WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its historic decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on Friday, the State Department under the Biden administration affirmed it would remain committed to promoting abortion worldwide.
In a Friday press statement, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the State Department “will not waver” from its “commitment” to both “provid[ing] access to reproductive health services and advancing reproductive rights” worldwide.
My statement on yesterday’s Supreme Court decision: pic.twitter.com/zHOftvcEFE
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) June 25, 2022
Blinken’s comments came not long after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark 5-4 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which upheld Mississippi’s right to regulate abortion by overturning both Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992).
“As Secretary of State, I usually avoid commenting on Supreme Court rulings,” Blinken wrote in the short statement. “But today’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade has raised understandable questions and concerns across the world and within our workforce.”
RELATED: US Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade in historic ruling
Valerie Huber, president of the Institute for Women’s Health, told LifeSiteNews in a phone interview Thursday that Blinken’s statement confirms that the Biden administration remains firmly committed to an ideological agenda that defines abortion as a “human right.”
Huber, whose organization focuses on promoting the health and thriving of women worldwide, noted that while abortion is often billed as an empowering healthcare decision for women, many are actually coerced into aborting their unborn babies.
“There’s very little conversation right now about the root causes and reasons that women either feel that they have no options other than abortion, or what takes them to that place where they seek an abortion,” she explained, noting that coercion to abort can come from partners, family members, or abortion facilities that fail to provide “accurate information.”
According to Huber, “this whole debate over abortion has been framed by those who have been promoting it as if it were in the best interest of women.”
Proponents of abortion have used women as pawns, she said, to promote “an ideological agenda that cared and cares very little about the health and thriving of women.”
Huber told LifeSite the Biden administration’s pro-abortion priorities as expressed in Secretary Blinken’s press release haven’t changed, but have merely become “much more publicly noticed.”
The reaffirmation of the Biden administration’s ideological abortion agenda immediately after the Dobbs decision, she suggested, “erases any question that Americans might have that when they talk about sexual or reproductive health and rights, they are talking about abortion.”
Moreover, Huber said the statement gives cause for concern about the stability of existing U.S. government prohibitions against using taxpayer dollars to finance abortion advocacy or procedures in foreign countries, such as were established in the Helms Amendment and Siljander Amendment.
RELATED: Biden admins withdraws US from declaration stating ‘no international right to abortion’
”If Blinken’s statement reflects ‘international foreign policy priority,’” Huber said, “that means that it is going to be promoted everywhere around the world, regardless of what the national policy is in regard to life and abortion.”
Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, told LifeSiteNews in an email Thursday that Blinken’s statement also flies in the face of national sentiment.
According to a 2021 Knights of Columbus/Marist poll, just 19% of Americans support sending U.S. dollars to fund abortions in foreign countries, compared with 77% who oppose it.
“Apparently Blinken can’t count,” Pavone remarked. “The opposition of the American people toward funding abortion overseas is through the roof. But then again, why should we be surprised that Democrats don’t care what the American people think?”
Only 19% of Americans either “support” or “strongly support” funding abortions outside the US, while another 4% are unsure.
— Knights of Columbus (@KofC) January 27, 2021
Students for Life Action spokesperson Kristi Hamrick told LifeSite via email Thursday that it is “offensive that the Secretary of State is prioritizing death by abortion as U.S. policy.”
Hamrick also highlighted the need for pro-life Americans to take their pro-life beliefs to the polls as the November midterms approach.
“In this next election, Americans will need to vote so that this administration will not be able to misuse taxpayer resources for their deadly agenda,” she said.
Like Hamrick, Huber recommended that Americans keep these issues in mind when they head to the polls. Huber advised Americans to be informed about the issue, and pay special attention to the ways that the pro-abortion narrative has shifted since Roe v. Wade became law.
According to Huber, “those who are paying attention will see that” the current narrative about abortion “is very different from what has been promoted for the past 50 years.”
In addition, the Institute for Women’s Health president issued a stark warning about President Joe Biden’s strong rhetoric opposing the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs, which she said has characterized the Court as “illegitimate.”
RELATED: Biden endorses eliminating the filibuster to codify Roe v. Wade into federal law
“I believe from a national security point of view, even, when the Chief Executive, Head of State, of a country, is essentially calling another branch of government illegitimate, this is dangerous for our democracy, irrespective of what a personal opinion is regarding abortion,” Huber explained.
“And so I think it’s not only a national security concern, but it is also dangerous to our representative democracy,” she said.