U.S. Capitol This Week Jan 22- 26

U.S. Congress

• Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) has proposed the Protecting Life in Foreign Assistance Act, a bill very similar to the Mexico City Policy (MCP) which blocks U.S. federal funding for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provided abortion counseling or referrals, advocated to decriminalize abortion, or expanded abortion services abroad. Because MCP is an executive order, it can be removed by any sitting U.S. president. Democrat presidents always remove the order followed by Republican presidents always reinstating it. The "Protecting Life in Foreign Assistance Act'', by virtue of being a legislative bill, would continue to stay in effect even when Democrats take control of the White House. 

• Texas pushed against progressive laws and programs that would allow transgender men to compete in women’s sports and engage in discrimination in the name of DEI. As a response, LGBT groups that support those programs decided to take their criticism to the UN. In a letter to the UN, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas, Equality Texas, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), among others, asked the UN to engage with the Federal Government and release recommendations that Texas revoke its socially conservative bills. 

To the left, Riley Gaines, an athlete and activist who is defending women’s single-sex spaces in sports.

To the right, Lia Thomas, a transgender athlete who raised a public debate about the fairness of having transgender people competing on their opposite biological sex categories in sports.

U.S. Agencies

• A new factsheet from the National Right to Life Committee revealed that since the Supreme Court legalized abortion in Roe v. Wade in 1973, over 65.5 million infants were murdered by abortion. How do we know it? Two major organizations routinely count national abortions in the United States: the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the Guttmacher Institute, which was once a special research associate of Planned Parenthood. However, the data has become harder to obtain due to the lack of reporting on the part of abortion providers, and states, and due to chemical abortion pills delivered via mail. 

  
  

The White House

• The Biden Administration continues to spread progressive ideas on sexuality abroad. The US Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons, Jessica Stern, will travel to Brazil on January 28th for Brazil’s National March for Trans Day of Visibility. Before joining the Administration, Stern served as the Executive Director of OutRight Action International, which lobbied the UN to include progressive terminology pertaining to gender identity in a resolution, and later co-founded the UN LGBTI Core Group.

• Tuesday marked Roe v. Wade's 51st anniversary and, unsurprisingly, Joe Biden committed to ensuring abortion is available to anyone who wants one. Biden wants to take advantage of a federal statute that provides for "emergency medical treatment" to compel emergency facilities around the nation to perform abortions. 

To the left, Norma McCorvey, also known by the pseudonym "Jane Roe", was the plaintiff in the case Roe v. Wade. Norma, later in her life converted to Christianism and took part in the prolife movement.

• The overturning of Roe v. Wade also has an effect in Latin American states. Currently, the decriminalization of abortion and its imposition through High Courts has reached new countries such as Mexico and Ecuador under the same model. Additionally, Latin American countries are also awaiting the decision of the Beatriz v. El Salvador case of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which could have the same effects as Roe in the countries that are signatories of the American Convention, writes Pablo A. Proaño, ecuatorian lawyer and co-founder of Dignidad y Derecho.

• “If Congress passes a national abortion [ban] bill, I will veto it,” said Biden on Tuesday. Biden will rely heavily on abortion talking points during his reelection campaign.  “Give me a Democratic House of Representatives and give me a bigger, bigger Democratic Senate where we will pass a new law restoring and protecting Roe v Wade, and I will sign it up immediately.”