LifeNews.com is reporting that the GAO, which is the investigative arm of Congress, found that at least one recipient of U.S. taxpayer dollars was involved in a push to expand abortion rights in Kenya. A U.S. law known as the Siljander Amendment expressly prohibits U.S. tax dollars from being used to lobby for or against abortion in other countries.
The same report also found that key Obama Administration officials stonewalled the GAO and refused to cooperate with them during the investigation.
The matter began during the 2010 constitutional referendum in Kenya in which abortion zealots in the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department used the occasion to get expanded access to abortion written into the country's new constitution.
“The Obama Administration basically hired surrogates to do its dirty work of abortion promotion in Kenya,” said Congressman Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican who is the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights.
“U.S. policy on international constitutional reform is, by law, supposed to be abortion-neutral. This new report shows that at a minimum the Obama Administration ignored the prohibition with the end result being a new Kenyan constitution that vastly expands access to abortion in Kenya, courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer,” Smith said.
“That a high-ranking official in the Obama Administration, Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, Maria Otero, chose not to cooperate with the GAO as they uncovered procedural and funding problems begs for further investigation and review. What else might they be hiding?”
Thus far, the GAO has uncovered evidence which shows that the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) received $400,000 from USAID to provide an analysis of the draft constitution to the Kenyan's Committee on Experts, which was the body primarily responsible for drafting the new constitution. Even though the constitution made no mention of abortion at that point, the IDLO provided advice on the issues of fetal rights and abortion and gave examples of countries where fetal rights were found to serve as "barriers" to legal access to abortion.
In its report, GAO also quoted IDLO as advising the Kenyans that "one way to handle this would be to modify [the constitution] to make clear that a person is a human being who has been born.”
Rep. Smith says the IDLO introduced the abortion issue into the constitutional debate in Kenya, "advised" the Kenyans to include language in the constitution that clearly supported the legalization of abortion, and expressed opposition to later proposed language that would have restricted access to abortion.
“If this isn’t lobbying, what is?” Smith asked.
In addition, Under Secretary Otero repeatedly ignored requests from the GAO to question her regarding her activities in Kenya and failed to respond to numerous requests for meetings.
“In light of the law, Otero’s activities raise serious questions that she apparently did not want to answer,” Smith said.
Smith noted that even after its clear violation of the lobbying prohibition, the IDLO continues to receive U.S. funding to play a central role in the drafting of laws implementing the new constitution.
“As the GAO points out, it is likely that several other countries will be amending or creating new constitutions in the foreseeable future, and this U.S. tax-payer funded effort to change Kenya’s pro-life laws raises red flags as to how U.S. monies may be used to impose legalized abortion on other countries through their constitutions,” Smith added.
“Congress has determined that U.S. funding should not be used to lobby for or against abortion in other countries. That prohibition can easily be adhered to by any Administration that is committed to obeying the law.”
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