House Health Care Champions Push Back on Attacks on Global Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

WASHINGTON — This week, members of the House appropriations committee marked up the Fiscal Year 2024 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPs) appropriations bill. 

This legislation includes capping international family planning and reproductive health care funding at $461 million, a nearly 25% cut that would result in over 8 million women losing access to contraception; prohibiting funding for United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency; permanently and legislatively imposing the Trump administration’s expanded version of the global gag rule; and maintaining the Helms Amendment which restricts the use of foreign aid for abortion and the abortion coverage ban for Peace Corps volunteers. 

Rep. Barabara Lee (D-CA-12), the ranking Democrat on the State, Foreign-Operations Subcommittee and co-chair of the Pro-Choice Caucus, led an amendment to strike anti-reproductive health policy provisions and restore funding for international family planning programs. The amendment was supported by all Democrats on the committee but ultimately failed 32-27.  

Reproductive health care champions in the committee pushed back:   

• Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-3) - “By blocking all funds to UNFPA, the bill would lead to women and couples in more than 150 countries losing access to contraceptive services and supplies.”  
• Representative Barbarra Lee (D-CA-12) - "Supporting family planning and reproductive health services is a critical investment in the health, lives and futures of women, young people, and families around the world." 
• Representative Lois Frankel (D-FL-22) - “Women deserve to make their own personal decision about whether or when to start or grow a family. They deserve the opportunity to pursue their hopes and dreams on their own terms, in their own time, and that means having access to quality comprehensive reproductive health care, including contraception and abortion. This bill is backwards, it's cruel, it harms some of the most at risk women in the world.” [WATCH HERE] 
• Representative Grace Meng (D-NY-6) - “ The Global Gag Rule is a dangerous foreign policy. By reinstating the global gag rule, the US will have abdicated its role as a leader on reproductive rights and global health programs more broadly." 
• Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ-12) - “When my colleagues cut program funding, real people are harmed. Consider the consequential impacts of zeroing out funding for the United Nations Population Fund. This UN agency provides essential programming for women and girls, including HIV prevention, combating gender-based violence, and midwifery training. Its work is indispensable to countless communities around the world and the disregard that some of my colleagues seem to have for it is unconscionable.” 
• Representative Susie Lee (D-NV-3) - “I don’t know why we continue to attack women’s health here in our country and globally, but this bill takes a good whack at it…reinstatement of the global gag rule and other serious threats to women’s health globally and the promotion of misinformation and fringe theories.”

Last month, Representative Chrissy Houlahan and 116 cosponsors reintroduced the Support UNFPA Funding Act in the U.S. House. This legislation would authorize funding and declare support for the UNFPA and its critical work on reproductive and maternal health care around the world. The Biden-Harris administration also reiterated their continued commitment to sexual and reproductive health and rights globally. 

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Planned Parenthood is the nation’s leading provider and advocate of high-quality, affordable sexual and reproductive health care for all people, as well as the nation’s largest provider of sex education. With more than 600 health centers across the country, Planned Parenthood organizations serve all patients with care and compassion, with respect, and without judgment, striving to create equitable access to health care. Through health centers, programs in schools and communities, and online resources, Planned Parenthood is a trusted source of reliable education and information that allows people to make informed health decisions. We do all this because we care passionately about helping people lead healthier lives. Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that supports the independently incorporated Planned Parenthood affiliates operating health centers across the U.S.