You are not pro-life while PEPFAR is paused

End the freeze on PEPFAR. You can not claim to be pro-life while PEPFAR is paused—it’s actively killing people including women and BABIES that you claim to care about as an anti-abortion activist. Donald Trump and your “pro-life” GOP are killing thousands of people a day. 

Including babies and children.

They have cost thousands of jobs.

And no one is talking about it. 

In 2003, George Bush created PEPFAR to combat AIDS in Africa.

Democrats and Republicans across the aisle have kept it running as it is one of the best things the U.S. has done overseas. 

It is estimated to have saved more than 26 million lives since inception. 

Donald Trump has frozen the program for 90 days and the impact has been swift. 

If you care about babies, this is how you save more than fighting abortion ever will. 

And here are a few more facts about what freezing PEPFAR has done, quotes from Al Jazeera: 

1. South Africa: Several HIV treatment clinics have been shut, including in rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal, which has about 1.9 million people living with HIV and is the worst-affected region in the country. Facilities such as Engage Men’s Health in Johannesburg, which supported gay men, or the Tswane HIV/tuberculosis clinic in Pretoria have been closed. In total, about 222,000 people living with HIV, including 7,445 children under the age of 15, face disruptions in their daily antiretroviral therapy supplies, according to UNAIDS.

2. In Ivory Coast, where the US supported more than 400,000 adults and children living with AIDS, 516 health facilities have been completely shut down, according to the UN. Eighty-five percent of people on HIV treatment are affected, and more than 8,600 staff, including doctors, nurses, and midwives affected.

3. An orphanage in rural Botswana, catering to children living with HIV, has been shut down, according to reporting by The New York Times.

4. In Mozambique, the UN says HIV testing is no longer available in most parts of the country, and community workers, educators, and counsellors who worked with PEPFAR-funded projects have stopped receiving payments.

5. In Tanzania, community health workers, educators, and counsellors funded by PEPFAR have lost their jobs.

6. An HIV vaccine trial led by BRILLIANT Consortium, a medical research organisation in South Africa, and with $45m in funding support from USAID, has been paused. The trial aimed to produce neutralising antibodies that could potentially fight off HIV. It was supposed to launch in late January, with 48 participants across three countries: Uganda, Kenya and South Africa.   You do not have a leg to stand on. You are not pro-life while you are actively killing thousands of people a day—including babies that you supposedly want to save via anti-abortion lobbying.