Kerry Disappoints Congresswoman — Humanitarian Abortion Not Needed

By Lisa Correnti | February 26, 2015

 

Never mind increasing violence in many regions around the globe and growing humanitarian challenges—Congresswoman Wasserman-Schultz went on record to make taxpayer funded abortion overseas a pressing foreign policy issue!

This week at a hearing in the House Appropriations subcommittee, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz baited Secretary of State John Kerry on a policy change that would use taxpayer money to fund overseas abortions for poor women in developing countries.

Global abortion groups have been lobbying President Obama to rollback the Helms amendment, which precludes US overseas assistance from covering abortion. Abortion advocates say Helms is not meant to be a complete ban and that funding should cover rape and health exceptions.

Kerry was on the hill to testify at a hearing to defend the president’s State Department budget request for 2016.

Wasserman-Schultz questioned Kerry on what was being done to correct the so-called misapplication of Helms.

Kerry resisted, replying that they evaluate programs in every country where the US offers programs and that he had no knowledge of any reported complaints or that anything was lacking.

Schultz tried again –but the misinterpretation of Helms, she said, has created a total ban on overseas abortion–precisely the intention of  the Helms amendment, Ms. Schultz. This 42 year old law was enacted for this very reason — to prevent abortion advocates from pushing abortion on countries where it was outlawed through development aid.

Wasserman-Schultz knows that much headway has been made to liberalize abortion funding by Congress by using the subject of rape. With over $11 billion flowing from western governments, foundations and other multilateral funding sectors for “population assistance” — the US does not need to fund abortion through humanitarian assistance.

It’s unfortunate that Schultz thinks abortion is the solution that women most want. This shortsighted approach shared by abortion proponents is largely responsible for stalled progress on maternal mortality in developing countries as funding is redirected to overseas abortion groups for family planning programs.

Sec. Kerry did say he would look into the matter.

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Tagged with: • • • • • • •