Trump Administration Expands Efforts to Stop Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Overseas

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 15, 2017
Contact: Mallory Quigley | [email protected] | 703-380-6674

Votes have International Consequences: “Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance” Ensures Aid Partners Act Consistently to Save Lives, Not Promote & Perform Abortion

Washington, D.C. – At the start of his presidency, President Donald Trump issued an Executive Memorandum to reinstate the Mexico City Policy which stops U.S. taxpayer funding of the abortion industry overseas. Today the administration implemented the Executive Memorandum to modernize the policy, renamed Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance.

“Votes in America have international consequences. The Executive Memorandum implemented today is one of the reasons pro-life voters worked to elect Donald Trump to the White House. With the implementation of Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance, we have officially ceased exporting abortion to foreign nations. No longer will we undermine the pro-life laws and cultural commitments of other countries by funding organizations like Marie Stopes International that obsessively promote and perform abortion,” said Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “By modernizing this important policy and expanding it to include $8.8 billion in foreign aid, President Trump is continuing Ronald Reagan’s pro-life legacy. This executive order does not cut a single penny from U.S. aid, rather it simply ensures our hard-earned tax dollars are used by other health care entities that act consistently to save lives, rather than promoting and performing abortion. Abortion is not health care.”

The administration modernized the policy to cover all foreign health assistance provided by government agencies including the State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development, the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, and the Department of Defense. Previously the policy only covered family planning funds.

President Trump has made four specific commitments to the pro-life movement, including reallocating Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding to comprehensive, whole-woman health care centers.

Background on Marie Stopes International: Under the Obama administration the radical international promoter of abortion, Marie Stopes International, received taxpayer funding for HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health and family planning.  Marie Stopes says abortion is at the core of their mission and hopes to double their abortion-related services by 2020.  Their staff has been caught on tape boasting of doing illegal abortions around the world, and their United Kingdom branch was recently forced to temporarily suspend abortion services for children and vulnerable populations due to serious safety concerns.  Marie Stopes is also actively involved in trying to overturn pro-life laws overseas.  

Susan B. Anthony List and its partner super PAC, Women Speak Out spent more than $18 million in the 2016 election cycle, knocking on more than 1.1 million doors in battleground states to defeat Hillary Clinton and maintain a pro-life Senate. SBA List is dedicated to pursuing policies and electing candidates who will reduce and ultimately end abortion. To that end, the SBA List emphasizes the education, promotion, mobilization, and election of pro-life women.  The SBA List is a network of more than 465,000 pro-life Americans nationwide.

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