Senate GOP Reintroduces Bill to Restrict Foreign Aid to Abortion
The Senate GOP on Tuesday re-introduced a bill that would permanently enact and expand existing prohibitions on the use of U.S. foreign assistance to pay for the performance or promotion of abortion services overseas.
Dubbed the “American Values Act,” the bill would amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to prohibit the use of federal funds appropriated to carry out the law for abortions and involuntary sterilizations abroad. The Foreign Assistance Act is a law governing foreign aid policy.
Foreign assistance money may not be made available to “pay for the performance of abortions as a method of family planning or to motivate or coerce any persons to practice abortions,” according to the text of the American Values Act provided to National Review.
Sending foreign aid to support biomedical research which relates in whole or in part to methods or performance of abortions or involuntary sterilization as a means of family planning would also be outlawed. Funds also must not be funneled to any organization which “participates in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization” or the practice of lobbying for or against abortion.
Republican senator and Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations committee James Risch spearheaded the bill alongside GOP Senators Cruz, Rubio, Young, Hagerty, Johnson, and Barrasso.
“U.S. foreign assistance should never be used to perform or promote abortion services. Unfortunately, pro-abortion groups continuously work to exploit loopholes and even overturn long-standing pro-life provisions of law that have provided a solid foundation for values-based U.S. foreign assistance,” Risch said. “I’m proud to reintroduce the American Values Act to eliminate any ambiguity about how foreign assistance provisions are meant to be applied.”
The bill was first introduced in February 2021, before the coalition of GOP senators reintroduced it Tuesday. It aims to clarify that existing prohibitions on the use of U.S. foreign assistance to pay for the performance or promotion of abortions and applies to all assistance under the Foreign Assistance Act.
The legislation also amends the Peace Corps Act to specify that no funds allocated to the independent government-sponsored agency, which trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance, can be used to pay for abortions.
