John Barsa, the acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development has sent a strong message to the United Nations: Stop trying to exploit the coronavirus to fund international abortions.

The letter states, “the UN should not use this crisis as an opportunity to advance access to abortion as an ‘essential service.’ Unfortunately, the Global HRP does just this, by cynically placing the provision of ‘sexual and reproductive health services’ on the same level of importance as food-insecurity, essential health care, malnutrition, shelter, and sanitation. Most egregious is that the Global HRP calls for the widespread distribution of abortion-inducing drugs and abortion supplies, and for the promotion of abortion in local country settings.”

Furthermore, “I ask that you remove references to ‘sexual and reproductive health,’ and its derivatives from the Global HRP, and drop the provision of abortion as an essential component of the UN’s priorities to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The move is likely to infuriate the abortion industry, which has been working overtime to try to exploit the coronavirus crisis to ensure that abortion vendors like Planned Parenthood can commit more and more abortions.

As we have previously written, “The United Nations is supposed to promote world peace and international stability and serve as a place for countries to work out conflicts before turning to war. But instead, it has become another global entity that takes U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund abortion propaganda…Taxpayers should not be funding abortions, domestically or internationally.”

International advocacy groups, including the Alliance Defending Freedom’s international outreach arm, has warned about this issue before.

Elyssa Koren, Director of United Nations Advocacy for ADF International wrote, “the United Nations is moving forward with a $2.01 billion response to the coronavirus pandemic. The plan raises significant cause for concern, given the emphasis on the provision of abortion for women—including girls….The plan allocates $120 million to the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), $450 million to the WHO and the remaining funds to other branches of the U.N. system. UNFPA is the ‘responsible entity’ for coronavirus actions relating to pregnancy, including access to emergency obstetric care and maternal health services. It also is tasked with ensuring access to ‘sexual and reproductive health services,’ which is U.N. parlance for abortion. According to UNFPA, ‘women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health choices and rights must be respected regardless of…COVID-19. This including access to contraception, emergency contraception, safe abortion where legal and to the full extent of the law, and post-abortion care.”

READ MORE: United Nations Uses Coronavirus Funding To Promote Abortion Instead