Representative Says Democrats Should Educate White House on Value of Foreign Aid for Family Planning

Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.)

Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.) told Devex.com that Democrats should, “educate the President and folks in the administration about the value” of US aid for overseas family planning programs.

“Let’s go in an area that we talk a lot about: the youth bulge. That is [a] national security issue in sub-Saharan Africa. You can play off of that,” Rep. Bera said. “If you want to address the youth bulge, part of that is empowering women and girls. Part of that, at a minimum, is providing voluntary family planning and so forth.”

U.S. aid for family planning overseas has subsidized abortion and forced sterilization for women overseas in the past. Programs that receive aid for family planning tend to focus on population control, shown by Representative Bera's use of the term "youth bulge" when discussing this issue with Devex. The organizations who are mostly concerned with population control will make it their goal to get women to have fewer children regardless of their wishes.

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