President Joe Biden likes to present himself as an advocate for racial justice and a man of the people, especially those whose voices are often under-represented. Yet his actions routinely contradict his lofty rhetoric. A recent example is how he has ignored African people’s plea not to fund abortions on their continent.
One of the more than two dozen executive orders President Biden signed recently revokes the so-called “Mexico City Policy.” The policy, first implemented by President Reagan in 1984, requires any federal grant recipients to agree to neither perform nor actively promote abortion as a method of family planning to receive U.S. aid.
Abortion rights groups and leftist interest groups have opposed this policy since its debut. Every Republican president since Reagan supported the policy, while every Democrat president — from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama — reversed the policy as soon as they came into office.
The Trump administration not only reinstated the policy but also expanded it to one called Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance, requiring “foreign non-governmental organizations that receive global health assistance from affected Federal Departments and Agencies to agree that they will not perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning or provide financial support to any other organization that conducts such activities.”
During a 2019 campaign event organized by Planned Parenthood, the United States’ largest abortion corporation, then-candidate Biden claimed that “many people around the world died” as the result of Trump’s Protecting Life order, without providing any supporting evidence for this claim. The number of lives the Protecting Life order saved by extending protections to unborn children meant nothing to him. Candidate Biden then referred to himself and Planned Parenthood as saviors of the world. He then vowed to revoke the Mexico City Policy if elected.
President Biden fulfilled his campaign promise by signing the executive order to reverse the policy on Jan. 28, once again permitting money drawn from American taxpayers to fund overseas abortions. Yet a recent poll shows his decision is extremist and far from the unifying moderate he also portrayed himself as on the campaign trail. The poll finds that 77 percent of Americans, including many independent voters and some pro-choice Democrats, oppose U.S. funding to “support abortion in other countries.”
Internationally, the loudest voice of objection to President Biden’s executive order came from Africa, in the form of a 16-minute video titled “A Message to President Biden: The Unified Voices of Africa.” The video was produced and hosted by Obianuju Ekeocha, the founder and president of Culture of Life Africa, an initiative “dedicated to the promotion and defense of the African values of the sanctity of life, beauty of marriage, blessings of motherhood and the dignity of family life.”
The first half of the video features a dozen Africans, men and women, from students to professionals to entrepreneurs, all pleading with Biden not to fund abortion in Africa. Timeyin asks Biden: “What if you weren’t given the chance to live? What if I was aborted? I wouldn’t be here making this video.”
Matthew, an operation manager, declares: “We all deserve the right to live. I stand against the funding of abortion in Africa.”
Marion Lisa, a lawyer, explains three principles the African community is built on: the sanctity of life, equal dignity for all, and protecting the weak and the vulnerable. Reflecting on these principles, she concludes, “Since the right to life is inherent, I believe the same should be accorded to the unborn child. The energy should be diverted to other sectors that we need to develop. Therefore, protect the unborn child.”
In the second half of the video, another group of African men and women focused on educating the West, especially President Biden, about what African communities genuinely need. It’s not abortion.
Rose, a teacher, speaks passionately about what she has seen in her community, “children walk homelessly on streets; youth dropped out of schools; [and] people [are] dying of hunger every day. Children being abused and used as slaves in their homes.” As she explains, “These are things we need funds on, not abortion. God will never bless a nation that destroys its children.”
Sonia, a lawyer, agreed. Instead of funding and supporting abortions, why not channel funding to those sectors in need, such as health care, infrastructure, and the eradication of unemployment among the young? Aicha, a family counselor, makes it clear:
Abortion is not an African problem. On the contrary, Africans will live much better having access to clean drinking water, access to good education and by having good governance … we beg you not to fund abortion-related programs in Africa. We have real problems in Africa, it is not abortion.
Stella Marris, an entrepreneur in Nigeria, lists five things Nigerians need more than abortions: poverty alleviation, education, employment, electricity, and better infrastructure. She also points out that abortion is illegal in Nigeria. She pleaded with President Biden: “Please help us, don’t kill us.”
These are powerful and heartfelt words from African people. Every leftist who claims to care for poor and underrepresented communities should watch this video and listen to these voices.
African men and women who spoke in this video made it clear that Africans reject abortion on the ground of their faith and their cultural heritage. They see abortion as something detrimental to the very foundation of their communities — the sustainability of their people. They understand the real needs of their communities, and they want to see foreign aid go toward areas that will improve the lives of themselves and their children, such as access to clean drinking water and employment.
Their communities may be poor, but they demand to be treated in a respectful and dignified way by the world’s richest and most powerful nation. They demand to be heard. They are understandably frustrated that Western leftists refuse to listen to the cries for help emanating from these communities.
Instead, western leftists insist on imposing their ideology on these communities, providing a “solution” to a problem that doesn’t exist, because these progressives arrogantly believe they know what’s best for these communities instead of the people who live there.
At the end of the video, Uju asks:
Will President Biden listen to us? Will he recognize the voice of African people? Will he respect the cry of the heart of the ordinary African person? Or will he just be the neo-colonial master like many western leaders? Will he be the one to come in to force his own ideas and ideologies in the world of the poor?
Instead of heading the heartfelt pleas of so many African people, President Biden chose to impose his will on the world’s poor.
