"TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TO IMPLEMENT NEW 'PROTECTING LIFE IN GLOBAL HEALTH ASSISTANCE' POLICY" - Melanie Israel / May 15, 2017 / http://dailysignal.com/2017/05/15/trump-administration-implement-new-life-affirming-policy-foreign-aid/ [AS I SEE IT: Sadly, the mainstream media continues to focus on the latest "scandal' coming out of Washington, D.C., more than it does actions such as this that continue to demonstrate President Trump's commitment to fulfill his campaign promises. There ignoring this news story may not qualify as "fake" news but it continues to show the media bias against the President. Pro-life Americans should be cheered by this action that goes beyond what even Presidents Regan and Bush did while in office. - Stan]
On Monday, the Trump administration announced the implementation of the “Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance” policy, which helps ensure that American taxpayers do not fund international organizations that perform or promote abortion overseas. This program will expand the life-affirming Mexico City policy, which President Donald Trump reinstated during his first week in office. That policy requires foreign nongovernmental organizations that receive United States Agency for International Development and State Department family planning assistance funds to certify that they will not perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning.
The Mexico City policy was first announced by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. Since then, the policy has been enforced by every Republican president and suspended by every Democratic president shortly after being inaugurated. Trump’s January memorandum indicated that not only would he reinstate the Mexico City policy, he would strengthen it. The memorandum instructed the secretaries of state and health and human services to extend the policy to funds “furnished by all departments or agencies.”
The new Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance policy will do just that and apply to almost $9 billion in Department of State, USAID, and Department of Defense funds. Importantly, the policy does not reduce funding for global health assistance. Rather, it ensures that U.S. dollars are not entangled with the abortion industry and that American taxpayers do not subsidize nongovernmental organizations that do not respect innocent human life.
As previously explained at The Daily Signal, it is longstanding policy for the United States to prohibit funding for abortion in international programs:
"The Helms Amendment, first added to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and included in most annual foreign assistance appropriations since 1980, states that no U.S. taxpayer funds ‘may be used to pay for the performance of abortions as a method of family planning or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions.’ Similarly, the Siljander Amendment, also added to most foreign operations appropriations since 1982, states that no taxpayer funds ‘may be used to lobby for or against abortion.’"
"Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance" will serve as a much-needed, complementary protection to policies like the Helms and Siljander amendments, because it will ensure that U.S. dollars are not entangled with the abortion industry either directly or indirectly. The terms of the policy are simple: In order to be eligible to receive U.S. global health assistance, an organization must agree to not “perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning.”
The expanded Mexico City policy—now known as Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance—demonstrates a commitment to respecting “the dignity of human life from conception to natural, dignified death,” and will ensure that the United States supports global health programming in a manner consistent with fundamental, life-affirming principles.
[bold, italics, underlined, and colored emphasis mine]
Melanie Israel is a research associate for the DeVos Center for Religion & Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation.
"Trump Hits Abortion Abroad Side" - Tony Perkins, Washington Update, May 15, 2017; http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WA17E29&f=WU17E11
"... the administration is multiplying the impact well beyond the Department of State. For the first time ever, the White House isn't just bringing $600 million in taxpayer funding under the authority of the pro-life rule, but $8.8 billion from the Departments of State, Health and Human Services, and Defense. That's almost 15 times more money flowing through the abortion ban than President Bush's policy!.."
"'The pro-life policy will apply to global health assistance funding for international health programs, such as those for HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, malaria, global health security, and family planning and reproductive health.' As most people will tell you, the inclusion of the DOD is probably the single greatest change, since the order affects all global health assistance funding -- not just "family planning" dollars. Talk about making an immediate impact! There's no telling how many thousands of unborn lives this policy will save simply because Donald Trump dared to step out and do what 83 percent of Americans wanted: end taxpayer funding of overseas abortion groups."
"As a Marist poll pointed out in January, Americans overwhelmingly support Trump's move to slash tax dollars for abortion groups -- even more so abroad (83 percent). In four short months, the new administration has systematically fulfilled a number of key campaign promises. The Mexico City Policy's implementation should reassure everyone who's questioned the merits of the president's recent executive order on religious liberty. If conservatives doubt this president's sincerity on the issue, they shouldn't. At the very least, he deserves the chance to implement the order before people judge how effective it is. All he's done these first 120 days is prove the critics wrong. I'm confident his religious freedom protections will be no different."
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