Helms Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act

The Helms Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act, sometimes called simply the Helms Amendment,[1] is a 1973 amendment, passed by the U.S. Congress in the wake of the Roe v. Wade decision by the United States Supreme Court, to limit the use of US foreign assistance for abortion.[2][3]

Named after North Carolina senator Jesse Helms, the amendment states that "no foreign assistance funds may be used to pay for the performance of abortion as a method of family planning or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions."[4]

Background and passage

After the Supreme Court's landmark 1973 decision Roe v. Wade, anti-abortion activists began mobilizing at the federal level.[5][6] One of the goals of the anti-abortion movement in the wake of Roe was to cut off all federal funding support for abortion care in order to reduce the availability of legal abortions. In the year after the decision, socially conservative, evangelical Protestants who were anti-abortion mobilized to an unprecedented extent, and pro-life lawmakers introduced a number of measures designed to cut off access to abortions in the United States and elsewhere.[5][6]

Senator Jesse Helms, a prominent opponent of abortion, introduced his amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act during his first term in Congress.[7][8][9][10][11][12] It prohibited the use of any U.S. foreign assistance funds for "abortion as a method of family planning". It eventually passed both houses of Congress and was signed into law on December 17, 1973. It has been interpreted by every administration since as an outright ban on funding abortions, including cases of rape, incest, and pregnancies that endanger the life of the mother. It is applied even to countries where abortion is completely legal.[13][14]

Focus

Despite its focus on "abortion as a method of family planning," American global health funding programs, such as USAID, currently interpret the Helms Amendment language to exclude funding for abortion services in cases not connected to family planning, such as rape, incest, or to save the life of the woman.[1][4]

The Agency for International Development (AID) halted most abortion related activity due to the passing of the amendment, though they had previously been a very prominent supporter of abortion. This left the World Bank and The United Nations Fund for Population Activities as the only publicly open contributions of support.[15]

Abortion

Several anti-abortion groups support the current interpretation of the Helms Amendment to exclude abortions for rape or incest, considering it an important ban on "taxpayer-funded abortions."[16]

In 1990 Congress provided clarity on the amendment advising USAID programs are in fact allowed to provide counseling and information on all pregnancy options as long as the programs are following each countries' laws.[17]

Opposition

Several abortion-rights and human rights organizations, including Planned Parenthood,[2] the Global Justice Center, Population Action International,[18] the Center for Health and Gender Equity,[19] Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International USA pressured United States President Barack Obama to mitigate what they considered the harmful effects of the Helms Amendment. Population Action International, for example, stated that since the Helms Amendment restricts US funds for abortions "as a method of family planning," abortions "conducted as a result of rape, incest, and abortions to save women's lives, are eligible for U.S. support".[18] The Center for Health and Gender Equity worked with other human rights and faith-based organizations in calling on President Obama to take executive action on the Helms Amendment for women raped in conflict.[20] More than 100 Members of Congress also had called on President Obama to take action.[21] One of the ways that President Obama could have taken action would have been through the issuance of a presidential memorandum[22] but President Obama never issued a presidential memorandum on the Helms Amendment.[23]

During the 2016 Democratic Presidential Primary, candidates (former) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) each pledged that as president they would take executive action on Helms and work to repeal the Amendment entirely.[24]

Possible repeal

Many women's rights and women's health advocates press for the repeal of the law.[25] Approximately 47,000 women perish annually due to unsafe or illegal abortions, mostly in foreign countries.[1] Many reported abortions in foreign countries are being performed in unsafe ways by people without proper qualifications and in places that are not fit to medical standards.[1]

The Mexico City Policy is a direct result of the Helms Amendment of 1973.[26] The order bans foreign aid from the United States to be directed to any non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provide any services relating to abortions.[27] The Mexico City Policy was first initiated in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan and remained active through President George H. W. Bush's administration. In 1993, when President Clinton took office, the order was rescinded until 2001. President George W. Bush placed the order back into effect until his presidency was over in 2009.

When President Obama took office in 2009, the order was once again rescinded, until 2017. On Jan 23, 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order implementing the order once again.[28] It was once again rescinded by President Joe Biden in January 2021.[29]

See also

References
  1. "Abortion Restrictions in U.S. Foreign Aid: The History and Harms of the Helms Amendment". 2013-09-23. Retrieved 2016-06-29.
  2. "Helms Amendment Hurts Women Worldwide". www.plannedparenthoodaction.org. Retrieved 2016-06-29.
  3. Amendments, United States Congress Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitutional (1974). Abortion: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Ninety-third Congress, Second Session [-Ninety-fourth Congress, First Session] ... U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 90. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
  4. "Helms Amendment | U.S. Foreign Policy & Funding | The Issues | CHANGE". www.genderhealth.org. Retrieved 2016-06-29.
  5. Ziegler, Mary (2014). "Beyond Backlash: Legal Hist ond Backlash: Legal History, Polarization, and Roe v olarization, and Roe v. Wade". Florida State University College of Law. p. 1005. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
  6. Barot, Sneha (23 September 2013). "Abortion Restrictions in U.S. Foreign Aid: The History and Harms of the Helms Amendment". Guttmacher Institute. Retrieved 9 September 2022.
  7. Benshoof, Janet (2009). "Twisted Treaty Shafts U.S. Women by Janet Benshoof". www.ontheissuesmagazine.com. Retrieved 10 February 2023. Drafted by the late Republican Senator Jesse Helms, a vociferous opponent of abortion, this language can and has been used as an anti-abortion weapon.
  8. Weatherford, J. McIver (1985). Tribes on the Hill. ABC-CLIO. p. 127. ISBN 978-0-89789-072-4. Retrieved 10 February 2023. As an outspoken and imaginative strategist of conservative issues, Helms rose to national leadership in the anti-busing, anti-abortion, anti-sex education, and anti-Equal Rights Amendment movements.
  9. Yachot, Noa (12 August 2022). "Biden urged to clarify that abortion aid abroad unaffected by Roe v Wade ruling". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
  10. Hanrahan, John (14 December 1987). "Supreme Court nominee Anthony Kennedy denied today that he... - UPI Archives". UPI. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
  11. Ford, Liz (29 July 2020). "Democrats introduce bill to repeal anti-abortion rule for US overseas aid". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
  12. "Divisive Conservative Firebrand Jesse Helms Dies at 86". PBS NewsHour. 4 July 2008. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  13. Gaddy, Ellen (8 July 2022). "It's Time to End My Grandfather's Harmful Legacy — the Helms Amendment". POLITICO. Retrieved 9 September 2022.
  14. Moss, Kellie; Kates, Jennifer (18 January 2022). "The Helms Amendment and Abortion Laws in Countries Receiving U.S. Global Health Assistance". KFF.org. Kaiser Family Foundation. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
  15. Warwick, D. P. (April 1980). "Foreign aid for abortion". The Hastings Center Report. 10 (2): 30–37. doi:10.2307/3561278. ISSN 0093-0334. JSTOR 3561278. PMID 7372467.
  16. Crockett, Emily (2016-02-12). "Both Clinton and Sanders want to help rape victims abroad by changing this major policy". Vox. Retrieved 2016-06-29.
  17. Barot, Sneha (Summer 2013). "Abortion Restrictions in U.S. Foreign Aid: The History and Harms of the Helms Amendment" (PDF). Guttmacher. Retrieved 2018-03-30.
  18. "Helms Hurts: It's Time to Fix this Broken Policy - PAI". Retrieved 2016-06-29.
  19. "CHANGE: Center for Health and Gender Equity". genderhealth.org. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
  20. Bassett, Laura. "This U.S. Policy Drives Rape Victims Worldwide To Undergo Grisly Abortions". Retrieved 2016-09-06.
  21. "Democrats Urge Obama to Address Needs of Rape Survivors in War Zones". Roll Call. 2015-10-26. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
  22. Pauqette, Danielle (30 November 2015). "How a 42-year-old law keeps the U.S. from helping ISIS's rape victims get abortions: Anti-abortion groups hailed the 1973 Helms amendment as a victory in the aftermath of Roe v. Wade". The Washington Post. ProQuest 1737943394.
  23. "Presidential Memoranda". whitehouse.gov. 2015-05-14. Retrieved 2018-06-17.
  24. Reporter, Laura Bassett Senior Politics; Post, The Huffington Post Ryan Grim Washington bureau chief for The Huffington (2016-02-11). "Clinton And Sanders Make Major Pledge On Abortion Policy". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
  25. Barot, Sneha (2013). "Abortion restrictions in U.S. foreign aid: the history and harms of the helms amendment". Guttmacher Policy Review. Retrieved January 27, 2018.
  26. Moss, Kellie; Kates, Jennifer (18 January 2022). "The Helms Amendment and Abortion Laws in Countries Receiving U.S. Global Health Assistance". KFF. Retrieved 9 September 2022.
  27. Starrs, Ann (2017). "The Trump global gag rule: an attack on US family planning and global health aid". The Lancet. 389 (10068): 485–486. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30270-2. PMID 28170321.
  28. "WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE HELMS AMENDMENT AND THE GLOBAL GAG RULE?". Population Action International. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  29. Lucey, Catherine; Peterson, Kristina (January 28, 2021). "Biden Targets Abortion Restrictions as Fight Looms in Congress". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
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