Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1696596942654.pdf (United States)
June 8, 2020 The Honorable John Barsa Acting Administrator U.S. Agency for International Development 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, D.C. 20523 Dear Acting Administrator Barsa, As members of Congress committed to the health and rights of communities worldwide, we write to seek details about a letter you sent to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on May 18, 2020 demanding the removal of references to sexual and reproductive health from the Global Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for COVID-19.
We are alarmed that you oppose the inclusion of sexual and reproductive health, which covers a wide range of essential health care services, and that you have conflated this to only mean abortion.

This letter is a costly distraction from the urgent work of addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.

Removing all references to sexual and reproductive health undermines access to lifesaving health care, and impedes the ability of UN agencies and countries to provide this care in a time of crisis.
Furthermore, we are concerned the letter may violate the Siljander Amendment, which prohibits the use of foreign assistance in lobbying for or against abortion.

Since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, several studies have demonstrated the urgency of continuing to provide sexual and reproductive health care - services that were already vulnerable prior to the pandemic - to communities around the world.
Recent analysis demonstrates that if there is even a 10 percent decrease in access to sexual and reproductive care in 132 low- and middle-income countries—covering 1.6 billion women of reproductive age—there will be an additional 49 million women with an unmet need for contraception; 15 million more unintended pregnancies; three million more unsafe abortions and 1,000 more maternal deaths due to unsafe abortions; and an additional 1.7 million women and 2.6 million newborns who will experience major complications due to declines in pregnancy-related and newborn care, resulting in an additional 28,000 maternal deaths and 168,000 newborn deaths.1 Ensuring continued access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care during this global crisis is critical to stated priorities of the U.S. government’s development investments including women’s economic empowerment, reducing maternal and infant mortality and morbidity, and advancing HIV prevention, care, and treatment efforts.
It is also essential to efforts to promote human rights, health, and gender equality.

These rights and the need for sexual and reprodutive health care do not go away amidst a pandemic, or any other crisis, and any effort to roll back or eliminate these services would undermine U.S. global health priorities and have detrimental effects on the health and rights of women, girls, LGBTQI+ individuals, and other groups that face discrimination around the world.
Your actions go against decades of progress and consensus in the humanitarian and international human rights community that sexual and reproductive health is an essential part of health care, benefitting all people.

The letter, like many prior communications from this administration, incorrectly states the term “sexual and reproductive health and its derivatives” is ill-defined and lacks consensus among Member States.
International agreements - which have been negotiated and agreed to by UN Member States, including the U.S., and have been in place for decades - include clear definitions of sexual and reproductive health.

Research and data on demand for services, human rights principles, and public health best practices all support that sexual and reproductive health care needs continue in a time of crisis.
By removing the inclusion of these services in the HRP, the U.S. is undermining the consensus and undercutting the vital role of UN agencies that are working to meet the full spectrum of essential community needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This position threatens to further isolate and abdicate U.S. leadership on the world stage and is part of a disturbing trend to attempt to block sexual and reproductive health language in global agreements, including most recently at the World Health Assembly in May 2020.

The U.S. dissociated itself from portions of a resolution to unify the fight against COVID- 19, partially because it included references to sexual and reproductive health.
The U.S. stood alone and the resolution was adopted with leadership from the European Union.

Beyond the consequences of your position for women’s and public health, we believe this letter is also a violation of the Siljander Amendment.
In stating your opposition to abortion and specifically demanding the Secretary General “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”, you are clearly lobbying against abortion.

This effort to pressure the UN to remove abortion and sexual and reproductive health, 1 Guttmacher Institute.
Estimates of the Potential Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Sexual and Reproductive Health in Low- and Middle- Income Countries.

April 16, 2020.
April 16, 2020.

Available: https://www.guttmacher.org/journals/ipsrh/2020/04/estimates-potential-impact-covid-19- pandemic-sexual-and-reproductive-health which this administration clearly and incorrectly interprets as only meaning abortion, from international policy and programmatic guidance to guide the COVID-19 response is a direct violation of the laws governing U.S. foreign assistance and a transparent attempt to bully the UN to adopt this administration’s ideological agenda.
Given Congress’s oversight role on these issues, we request the following information: 1.

What resources, including personnel, were used to develop the letter to Secretary General Guterres?

2.

Did USAID seek or obtain a legal opinion regarding the letter’s compliance with the Siljander amendment?

If so, please provide it.

3.

What policy staff within USAID and/or the State Department were consulted in the crafting of this letter?

Who cleared the letter prior to its release?

4.


Please provide all documents, communications, correspondence, or analyses used to inform the USAID’s understanding of and compliance with the Siljander amendment.

It is deeply disappointing that at a time when it is imperative for the global community to work together to meet the needs of all people during the COVID-19 pandemic, this administration continues to push extreme actions that will harm tens of millions of people.
We look forward to your prompt response.

Sincerely, Barbara Lee Member of Congress Diana DeGette Member of Congress Jackie Speier Member of Congress CC: The Honorable Mike Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State CC: The Honorable Kelly Craft, U.S.

Ambassador to the United Nations CC: Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey CC: Congressman Eliot L. Engel