In his first pro-abortion action as president, Joe Biden has written to the United Nations and informed it that the United States is rejoining and renewing funding for the pro-abortion World Health Organization. The WHO has come under fire from pro-life advocates for promoting abortion and it has received criticism for its poor handling of and deception about the coronavirus.
In April, President Donald Trump announced he would halt federal taxpayer funding for the WHO, the international agency that has botched its response to the coronavirus. WHO had been accused of lying to the world about the coronavirus. It also criticized President Trump for protecting Americans from COVID by banning travel from China, where the virus originated.
And it came under fire for saying killing babies in abortions is somehow an essential procedure as the world deals with the coronavirus pandemic.
The WHO received heavy criticism when it falsely claimed abortion is considered an essential service during the coronavirus pandemic. It said that “services related to reproductive health are considered to be part of essential services during the COVID-19 outbreak.”
“Women’s choices and rights to sexual and reproductive health care should be respected, irrespective of whether or not she has a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection,” WHO said in the statement. Medical groups representing over 33,000 doctors disagree.
Meanwhile, United Nations leaders were pushing through a $2 billion spending plan for the coronavirus that includes funding to abort unborn babies in elective abortions based on WHO recommendations.
Now, Biden has reversed the decision to withdraw from the WHO.
NEW: Pres. Biden writes a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres retracting a letter from Pres. Trump withdrawing from the World Health Organization. pic.twitter.com/qPu7rU56Ij
— Alex Salvi (@alexsalvinews) January 21, 2021
News reports indicate Biden has sent Dr. Anthony Fauci to a WHO meeting to show support for the UN organization.
Biden, just hours after his inauguration Wednesday, made good on a campaign pledge and revoked a Trump administration order that would have pulled the U.S. out of the U.N. health agency this summer. Early Thursday, his top medical adviser on the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, was dispatched to show new U.S. support for WHO.
To be clear, the United States hasn’t left WHO.
But the Trump administration, triggering a one-year notification process required by Congress, announced plans to leave on July 6. The U.S. also cut all funding to WHO, stripping it of funds from the country that has long been — and by a longshot — its biggest donor.
The Trump administration faulted the agency for three main reasons: its allegedly slow response to the pandemic after it emerged in Wuhan, China, in late 2019; its alleged kowtowing to and excessive praise of China’s government; and administration claims that WHO had criticized Trump’s suspension of entries of people from China to the U.S. as the pandemic spread.
Officials at WHO did raise questions about the use of travel bans — out of concern they might hamper medical aid efforts — but didn’t specifically criticize U.S. policy. The agency has been traditionally averse to public criticism of member states, particularly one as influential as the United States.
An Associated Press investigation last June found top WHO officials repeatedly lauded China in public even as they privately complained that Beijing was withholding critical outbreak data from them, including the new virus’ genetic sequence. And a report issued to the media this week by a panel convened by WHO concluded the agency could have acted quicker to stem the emerging coronavirus and might have labeled it a pandemic sooner.
In his pre-dawn address on Thursday to the WHO’s executive board, Fauci said the U.S. will resume full funding for WHO and maintain its staff support for it, while announcing the U.S. will join its efforts to get COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics to people in need around the world.
When he withheld funding from WHO, President Trump explained his decision this way:
“With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have deep concerns whether America’s generosity has been put to the best use possible,” Trump said during his daily White House briefing.
Trump said the WHO failed in its duty to report the truth about the rise of the coronavirus outbreak and hid evidence that the virus could spread from human to human. He added that delays in declaring a global health emergency “cost valuable time” and that many lives could have been saved if the WHO conducted more investigation into reports on the outbreak in China.
“Our country will be forced to find other ways to work with other nations to achieve public health goals,” he said.
“The reality is that the WHO failed to adequately obtain, vet, and share information in a timely and transparent fashion,” he said.
In 2017, Trump stopped giving tax dollars to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) because it pushes abortions on other countries and has worked with China for decades to implement its forced abortion population control policies. Trump renewed the order again in 2018 and 2019. The decision cut $32.5 million in funding from the UNFPA budget.
