Poverty Kills: USAID Cuts Have Been Vicious
Estimates vary widely, but it’s at least tens of thousands of deaths so far, and hundreds of thousands is plausible. Poverty is killing more people than wars do. When those deaths are ones that could have been prevented simply by keeping programs, this is an outrage hard to bear.
An especially well-worded explanation of the problem from a pro-life perspective:
The New York Times, February 10, 2025
The picture below comes from a Facebook post from New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff, who says:
This is Evan Anzoo, the five-year-old face of America’s cuts in humanitarian aid. Evan was born with HIV but America’s PEPFAR program kept him and his mom, Jennifer, alive. And then [they] shut down USAID, and they could not get their meds in South Sudan. Jennifer got an opportunistic infection and died, and then Evan passed a week later. The cost of the meds keeping them alive was just 12 cents a day . . . RIP, Evan, you deserved better.
More PP Buildings Close
An ABC News story of May 23, 2025 says that four centers in Iowa and another four in Minnesota will close within a year. See the running tab of closures.
A press release from PP in Ohio estimates that taxpayer defunding would result in about 200 closing, which is well over a third.
A rally for defunding Planned Parenthood is planned at the U.S. Capitol on Saturday, June 28. You can register for free here. This is part of the Celebrate Life Conference June 27-28.
The Big, Beautiful Bill: We Have a Suggestion
At this writing, U.S. Republicans have an intractable conflict: those who want to cut Medicaid to address the deficit, and those who want to protect Medicaid. We hold Medicaid is, along with other merits, necessary for helping prevent abortion and euthanasia.
While we’d take the pro-Medicaid side, there’s a valid concern about excessive spending and debt. In the spirit of conflict resolution, where the interests of all sides are taken into account, we suggest a simple solution to this specific argument.
There are billions of dollars wasted on massive killing machines. Cut that spending, and your deficit reduction goals become rather easy. Cutting the modernization of nuclear weapons would be high priority. But really, many large weapons systems would do the trick.
The Latest on the Podcast
An interview with Rachel MacNair on web resources for nonviolent resistance to Planned Parenthood: our project website Grassroots Defunding, and Problems at Planned Parenthood.
The Latest on the Blog
John Whitehead offers Seeing the Humanity of “the Enemy”: Movies to Provoke Thought and Discussion.
Rachel MacNair uses a common practice of her Quaker faith in Quaker Queries. Others had offered pro-abortion queries, but she offers these alternative queries for greater reflection.
Quote of the Week
Carol Crossed
Recently, thousands of protesters came out for rallies that sought to address the role that diversity, equity and inclusion plays . . . The Defund Planned Parenthood rally and that Hands-Off Rally.
Despite the seemingly political opposition of these two historic tensions, mutual signs like Defund Violence/Defund Hate represent a near identical worldview that accepts distinctive classes, genders, disabilities and races, However, there is one exception: Does the right to abortion conflict with these diverse groups’ right to exist in the first place?
The choice of abortion arbitrarily disallows the existence of individual members of these diverse groups.