The Biden White House has dropped the ball. But this goes beyond the pale.
And now this hostage scandal put the White House directly in the crosshairs.
The Biden administration is reportedly pressuring Sierra Leone to loosen its abortion restrictions in exchange for foreign aid, according to a report released Monday.
Currently, Sierra Leone bans abortion in most cases, but new legislation before the country’s parliament would decriminalize the practice.
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a U.S. government agency overseeing foreign assistance, is allegedly leveraging the passage of this legislation as a condition for hundreds of millions in funding, according to a former senior U.S. official familiar with the region who spoke to The Daily Signal.
In late September, MCC CEO Alice Albright signed an agreement with Sierra Leone’s finance minister, Sheku Bangura, promising $480 million in foreign aid. The deal hinges on Sierra Leone meeting MCC’s “rigorous standards for good governance, fighting corruption, and respecting democratic rights,” which are evaluated on an ongoing basis.
However, MCC denied any involvement in Sierra Leone’s abortion policies, issuing a statement to Fox News Digital on Tuesday.
“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 stated.
Despite the MCC’s denial, the office of Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who chairs the MCC board, declined to comment when asked about the matter.
Meanwhile, tensions are running high in Sierra Leone. Footage circulating online shows pro-life demonstrators vocally protesting inside the nation’s parliament as lawmakers debated the abortion legislation on Tuesday.
Pro-life activists allege that Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio dismissed his attorney general last week for refusing to support the abortion bill. Bio has since appointed Alpha Sesay, a former USAID employee and vocal advocate for the legislation, as the new attorney general.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., criticized the reported U.S. pressure campaign in a statement on Monday.
“It is deeply disturbing, but not terribly surprising, that we are hearing reports that the Biden administration is threatening to withhold foreign assistance to Sierra Leone unless legislators there pass the deceptively named ‘Safe Motherhood Act’ legislation that would legalize abortion in Sierra Leone, a country that currently protects unborn life,” Smith told The Daily Signal.
Smith has previously accused the Biden administration of repurposing Bush-era initiatives like the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to advance an abortion agenda.
PEPFAR, launched in 2003 under President George W. Bush, has invested over $100 billion in combatting HIV/AIDS globally, saving an estimated 25 million lives. However, Smith argued in 2023 that the Biden administration has co-opted the program to promote abortion.
“President Biden has hijacked PEPFAR, the $6 billion-a-year foreign aid program designed to mitigate HIV/AIDS in many targeted — mostly African — countries, in order to promote abortion on demand,” Smith said in a statement last year.
Smith highlighted two organizations, Population Services International (PSI) and Village Reach, as examples of this shift. He noted that under Biden, PSI has received $96.5 million and Village Reach $10.1 million in PEPFAR funding, despite their active promotion of abortion.
“PSI proudly proclaims it provides abortion and lobbies to eliminate pro-life laws,” Smith stated. “PSI provides comprehensive abortion and post-abortion care services in nearly 20 countries throughout the world.”
The controversy highlights growing tensions over the Biden administration’s foreign aid policies and their alignment with progressive social agendas, raising questions about the ethics of conditioning aid on ideological compliance.
Stay tuned to The Federalist Wire.
