Move to restore money for abortion services puts Biden on collision course with Church

President’s move to restore overseas abortion services funding puts him on collision course with church.

Joe Biden leaves St. Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church on January 16. Picture: Angela Weiss/AFP

President Joe Biden has moved to restore $9bn for abortion services under US foreign aid.

The President’s Chief Medical adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci, told the World Health Organisation’s executive board on Thursday that “in the coming days”, President Biden would revoke the so-called “global gag rule”, which blocks US funding of overseas non-government organisations that provide and promote abortions as a form of family planning.

Restoring the funding would be part of the president’s “broader commitment to protect women’s health and advance gender equality at home and around the world,” Dr Fauci said.

The restriction was introduced by Ronald Reagan in 1984 and has subsequently been overturned by Democratic presidents and restored by Republicans, including Donald Trump.

The decision has put Mr Biden — who often refers to his Catholic faith, carries a rosary in his pocket and has a prominent photograph of himself with Pope Francis in the Oval office — on a collision course with church leaders. In a statement to mark last week’s inauguration, Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the US bishops’ conference said the president’s abortion policies “will advance moral evils’’ and the issue remained the bishops’ “pre-eminent priority”.

But other US bishops, such as Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich, distanced themselves from the statement, describing it as “ill considered’’. Mr Biden also received a warm message from Pope Francis, whose relationship with Mr Trump was frosty.

Devout Catholic

Questioned on inauguration day about Mr Biden’s abortion policies, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told journalists: “I will just take the opportunity to remind all of you that he (Biden) is a devout Catholic, and somebody who attends church regularly. He started his day with attending his church this morning.”

News of the restoration of overseas abortion funding was welcomed by Evelyne Opondo, Africa director at the Centre for Reproductive Rights. “It sends a strong message that reproductive rights are human rights,” she told Thomson Reuters. “I’m hoping this will allow many clinics to reopen across Africa and save thousands of women’s lives.’’

The closures had hit women in rural areas particularly hard, she said. “They’ve died due to pregnancy and childbirth complications, and complications from unsafe abortions as well.”

MSI Reproductive Choices, a global provider of abortion previously called Marie Stopes International, said the rule had cost it $30 million a year in funding that would have prevented 1.8 million unsafe abortions and 20,000 maternal deaths during the four years of Trump’s presidency.

Pro-life lobby anger

But the president’s decision has angered the powerful pro-life lobby in the US.

On Friday, the White House Press Office released a statement, attributed to Mr Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, reaffirming their promise to codify the US Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalised abortion in the US. Codifying the decision in legislation would defend it from future attempts to reverse it in the Court.

“In the past four years, reproductive health, including the right to choose, has been under relentless and extreme attack,’’ the White House statement said. “We are deeply committed to making sure everyone has access to care — including reproductive health care — regardless of income, race, zip code, health insurance status, or immigration status.’’