Trump administration defunds abortion way beyond Mexico City policy

By Gualberto Garcia Jones, Esq.,—On Tuesday, March 26th, the Trump administration threw down the gauntlet on George Soros and the globalist abortion lobby when it announced that it would expand the Mexico City policy and start to implement the Siljander Amendment. This Amendment was put in place in 1981 to ensure no U.S. foreign aid would be used to lobby for abortion, but it was never implemented…until now.


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On Tuesday, March 26th, the Trump administration threw down the gauntlet against the globalist abortion lobby when it announced that it would expand the Mexico City policy and start to implement the Siljander Amendment. The Siljander Amendment was supposed to ensure that no U.S. foreign aid could be used to lobby for or against abortion. Basically, the amendment recognized the will of the American people—that abortion should not be a part of America’s foreign policy. Unfortunately, the international abortion lobby has been on the U.S. government’s payroll from day one, and although the Siljander Amendment was enacted into federal law in 1981, it was never implemented…until now.
The Siljander Amendment is especially important for countries that currently have legal protections in place for pre-born children. Many nations in Latin America and Africa have suffered incessant attempts by U.S.-taxpayer-funded organizations like the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and the World Health Organization (and their multiple parasitic NGOs and international human rights experts) to abolish the right to life in their countries. Essentially, these NGOs have infiltrated and now control all of the major international organizations. Using this global power and influence, they created a U.S.-funded abortion lobby hidden behind the facade of implementing international law.
Tuesday’s announcement comes after nine US Senators sent a letter informing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of several international organizations’ blatant violation of the Siljander Amendment. They asked the Trump administration to issue a warning that it would deny or reduce funding to any organization that insists on advocating for abortion while receiving U.S. taxpayer money. In response to this warning, a coalition of pro-abortion NGOs, including the ACLU, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Amnesty International, George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, and many other Soros-linked organizations, released a letter demanding that the U.S. taxpayer funding of these international organizations continued unabated.
Thankfully, the Trump administration did not bow to the demands of Mr. Soros and his pro-abortion cronies. In fact, their demands may have further emboldened President Trump and Secretary Pompeo.
In his press conference announcing the implementation of the Siljander Amendment, Secretary of State Pompeo said, “The institutions of the OAS [Organization of American States] should be focused on addressing crises in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, not advancing the pro-abortion cause.” He added that “to ensure our message is heard loud and clear, we will reduce our contributions to the OAS. Our reduction equals the estimated U.S. share of possible OAS expenditures on these abortion-related activities.”

Implementing the Siljander Amendment is massively important because it applies to all foreign assistance funds. Now, the State Department will examine all foreign aid, and if any international organization (not just NGOs, but multilateral bodies like the OAS and the UN) is pushing for the legalization of abortion, it will not receive U.S. taxpayer money. This decision is much, much broader than the Mexico City Policy, which applies only to health-related U.S. foreign aid, calculated around $8.8 billion. The Siljander Amendment covers all $42 billion of U.S. Foreign Operations, including all State Department funds and all USAID funds.
The Siljander Amendment hasn’t been implemented for almost 40 years. But now, America can start to put an end to decades of forced taxpayer funding of abortion across the world. Pro-life organizations must demand that the Trump administration’s bold announcement to reduce funds to the OAS be applied across the board to all international organizations. Then, and only then, will the American people finally get out of the business of global population control.
Sign our petition to thank Secretary Pompeo and President Trump and ask them to audit all international organizations as part of implementing the Siljander Amendment.
Gualberto Garcia Jones, Esq., is the president of Personhood Alliance and a licensed attorney in the commonwealth of Virginia. He is a human rights advisor to the Holy See Mission to the Organization of American States and works in Washington DC to stop the expansion of abortion in Latin America.