini, J.D. | January 1, 2021

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 1 (C-Fam) Vulnerable women around the world came close to being permanent beneficiaries of a Trump administration initiative on economic empowerment, but the bill was pulled when Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to accept abortion neutral language. 

Congressional leaders were near agreement on the State Department authorization bill which has not happened in over 17 years due to political gridlock. The bill included Ivanka Trump’s Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) initiative and was attached to the annual Defense bill. However, Democrats refused to agree to W-GDP as implemented by the Trump administration without language that could allow a future Democratic president to insert abortion. The impasse caused Republican leadership to pull the State Department authorization, aware that codification of W-GDP was a White House priority.

Senior advisor to the president Ivanka Trump has largely focused on global women’s issues while in Washington.  She worked in a bipartisan manner, including ushering two pieces of legislation through Congress: the Women, Peace, and Security Act and a women’s economic empowerment bill known as the WEEE Act. Ivanka worked with Senator Shaheen on a third bill that would codify her W-GDP initiative though it too stalled when Shaheen would not agree to an abortion-neutral bill.

Both the W-GDP bill and the codification of the initiative in the Authorization bill would have established a global ambassador for women at the State Department with power and resources to promote women’s empowerment globally. But Ivanka’s law would have also explicitly prohibited such an ambassador from promoting abortion or making abortion a requirement of any international aid program. 

Here lies the problem: with a Democratic administration coming into power, pro-abortion lawmakers and their constituents expect abortion policy to be once again included in U.S. humanitarian assistance. While existing law—the Helms Amendment—prohibits U.S. funds from directly providing abortions, funds have been channeled to international abortion groups ostensibly for other things, like responding to gender-based violence. In the Obama administration, this occurred through the global women’s issues office. Under a Biden administration this same office could have jurisdiction over W-GDP, prompting the need for legislative guardrails to keep the funding from being rerouted for abortion.

W-GDP policy was instituted in early 2019 by presidential executive order. It initially directed $50 million to enhance women’s full participation in the workforce through job training, access to credit and markets, and eliminating legal and cultural barriers that restrict women from working in certain areas. In its first year the White House reports reaching 12 million women worldwide.

Without legislative codification in the State Dept authorization bill or in a stand-alone bill, the future of the W-GDP initiative depends on Congress annually appropriating funding for it. Recognizing the merits of the W-GDP Initiative, Congress increased the budget to $200 million through the fiscal year 2021 State Department spending bill that passed in early December. Without a legislative mandate, the direction of its programs will be guided by the executive branch.

However, for now, the 2021 W-GDP funding will be prohibited from being directly used for abortion due to the appropriations bill containing the Helms amendment. Should Democrats successfully repeal this pro-life law—which they have listed as a priority—any future funding directed to global women’s issues could be circumvented and used for abortion.

Since its inception, the W-GDP initiative has made a significant impact in the lives of women around the world, providing both financial resources and mentoring and training to foster employment and entrepreneurship. The U.S. Agency for International Development launched a digital connect program for women that has awarded three rounds of funding. The State Department’s 2X Women’s Initiative mobilized G7 countries’ development finance institutions, creating $3 billion for women in the developing world. The State Department has also launched the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs that engaged more than 2,000 women in 26 countries in its inaugural year expanding it to 55 countries and more than 5,000 women entrepreneurs in 2020.

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