A bill was set for a vote on PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), a program that financially assists third world countries, mainly in Africa, battle the HIV/AIDS problem. When President George W. Bush signed it into law in 2003, it became the largest governmental effort to combat a single disease and is now credited with saving more than 25 million lives.
But as American Family News recently reported, Biden has used the program as leverage to adopt policies that would wipe out many unborn lives, and he wanted to use some of the money to promote and provide abortions.
Laura Echevarria of the National Right to Life Committee says this failed attempt in the House is more of the same from the Biden administration.
"This administration has done everything it can to push the abortion issue onto the American public, and even internationally," she laments. "This president truly is the most pro-abortion president in our history."
Biden has, for example, reversed the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance Policy—previously known as Ronald Reagan's Mexico City Policy — which prevented tax dollars from funding abortion internationally.
His PEPFAR Core Program and Policy Priorities, however, states that funding abortions and abortion promotion would continue: "Promoting and protecting sexual and reproductive health and rights, including through ongoing rescission of the Mexico City Policy."
"This administration has been trying to provide funding for groups that perform or promote abortions overseas, perform or promote abortions here in the U.S.," Echevarria notes. "We've seen this with the Veterans Administration funding; we've seen it with the funding for PEPFAR."
But last week, the House of Representatives passed a one-year reauthorization of PEPFAR with guardrails to protect its integrity, keeping Joe Biden from "hijacking" the program.
Pro-lifers celebrate this victory for vulnerable children in the womb.
