Unanimous Consent Request--S. 4872

Floor Speech

This bill would expand the already draconian global gag rule to apply to more types of foreign aid, more services, and more organizations by codifying the Trump administration's so-called human flourishing policy. So this would basically be a gag rule not just on global health programs, which is bad enough, but on all nonmilitary foreign assistance.

What it would do is it would say that any organization anywhere in the world that provides, refers, or even mentions abortion or support of LGBTQ+ people or any diversity and inclusion initiative would be banned from getting U.S. foreign assistance. This gag order would put-- basically, it would put a gag order on the world's most vulnerable people by the world's most wealthy Nation.

What is ironic about this is that this is not just a cruel policy but an incoherent policy because it would not in any way reduce abortion, which is what my colleagues say their goal is.

There was a previous narrower gag rule earlier imposed by the Trump administration, and in that case, abortion rates actually went up in those countries. Why is that? Well, because of this gag rule. It resulted in less access to contraceptives, to birth control, and more unintended pregnancies.

This is about forcing foreign governments and forcing multilateral institutions and NGOs to accept an ideological agenda or risk being cut off entirely from U.S. assistance.

I think everybody should have the ability to make their own decisions about their own bodies and their own lives and their own futures. Certainly, they should be able to make those decisions without somebody in Washington, DC, who knows nothing about their lives telling them what to do.

We should be joined together in our belief that U.S. foreign assistance should be helping people, lift them out of poverty, support them in getting the services they need, and not trying to impose an ideological gag rule on their activities.

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