United States Congress / Wikimedia Commons
CV NEWS FEED // A pro-life congressman has announced his support of the Aid Accountability Act of 2025, a bill that would add extra protections to policies that ensure foreign aid is not spent on abortions.
“U.S. laws have long prohibited the use of foreign assistance to perform abortions or to motivate or coerce anyone to practice abortion, as well as lobby for or against it,” Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., stated in a news release. “This legislation brings long-overdue accountability to foreign aid spending and protects the integrity of U.S. law. American taxpayers should never be forced to subsidize the global abortion industry under the guise of humanitarian aid.”
Smith is publicly pro-life and holds a senior position on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. In the news release, he also praised Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah for authoring the act.
Smith cited a discovery earlier this year that nurses in Mozambique performed abortions with U.S. funding, noting that the incident points to “alarmingly weak” enforcement of foreign aid spending. As CatholicVote reported at the time, at least 21 abortions had been performed in Mozambique since 2021, and several nurses had not gone through mandatory training that explained that they could not perform abortions if they received U.S. funding.
Smith called the incident an “outrageous and heartbreaking abuse of taxpayer dollars,” adding that the accountability act “will ensure that violations like this carry serious, lasting consequences — for federal employees and grantees alike.”
According to the release, the act would fire federal employees who knowingly ignore federal funding rules in regard to abortion and require them to make financial restitution. It would also bar recipients from future funding if they violate the laws, and it would require the Department of State to notify Congress of violations within 60 days, allowing Congress to review the misuse of the funds via the Congressional Review Act.
