(WASHINGTON, D.C. C-Fam) — Members of the U.S. Congress threatened to cut U.S. funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) if the global health body enters into official relations with controversial abortion and sexual rights law firm, the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR).
“As members of Congress, we will look upon a decision to give special status to the Center for Reproductive Rights as evidence that the WHO is unreformable and as a further argument to withhold all funding to the organization,” states the cautionary letter led by Congressman Andy Biggs (R-AZ), pointing to numerous bills to rollback U.S. funding to the WHO pending in Congress.
The Congressional letter highlights the growing mistrust of the American people toward the WHO and of widespread support for federal prohibitions on the use of U.S. foreign assistance for abortion.
The proposal by WHO director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus to accept the problematic abortion group into what is referred to as “official relations” was first considered in a board meeting in January. CRR’s primary goal is to decriminalize abortion around the world, trampling the sovereign rights of countries to make their own laws on abortion as agreed in international law. Because of opposition from traditional countries, the final decision was deferred to June.
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Speaking on behalf of 47 African countries at the WHO January meeting, a delegate of Cameroon expressed “concern about entry into official relations of non-state actors that do not respect the culture and the values” of different countries. “We would like therefore, to delay the admission process in order to better understand the implications of this decision,” he said.
The WHO unabashedly promotes abortion as a health and human rights issue. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the WHO promoted abortion as an essential service. This latest move to bring a litigious legal group into the inner working of … (continue reading at C-Fam).
Editor’s Note: Lisa Correnti writes for C-Fam. This article first appeared in the Friday Fax, an internet report published weekly by C-Fam (Center for Family & Human Rights), a New York and Washington DC-based research institute (https://c-fam.org/). This article appears with permission.
