The U. S. House of Representatives passed the 2008 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill last week that includes critical funding for international assistance programs that serve the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world.  Funding to address chronic poverty and providing lifesaving services to the world’s most needy are important and welcome aspects of the bill, but unfortunately the House also defunded abstinence-until-marriage HIV prevention programs and removed the “Mexico City Protocol” (MCP) provision that denies U.S. family planning assistance funds to groups that perform and promote abortions.

During the last week of June, the Senate will consider and can make changes to the House bill.  The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops sent letters to each Senator expressing concern about the loss of the abstinence HIV prevention funds and the removal of the MCP provision, and requested that the Senate retain both the funding for abstinence programs and the MCP provision.  Click here to read the letter.