The Trump Administration took another step this week to promote a culture of life in our nation and abroad. It received little fanfare, but it needs your prayers!

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The Department of Defense Department, the General Services Administration, and NASA jointly submitted a proposal to expand President Trump’s 2017 Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance (PLGHA) policy to cover international contractors who benefit from U.S. taxpayer dollars.

The PLGHA itself was an expansion of the Reagan-era pro-life “Mexico City Policy” — a policy that has ping-ponged between enactment and elimination in the decades since depending on whether a Republican or Democrat is President.  The current policy under Trump ensures organizations receiving U.S. grants to partner on health priorities won’t perform or promote abortion. Now this new move would widen the net to make sure contractors benefitting from such U.S. aid dollars don’t confuse abortion with healthcare either.

It should come as no surprise that Planned Parenthood and it’s abortion allies oppose this effort. They like to call the Mexico City Policy and all its descendants — including the Trump policy — a “global gag rule.”

In a press release maligning the new Trump effort, Planned Parenthood complains, “Since 2017, the global gag rule has prohibited foreign non-governmental organizations from receiving any U.S. global health assistance if they provide information, referrals, or services for legal abortion or advocate for the legalization of abortion in their country, even if these activities are supported solely with non-U.S. funds” (emphasis mine).

It shouldn’t take long to see through that argument. Money is fungible. Would accounting maneuvers be acceptable to abortion advocates in other situations of such moral significance ? And yet the idea that abortion promotion practices are somehow different if an organization simply says, “We’re not using U.S. money for that,” forms the basis for polling questions they use to assert popular support for their arguments.

When a question is put more simply to Americans about whether they support or oppose “using tax dollars to support abortion in other countries,” a Marist poll finds a very different story. Essentially, 3 out of every 4 Americans stood against their dollars supporting abortion overseas. In fact, 61% of those identifying as pro-choice were part of that super majority.

Notably, contrary to Planned Parenthood assertions, the Trump pro-life aid rule does not appear to have seriously disrupted actual global health missions either. According to the U.S. State Department, its recent review of the policy “reaffirms that the United States can continue to meet its critical global health goals, while protecting life abroad through its global health assistance program.” In fact, it found only 8 of 1,360 global health partners refused to work under the auspices of PLGHA — one of them was International Planned Parenthood Federation.

This pro-life rule and its potential expansion needs your prayers. The full proposed rule is here and is open to written comments through November 13. Please keep in mind that comment submissions become viewable to the entire public.

Will you pray for the continued success of this policy promoting a culture of life around the world?

Aaron Mercer is a Contributing Writer with two decades of experience in Washington, D.C.’s public policy arena. He reflects on faith, technology, and the public square at FTPolicy.com. (Photo Credit: Unsplash.)

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