Republican lawmakers are demanding an investigation into Biden’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for allegedly illegally using U.S. taxpayer dollars to pay for at least 21 abortions in Mozambique through PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief).
“Frankly, it’s not a surprise to find that they are performing abortion with U.S. taxpayer dollars,” said Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), who is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Security and Diplomacy Bureau. “Their denials over the years have rung hollow in the face of their aggressive promotion of abortion and collaboration with some of the largest international abortion providers.”
“The CDC’s actions are a direct violation of both the letter and spirit of the law. It is unacceptable for our government to use PEPFAR’s taxpayer dollars to promote or provide abortion, especially in a program meant to save lives from HIV/AIDS,” Smith added.
Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, confirmed on Thursday that the CDC recently disclosed that PEPFAR funds were used to pay health workers who performed at least 21 abortions and accused the CDC of violating the Helms Amendment, a policy which prohibits the use of U.S. foreign aid to pay for abortions abroad.
“It is disgusting that the Biden Administration has allowed U.S. taxpayer dollars to be used to perform abortions overseas. This is not only illegal – it cuts against deeply held American values,” Risch said in a statement. “The CDC must be investigated for its misuse of PEPFAR funds, and those who have violated long-standing U.S. laws that protect life must be held accountable. This violation means that the future of the PEPFAR program is certainly in jeopardy. I will not support one dollar of American money going towards abortion anywhere in the world, and I will do all I can to ensure this never happens again.”
“For 20 years, PEPFAR has been a global health issue with deep bipartisan agreement and respect for life, but the actions of the CDC have polarized and destroyed this bipartisan foundation. Whether CDC staff were being overly zealous, stupid, evil, or inept, they have violated the law and done a disservice to the country and those suffering from AIDS worldwide,” he added.
BREAKING: U.S. taxpayer dollars were used to illegally perform abortions in Mozambique under the Biden Administration.
— SBA Pro-Life America (@sbaprolife) January 17, 2025
Thank you, Chairman @TomColeOK04, Vice Chair and NSRP Chairman @MarioDB, and LHHS Chair @Robert_Aderholt for denouncing this gross abuse of American tax…
PEPFAR was created in 2003 under President George W. Bush has “invested over $100 billion in the global HIV/AIDS response, saving 25 million lives, preventing millions of HIV infections, and supporting several countries to achieve HIV epidemic control…,” according to the State Department.
While abortion is legal in Mozambique, a review of service providers in the country who receive PEPFAR funding revealed that four nurses had performed at least 21 abortions since January 2021, Reuters reported, citing three U.S. officials who briefed members of Congress this week.
Officials alleged that this is the first time they have discovered PEPFAR-funded providers performing abortions in the program’s history.
“That’s why we wanted to notify Congress right away,” said one of the officials, who is involved in administering PEPFAR at the State Department. “It also is an important indication that the compliance measures we have in place have been effective, but could be further strengthened.”
A State Department official who was not authorized to speak publicly allegedly told Politico that the CDC worked with the Mozambique Ministry of Health to investigate the abortions and see if there had been a violation of the law.
The investigation revealed that four nurses operating in a small province of the country allegedly were unaware that they were not allowed to perform abortions while receiving PEPFAR funding, the official said.
A CDC spokesperson told the outlet the Mozambique government refunded the money, $4,100, with the spokesperson noting that the agency spends $189 million in PEPFAR funds in Mozambique.
“CDC identified the error, took immediate action, has a plan in place to prevent it from happening again and briefed relevant committees,” the CDC spokesperson said.
The State Department told the outlet that PEPFAR will begin requiring every service provider to state annually that they have received training and understand the rules around receiving PEPFAR funding.
Rep. Chris Smith sounds the alarm on the LGBT & abortion agenda in PEPFAR. #PVSS2023 pic.twitter.com/BMIcSHuDi7
— Family Research Council (@FRCdc) September 15, 2023
The revelation comes less than three months before PEPFAR is up for reauthorization. Up until 2023, Congress had typically granted five-year reauthorizations to the program, however, it was renewed for only one year last March after Congressional Republicans sounded the alarm on the Biden administration trying to use the program to push for abortions abroad — mostly in Africa.
At the time, Rep. Smith warned that Biden had “brazenly hijacked this foreign aid program” in 2022 by changing PEPFAR’s strategic plan to include abortion promotion in its HIV/AIDS projects. PEPFAR’s Regional Operational Plan Guidance for 2023 also stated that the program worked with “organizations advocating for structural, systemic, and institutional reforms in law and policy regarding sexual, reproductive, and economic rights of women.”
Smith further alleged that millions of dollars in PEPFAR funding under Biden had been given to organizations with a record of pushing abortions and lobbying to end pro-life laws abroad.
Smith was not alone in sounding the alarm. In May 2023, pro-life and conservative organizations wrote a letter to lawmakers asking them to remove any possibility of PEPFAR funding or promoting abortion abroad.
“We are concerned that grants from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) are used by nongovernmental organizations that promote abortions and push a radical gender ideology abroad. We urge you to ensure that any reauthorization of PEPFAR ensures that taxpayer money is not used for such purposes,” the letter reads.
In June 2023, 139 African parliamentarians also sent a letter to Congress stating they have “concerns and suspicions that this funding is supporting so-called family planning and reproductive health principles and practices, including abortion, that violate our core beliefs concerning life, family, and religion.”
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
