Contact: Timothy Svoboda, (202) 225-2476

(Washington, D.C.) – Congressman Glenn Grothman (R-Glenbeulah) made the below statement about the Democrat-controlled House’s decision to overturn Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance (PLGHA), which in turn would allow U.S. tax dollars to fund abortions in other countries.

In 2017, President Trump reinstated a policy to stop all U.S. foreign aid from going to organizations that perform abortions. President Trump named it PLGHA, and it is based on a Reagan-era policy called the Mexico City Policy, which was upheld under the Bush 41 administration and reinstated by the Bush 43 administration. In effect, most organizations still take aid from the United States, they have just agreed to stop performing abortions. Two major international organizations that refused to stop providing abortions and are no longer receiving U.S. aid are the International Planned Parenthood Federation and Marie Stopes International.

H.R. 21 is a consolidated spending bill that aggregates six of the 12 yearly spending bills that Congress must pass to fund the government. The bill would provide full-year FY 2019 appropriations for agencies and departments that are annually funded under the following appropriations measures:

  1. Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies
  2. Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
  3. Financial Services and General Government
  4. Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
  5. State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
  6. Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies

Funding lapsed for such departments and agencies and the Department of Homeland Security at the end of December 21, 2018. It is expected that the House will consider funding for the Department of Homeland under a separate continuing resolution lasting through February 8, 2019.

House Democrats have shown what their priorities are in the new Congress by sliding a provision to overturn PLGHA and allow U.S. tax dollars to fund abortions in other countries into H.R. 21. H.R. 21 passed the House with 100 percent Democratic support. The funding bill that passed the House on December 20, 2018, which contained border security funding and kept PLGHA in place, received no Democratic support.

“Democrats opened the new Congress by, on day 1, surreptitiously inserting a provision into H.R. 21 that will overturn PLGHA and allow the billions of dollars of aid we send to other countries to be used for abortions.” Said Grothman. “I wholeheartedly believe that life begins at conception and that abortion is a barbaric practice. The fact that one of the first bills the Democrats passed in this new Congress will be used to not only increase the number of abortions worldwide, but use U.S. taxpayer dollars to do it, is a disgrace.”

Further reading

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/nancy-pelosi-says-no-to-the-wall-but-yes-to-overseas-abortion-funding

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/21

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