President Donald Trump’s administration is facing scrutiny this week after working with billionaire Elon Musk to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), an organization Musk called a ‘viper’s nest’ of mismanaged funding.
Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) worked with the Trump administration to shut down USAID on Monday. While the agency’s long-term future remains unclear, lawmakers and activists have repeatedly accused USAID of using funding to leverage policy changes across the globe. Under President Joe Biden’s administration, the organization was frequently used to push abortion in Africa, critics say.
Biden cleared path for international abortion push
Biden cleared the path for U.S. funding to flow toward pro-abortion groups across the globe just days after entering office. He signed an executive order rescinding the Reagan-era ‘Mexico City Rule’ on Jan. 28, 2021.
The rule, first rescinded by President Barack Obama and then reinstated during Trump’s first term, prevented foreign aid from going to nongovernmental organizations that promote abortion or provide abortion services.
‘These excessive conditions on foreign and development assistance undermine the United States’ efforts to advance gender equality globally by restricting our ability to support women’s health,’ Biden said at the time.
Biden’s rule change cleared USAID to send millions in funding to aggressive abortion organizations like Marie Stopes International (MSI). MSI said it relied on USAID for 17% of its total donor income under the Obama administration, adding that the lack of U.S. support created an $80-million ‘funding gap’ over the final three years of Trump’s term.
The group said the countries most heavily impacted by the lack of funding were Madagascar, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Biden accused of ‘hijacking’ AIDS program to push abortion in Africa
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., accused Biden in 2023 of ‘hijacking’ a successful AIDS relief program to push an international abortion agenda.
Smith’s accusations centered on PREPFAR, a funding program within USAID that, at the time, had already allocated some $100 billion toward fighting AIDS across the world, saving 25 million lives and preventing millions of infections.
Smith says two groups, Population Services International (PSI) and Village Reach, had received $96.5 million and $10.1 million, respectively, from PEPFAR under Biden, and both groups have a track record of pushing abortion.
‘PSI proudly proclaims it provides abortion and lobbies to eliminate pro-life laws,’ Smith said at the time. ‘PSI provides comprehensive abortion and post-abortion care services in nearly 20 countries throughout the world.’
Smith alleged Village Reach used PEPFAR funds ‘to promote abortion in Malawi and lobby for changes in pro-life laws’ and also ‘helped Malawi establish a government-funded hotline (that included providing information and referrals for ‘sexual and reproductive health,’ i.e., abortion).’
A third group, Pathfinder International, received $5 million in PEPFAR funding from 2021 to 2023. Smith said the group ‘lobbies to weaken or eliminate pro-life laws in nations around the world’ and is ‘explicit in its promotion of abortion in other countries, stating it is ‘committed to expanding access to … safe abortion.’
Biden admin accused of pushing lax abortion laws in Sierra Leone
Biden’s administration was accused in December of pressuring the government of Sierra Leone to adopt more permissive abortion policies in exchange for foreign assistance.
A report from the Daily Signal stated that The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a U.S. government-run funding allocator, was threatening to withhold hundreds of millions in foreign assistance funding if the nation didn’t relax its policies, a former senior U.S. government official told the outlet.
The MCC CEO Alice Albright signed an agreement with Sierra Leone’s finance minister, Sheku Bangura, in late September. The agreement called for the country to receive $480 million in foreign assistance so long as it met the MCC’s ‘rigorous standards for good governance, fighting corruption and respecting democratic rights.’
The organization denied any effort to influence Sierra Leone’s abortion policies in a statement to Fox News Digital in December.
‘The Millennium Challenge Corporation is unaware of any Sierra Leonean abortion legislation and has never made any requests to the Government of Sierra Leone regarding abortion policies. Any such legislation would be an internal matter for Sierra Leone with no U.S. government developments fund made contingent on its passage,’ the organization said in a statement.
Footage circulating on social media showed raucous pro-life protesters demonstrating inside Sierra Leone’s parliament at the time as lawmakers debated legislation detailing more permissive abortion rules.
Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.