Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio asking him to investigate reports that a foreign aid agency pushed abortion on a black-majority country under the Biden administration.
The letter cites The Daily Signal’s Dec. 16 report that the Biden administration was pressuring Sierra Leone to pass an unpopular pro-abortion bill before Donald Trump took office.
It is common knowledge among nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, in Sierra Leone that a U.S. foreign aid agency called the Millennium Challenge Corporation is threatening to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars from a U.S. agreement with Sierra Leone unless the West African country’s parliament passes the bill decriminalizing abortion, a former senior U.S. government official who has worked in the West African region told The Daily Signal. Millennium Challenge Corporation denies this.
The Sierra Leone Compact is a five-year, $480 million agreement between the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation, or MCC, and Sierra Leone aimed at providing affordable electricity.
“Reports suggest that the MCC is threatening to withhold assistance under Sierra Leone’s Compact if the country’s legislature fails to pass the Safe Motherhood Act,” Banks said in his letter to Rubio. “This radical and unpopular bill would legalize abortion up to 14 weeks for any reason, and until birth if deemed necessary to ‘protect the mental health of the woman.’ Holding assistance hostage for the sake of pressuring another nation to adopt pro-abortion legislation is shameful and wrong.”
The so-called Safe Motherhood Act would legalize abortion up to 14 weeks for any reason and up to birth to protect the “mental health of the woman.” Abortion to save a woman’s life is already legal in Sierra Leone.
The World Bank’s Nov. 14 report on Sierra Leone’s stability and resilience obtained by The Daily Signal includes several mentions of the Safe Motherhood Act. It says an indicator of the country’s progress is how many health centers implement the abortion legislation, “starting at none as of end-2024 and aiming for 30 percent by end-2027.”
United States is the largest financial contributor to the World Bank.
The Development Policy Financing, or DPF, World Bank Document report says humanitarian aid organization UNICEF recommended that the Safe Motherhood Bill “be passed and implemented to tackle maternal mortality and enhance the health outcomes of adolescents.”
The Millennium Challenge Corporation’s press secretary, Jenel Few, told The Daily Signal in December the MCC is “unaware of any Sierra Leonean abortion legislation and has never made any requests to the government of Sierra Leone regarding abortion policies.”
Banks asked Rubio to investigate the use of the MCC to threaten the Sierra Leonean’s protection for the unborn. He requested a thorough investigation into the Safe Motherhood Act by March 1.
Contracts like the Sierra Leone Compact can be evaluated on an ongoing basis, allowing for the MCC, under the chairmanship of the secretary of state, to reconsider the eligibility of the country.
To make its Civil Liberties Indicator, the MCC uses Freedom House, a far-left think tank that has deems all pro-life legislation an attack on individual liberty.
In 2023, Freedom House lowered its “Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights” score for the United States because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade.
Rubio should investigate if anyone from the MCC worked on the Safe Motherhood Act, if Freedom House was used to consider Sierra Leone’s qualifications for MCC aid, if Sierra Leone’s qualifications for MCC aid would be affected by its passage of the abortion bill, and if funds have been withheld or delayed in the Sierra Leone Compact, Banks said.
An MCC spokesperson again denied pressuring Sierra Leone to adopt the Safe Motherhood act, saying the MCC “is complying with President Trump’s executive orders and Office of Management and Budget guidance.”
“MCC has never made any requests to the Government of Sierra Leone regarding abortion policies,” the spokesperson told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Any such legislation would be an internal matter for Sierra Leone with no U.S. government development funds made contingent on its passage.”
Banks also asked Rubio if he will reaffirm the United States’ support for respecting foreign countries’ protections for the unborn.
“It is unconscionable that the United States has used the MCC to threaten the Sierra Leonean’s protection for the unborn,” Banks said.
The post Senator Asks Rubio to Investigate Biden Forcing Radical Abortion Law on Black-Majority Country appeared first on The Daily Signal.
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