The Obama Administration has imposed new rules denying federal funds to charities helping sex-trafficking victims if they refuse to offer abortion counseling or referrals, the Christian Post reports.
Guidelines for the Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement passed in June now state that to qualify for aid grants, organizations must offer “the full range of legally permissible gynecological and obstetric care,” and suggest groups with religious objections provide abortion services through a third party.
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Migration and Refugee Service received such grants for their work in helping sex trafficking victims until 2011, when the Obama Administration changed the rules to give “strong preference” to abortion-friendly applicants. This new change looks to cut pro-life organizations out of the picture entirely.
In response, Family Research Council’s Center for Human Dignity Director Arina Grossu blasted the Obama White House as “staunchly pushing its radical pro-abortion agenda at the expense of women who have been traumatized by sex trafficking.”
And March for Life President Jeanne Mancini suggested the rule change may be illegal as well, given that the Weldon Amendment attached to HHS appropriations annually “prohibits discrimination against pro-life health groups from getting funding.”
