President Biden’s administration is pressuring the federal government of Sierra Leone to undertake extra permissive abortion insurance policies in change for international help, in line with a Monday report.
The African nation at the moment bans abortion in most circumstances, however laws earlier than the nation’s parliament would decriminalize the follow. The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a U.S. government-run funding allocator, is reportedly threatening to withhold lots of of tens of millions in international help funding if the abortion regulation doesn’t cross, a former senior U.S. authorities official who has labored within the area advised the Daily Signal.
The MCC CEO Alice Albright signed an settlement with Sierra Leone’s finance minister, Sheku Bangura, in late September. The settlement would see the nation obtain $480 million in international help as long as the nation meets the MCC’s “rigorous requirements for good governance, preventing corruption and respecting democratic rights.” The group evaluates Sierra Leone’s compliance with the requirements on an ongoing foundation.
The MCC didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark from Fox News Digital. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who chairs the MCC’s board of administrators, additionally didn’t reply.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken seems earlier than the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Dec. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Footage circulating on social media reveals raucous pro-life protesters demonstrating inside Sierra Leone’s parliament as lawmakers debated the laws Tuesday.
Pro-life activists within the nation declare that President Julius Maada Bio fired his lawyer basic final week as a result of the official refused to push for the abortion regulation in parliament. Bio appointed Alpha Sesay as the brand new AG this week. Sesay is a latest former worker of USAID and has advocated for the brand new abortion regulation on social media.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., condemned studies of the stress marketing campaign in a Monday assertion.
“It is deeply disturbing, however not terribly shocking, that we’re listening to studies that the Biden administration is threatening to withhold international help to Sierra Leone except legislators there cross the deceptively named ‘Safe Motherhood Act’ laws that may legalize abortion in Sierra Leone, a rustic that at the moment protects unborn life,” he advised the Signal.
President of Sierra Leone Julius Maada Bio. (Ali Balikci/Anadolu Agency by way of Getty Images)
Smith has previously accused the Biden administration of “hijacking” a Bush-era program delivering AIDS reduction to Africa to advertise its abortion agenda.
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PEPFAR, the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, was launched in 2003 beneath President George W. Bush and has invested over $100 billion preventing AIDS internationally whereas saving 25 million lives and stopping tens of millions of infections, the State Department says. PEPFAR was up for re-authorization in Congress final yr.
“President Biden has hijacked PEPFAR, the $6 billion a yr international support program designed to mitigate HIV/AIDS in lots of focused — largely African — international locations so as to promote abortion on demand,” Smith advised colleagues in a 2023 assertion.
Rep. Chris Smith has accused Biden’s administration of utilizing international support to push African international locations towards permissive abortion legal guidelines. (Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Smith stated two teams, Population Services International (PSI) and Village Reach, have acquired $96.5 million and $10.1 million, respectively, over the previous few years from PEPFAR beneath Biden, and each teams have a observe file of pushing abortion.
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“PSI proudly proclaims it gives abortion and lobbies to remove pro-life legal guidelines,” Smith stated. “PSI gives complete abortion and post-abortion care companies in almost 20 international locations all through the world.”
Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.
