Planned Parenthood seeks 82 percent increase in African abortions

by Joel McDurmon on Jan 18, 2012

A report from CNSNnews.com helps remind us of the dangers of foreign aid in relation to abortion:

In its strategic plan for Africa for the years 2010-215, the International Planned Parenthood Federation has set an organizational goal of increasing its ”abortion services” in that part of the world by 82 percent.

The number is in Figure 2, the “performance framework” of the plan (page 7), under “performance milestones/benchmarks” and notes its expectation of an “82 percent increase in abortion services: 212,021 services by 2013, and 273,656 by 2015.”

Programs like these may actually be funded indirectly by American foreign aid because funds are “fungible.” This is why it is important to stipulate explicitly that no such funds (which shouldn’t be provided by government anyway) can be used for population control, birth control, abortions, or abortion procedures.

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan signed an executive order that put the “Mexico City Policy” into place. This policy prohibited taxpayer funds to be provided to non-governmental organizations around the globe that promote or provide abortion.

Each Democratic president has reversed the policy – Carter, Clinton and Obama – and both Bushes reinstated it.

Even this policy is not airtight. The legal loopholes and back doors employed to maintain a pro-life facade while indirectly helping abortionists like International Planned Parenthood can be very difficult to overcome. During the Clinton administration, Ron Paul introduced an amendment to a Foreign Operations Spending bill. Paul’s amendment that would have stopped all use of funds for population control, birth control, abortions, or abortion procedures. Watch the debate on the House floor as allegedly pro-life Republicans tag-team with far-left Nancy Pelosi and others to squash Paul’s amendment.

That allegedly conservative “gentleman” from Alabama could go home and “legally” tell his constituency he never supported or provided funding for abortion. And yet, the bill he passed included fungible funds that could indirectly open up other funds for abortions through the back door.
This is one of the great dangers of foreign aid in general. The stipulation should be—if foreign aid must be given at all—that any government using any of its funds to fund abortion-related organizations or practices, or funding otherwise immoral NGOs, automatically forfeits all foreign aid coming from the U.S.