WASHINGTON — The Washington Post’s Jerry Markon recently reported that senior political appointees at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had overruled the department’s professional staff and ended funding of the Catholic bishops’ program to aid victims of human trafficking.
This Thursday, Dec. 1, the House Committee on Government Oversight will follow up with hearings on HHS and the Catholic Church: Examining the Politicization of Grants. The committee’s chairman, Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has written HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius requesting internal documents dealing with the grant review process.
Markon’s editors at the Post — while publishing the substance of his investigation into grant award malfeasance in a critical federal program designed to aid a profoundly traumatized population — disguised the story as a mere policy dispute over abortion and contraception, titling the article “Catholic Groups’ Ire at Obama Growing.”
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) contributed to this misdirection by accusing HHS of “ABC: Anybody but Catholics” bias. What the USCCB ought to have condemned, in my judgment, was the harm HHS’s new policy will inflict on victims of human trafficking.
The Church’s victims’ services program is not the only faith-based agency affected by HHS’ new requirement that victims receive the “full range of family-planning services,” including abortions and contraception. The Salvation Army — a huge presence in the trafficking-services arena — and the expanding membership of the Christian Trafficking Shelter Association also will undoubtedly decline to participate in the HHS program. Instead of expanding the pool of organizations working to “rescue and restore” victims of human trafficking, Kathleen Sebelius is advancing a policy that will diminish the reach of these vital services. But that’s okay with our secretary of Health and Human Services who holds that the “positive good” of abortion trumps all other considerations.
This dispute isn’t simply about the morality of abortion in general; it is about the specific harm inflicted on victims of human trafficking by the Sebelius policy. Not only is she creating a disincentive for organizations to serve victims where once there had been an open door; her policy will visit additional harm on the victims. In fact, to provide abortions or regimes of contraception to a person currently being exploited for commercial sex might very well be a death sentence.
Not Pretty Woman
A victim of human trafficking is someone compelled to perform labor or to engage in commercial sex against his or her will. This is an economic crime, committed for the profit of the trafficker. When the victim is an adult, trafficking occurs when the victim’s will is overcome by means of force, fraud or coercion. But under federal law, every juvenile who is exploited in commercial sex is also a victim — period. A juvenile cannot consent to engage in commercial sex under the law.
Commercial sexual exploitation is not Pretty Woman (the unrealistic movie with Julia Roberts); it is an unrelenting nightmare of dignity-crushing serial rape. Those who have been sexually exploited are typically deeply traumatized, and there is arguably no population in the U.S. so large and in such dire need of help with so few sources of aid as victims of human trafficking.
When Congress passed the original anti-trafficking statute in 2000, they had in mind persons from other countries being victimized here in the U.S. But it turns out that the vast majority of victims in this country are actually our own kids: 250,000 juvenile victims each year vs. perhaps 20,000 foreign victims, based on U.S. government estimates. As an aside, HHS has ruled that none of the money appropriated to help victims of human trafficking can be used to help American victims — the money can only assist foreign victims.
In 2006, HHS conducted a competition to identify an organization that could assemble a national network of service providers willing and able to assist victims of human trafficking and to provide a modest financial stipend to those organizations, based on the number of victims each was serving. The U.S. bishops’ conference won the competition and has been successfully administering that project until this fall.
This year, instead of renewing the contract with the USCCB, HHS decided to conduct a new competition with new rules: “[HHS] will give strong preference to applicants that are willing to offer all of the services and referrals …” to include “the full range of legally permissible gynecological and obstetric care.”
The USCCB applied anyway, and despite its disadvantageous refusal to provide “the full range of gynecological services,” their grant proposal scored the second-highest number of points in an objective review of all applications. Undeterred, as Markon reports in his Post story, HHS political appointees funded the highest-rated applicant, then skipped over USCCB to fund two more applicants that scored much lower — so low that the professional program staff deemed their applications to be noncompetitive (read: “unqualified”).
Dead by 21
So what good is Secretary Sebelius, working through her political appointees, seeking to achieve in jettisoning a proven and effective contractor and choosing instead two unqualified grantees? This “higher good,” of course, is abortion. If a victim of human trafficking gets pregnant, then of course she should have an abortion, right? This value trumps all other considerations.
But let’s look more closely at this proposition. If someone is being trafficked — which is to say, under the domination of a pimp/trafficker — she is by definition unable to provide informed consent to an abortion or to a regime of contraception. The victim has no voice in this decision. Indeed, providing such services to a victim of sexual trafficking benefits only the trafficker by getting the victim back out on the street and making money sooner.
The average age of entry into commercial sex exploitation is about 14. The average life expectancy of someone in commercial sexual exploitation is seven years. Start at 14, dead by 21. The mortality rate for someone in commercial sexual exploitation is 40 times higher than for a non-exploited person of the same age. Helping a victim return to exploitation more quickly by terminating a pregnancy increases the odds of death.
Kristy Childs is a survivor of commercial sexual exploitation and the founder of Veronica’s Voice, an organization in Kansas City that rescues victims. She tells me there have been many live births among her clients over the past 12 years, but she has yet to be asked for help getting an abortion. “Pregnancy often leads a woman to seek rescue and a new life,” she said.
So, on the one hand, we have the USCCB, which will never facilitate an abortion but will arrange to meet all of the other appropriate service needs of victims, from residence to medical and mental-health treatment. On the other hand, we have an abortion provider such as Planned Parenthood, whose staff have been videotaped as being willing to perpetuate the apparent sex slavery of a juvenile by arranging for an abortion and not reporting the suspicion of felony sex abuse of a minor to authorities. Which is acting in the authentic interests of the victim?
According to Secretary Sebelius’ gruesome moral calculation, the authentic interests of the victim take a back seat to liberalizing the provision of abortion — rather the inverse of a preferential option for the poor. Someone with such a distorted moral compass ought not to be making policy decisions on behalf of the nation.
Steven Wagner, president of the Renewal Forum, is the former director of the Human Trafficking Program at HHS, from 2003-2006, and the architect of the original program to aid victims of human trafficking administered by the USCCB.
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Amen. Prayers needed all around. This story breaks my heart.
Thank you for an informative article regarding human trafficking. Of course you are right that the bigger issue is the harm done to the victims. Perhaps, the upside of the grant denial will be that much more light will be shown on this issue. 250000 juvenile victims are Americans and the grants cannot be used to help them?!!!
I will pray. I am not Catholic, but I admire the way the Catholic church has stuck to its guns on issues like this. It truly is short-sighted how Sebellius has chosen to play this game. And, apparently, it *is* a game if she is willing to overlook the second-highest scored application when more than one slot is available.
Just one more reason I abhor politics.
Heartbreaking story… Sebelius is a monster - how did she get anywhere near national politics???
I didn’t know, but now understand, how a woman in this trade who becomes pregnant could find rescue/redemption from a pregnancy. When added to the fact that any baby she carries is half her DNA as well, it is all the more diabolical that abortion is pushed upon any woman in this situation.
Federal and state governments all have programs (government funded and non) for human trafficking victims. MOst of the victims are discovered via law enforcement actions and are provided with resources to regain a new life. I’m not saying that this is right, but the subtitle “Health and Human Services policy may be furthering the exploitation of sex-trafficked women” may give people the wrong impression.
Of course what we are talking about here is prostitution in all of its varities. More specifically we are talking about the prostitution of underaged girls. Surprised we have this problem? You should not be. Just turn on your TV and take a look at all the garbage that is presented as you flip through the channels. A great deal of it(including advertisement) encourages young girls to become sex pots when they should still be having an innocent childhood. But after all, this is to be expected from our capitalist society where the exploitation of human beings is preferred for profit. It all adds up to our real religion which is the free market plus our co religion which is sports where exploitation is doing quite well these days. What did you expect from such a society.
Why can’t tough laws be written that would take the pimps out of the picture. They are the scum of the earth.
I have become more and more disheartened by The Church’s American leadership. I wish the bishops would show true conviction and deal with Catholic politicians who distort Church teaching. Pelosi and Sebellius and their like should be excommunicated.
My prayer is that the Catholic church separates itself from the secular world of politics and gives up on having expectations of them. The Church has riches and billions beyond comprehension. This is where the money can come from to help these women with no one telling us how it MUST be spent or that we MUST allow for abortion and other practices the Church does not believe in. Stop asking the government for money! When you ask the government for money, you open yourself up to being told how to spend it!!
In response to Sue who posted “The Church has riches and billions beyond comprehension.” No she does not. Many dioceses in the country are struggling to keep parishes, schools and other vital service operating. Outside grants are necessary for many additional programs, without the grants she cannot afford to run such programs.
It appears that the HHS is vehemently anti - Catholic. The Dept. of HHS has over stepped its bounds in more ways than one. Kathleen Sebelius is amazingly deluded by the culture of death. What if her mother had aborted her, and, she managed to live? Abortion is clearly murder. If the HHS wants innocent blood on their hands, they already have plenty! Abortion is NOT birth control. Babies are torn to shreds and mothers experience many mental health and physical health issues. The Dept.of HHS is an abortion mill in and of itself.
Having counseled young women out of an abortion since 1979, I wonder if Kathleen has ever counseled any of these women and seen how overjoyed these women are when they deliver their beautiful babies. When a woman is so anti life as Kathleen is, it makes me wonder why such harshness. Often, a woman that has had an abortion and does not want to admit what she has done wrong will act out by being so anti-life. That woman is “covering” the abortion up by promoting abortion. It is very sad that she claims to be Catholic.
The USCCB either sat idly by or actually aided and abetted this vile administration getting into office. What did our bishops think was going to be the result? Are they that naive?
I have been following Kathleen Sebilius since she was the Governor of Kansas. Her abortion record there was the most depressing medical facts of any state in the United States. They had two late term abortion doctors (almost three) plying their works at their clinic in Wichita. They had money being fed into the state from every right to death organization in the US. Money was being fed to her re-election committee and all the other Democrat office sitters. She was told not to receive Communion by the Archbishop, but continued to support abortion politics in the face of everyone knowing that she is a catholic. She is a monster and we must pray for her immortal soul that she may have a turn of faith back to real Catholicism.
Parish Priest: Yes, it is true, many of these places are facing very difficult cutbacks. When people comment about the ‘wealth’ of the Church I have to wonder what they are looking at, how much of it comes from non-liquid assets like buildings and land? I’m sure that contributes on paper but is not all that helpful in reality. Let’s just sell all our churches…yeah, that’s practical.
But, this does bring up a valid question, which is how can we choose to support this invaluable program with private money? Is there something we can do?
Show your true Christian spirit! Cash in those diamond rings and other fancy things, and throw your support to the victims of sex trafficking!
It may be said that the DHHS is doing a bad thing by cutting off this funding, true, and that the victims are the ones who will ultimately pay. Need we look too closely to see that Catholic bishops and priests are the perpetrators of much of this vice? Obviously the Church knows it, if it’s to put its brand behind the cause. But why should all Americans be forced to foot the bill for a face-saving measure by the Church? It is well clear that we should not. Obviously funding was rightly withdrawn from this program. Obviously, instead of buying baubles and other miscellany for those we love at Christmas, we should be helping save the lives of these people who are living the grim reality of what we have propagated.
Question: Why are Sebelius, Pelosi, and Joe Biden not excommunicated? These individuals are as anti-Catholic as it gets. Isn’t it amazing that people actually vote for these diabolics.
just do a little google search of Kathleen Sebelius. You will see she has always been an abortion advocate. As governor, she and the poster child for late term abortions, George Tiller, were close allies. Tiller gave her as Kansas Governor tens of thousands of dollars and raised a whole lot more for her campaigns. Oh, and she calls herself Catholic. No wonder this president who is the most pro-abortion in history picked her to head up Health and Human Services. She has no medical background (unless you think performing abortions is a medicine.) So of course abortions trump all else in her mind. Promoting abortion is why she was picked - and she knows it.
I think our Bishops, when forming an argument on any issue, need to keep the focus on the harm that is done to the world’s victims and not on Mother Church as the victim. By this I mean,our purpose is to go out and serve the people of the world and focus on what we can do to help them, not focus on the anti-Catholic stuff and how we’ve been wronged. We can’t continually take a position of defense, that’s for victims to do. And we’re not victims, we’re survivors cause we are the body of Christ. We’re going to get a lot of bumps and bruises trying to care for the rest of the world. We have to let it go. So this may be a financial set back, but we’re not down and out. Let’s pick up and figure out how to continue without the governements help. We have to keep going. I really liked this article because the focus was where it needed to be, on the people in the world who need us the most.
ATTENTION: If you’re interested in learning more, donating time or money, or becoming involved in the crusade to end human trafficking, please check out what Linda Smith has been doing (she used to be a WA state politician but now devotes her time to lobbying-for, and saving, the victims of sex slavery).
Visit her website: http://www.sharedhope.org/
They are on Facebook as well: https://www.facebook.com/sharedhopeinternational
God bless!
Mother Theresa used to say: “If we would kill the infant in the womb, what will we not do?” I look at Ms. Sebelius and I wonder what has brought her to this? She is a Catholic and yet she supports the killing of unborn babies up until the 9th month. Perhaps that’s why she looks more and more shriveled up and miserable. We need to pray for her and for Pelosi who is getting more and more emboldened to publicly defy our Bishops and Church teachings in her aggressive push to promote the killing of babies…we need to pray. Because they receive no consequences for their advancing the abortion agenda publicly and privately and in open opposition to the Church and our Bishops, they are doing grave damage to their own souls and to Catholics who are confused. Since these abortion advocates are permitted to receive Holy Communion, they and other Catholics believe they are Catholics in good standing. And they do not seek to convert their lives because they are led to believe that what they are doing is not a serious offense against God and against millions of human babies whose lives are being terminated. Not to oppose evil is itself evil. So we must pray…
I really think that Sebelius even went so far as to oppose having the Plan B pill sold to persons under the age of 16 from the shelves so that if persons do engage in sex and become pregnant, then they will NOT have the pill accessible to them and will more than likely feel they have to procure an abortion. I wouldn’t put it past this administration to find a way for ONLY Planned Parenthood to be the sole distributor of the Plan B pill! Believe me, I am for having the Plan B pill banned forever! There is not one person in the current administration who is looking out for the well being of any woman or child.
This woman is an unmitigated monster, deliberately picked by another.
Elect people like Barack Obama and this is what you get. Too many Catholics vote for people who simply do not have our values. They vote for the Nancy Pelosi’s and John Kerry’s out of some misplaced sense of compassion for the downtrodden and “little guy”. What about the “little guy” who is killed in the womb? Shame on Catholics who have aided in putting people like Sebelius in position!!
I too, believe that the Church HAS TO Excommunicate politicians who favor, promote, and force abortion upon a society. I also believe that Priests must start to talk these issues out from the pulpit, even if it angers sleepy catholics. It needs to be enunciated loudly and boldly: that any vote for any pro-choice candidate, equals one or many little ones’ death! by ripping them apart, alive, and that it is a mortal sin to vote for such a candidate. What else really, could it be? Life is at the top of the food chain so to speak, so if one votes against life, one is for death. Who but Satan is for death? It seems so black and white. If we have to loose “tax-exempt status” for speaking “truth”, then let us get on with loosing it. This is what priests and bishops need to adopt, a crusade for truth and courage, no matter. Christians in the collosium didn’t negotiate. I am getting very discouraged and disillusioned about the lack of courage by our Catholic leaders.
Regardless of the truth that Plan B is over the counter, it is only available behind the drugstore counter, with an ID. The move to keep Plan B behind the counter was led by Kathleen Sebelius, head of the department of Health and Human Services. These restrictions may make it more difficult to get then before. Found this here: http://www.newsytype.com/13889-plan-b/
We need to pray for the souls of all the pro-aborts. May God have mercy on their souls
Sara, I suggest you read CCC (Catechism of the Catholic Church) 2272 and also Code of Canon Law 1398. Aiding in the procurement of an abortion invokes the penaly of automatic excommunication. The likes of “Catholics” like Pelosi and Kerry have already excommunicated themselves by their own actions.
I have taken advantage of living in this country without really getting involved. I was too busy trying to earn a living, raise a family, etc. etc. I think many others did the same. We let the politicians run things. But now we are paying for it.
I cannot understand someone like Sebelius. But I know she is wrong. I know Obama is wrong. The liberals are in general mostly secularists. They want to remove religious values totally. All Christians need to unite against this.
I am a former Missouri Synod Lutheran, who concerted to Catholicism and married in the Church this past Feb. 14th, St. Valentine’s Day at the age of 71. Being an older man whose religious upbringing was always against abortion, I cannot believe that Catholics who favor, support and promote abortion will ever reach salvation. I’m not going to write every name as most of you already know who they are. Secretary Sebelius’ actions are beyond belief. All I can do is pray for these stubborn, ignorant people that they will come to their senses and accept our Church’s teachings and God’s laws before it is too late. I don’t care what supporters of abortion choose to call it, to me it is the murder of innocents, may Our Heavenly Father have mercy on their souls.
I am a former Missouri Synod Lutheran, who converted to Catholicism and married in the Church this past Feb. 14th, St. Valentine’s Day at the age of 71. Being an older man whose religious upbringing was always against abortion, I cannot believe that Catholics who favor, support and promote abortion will ever reach salvation. I’m not going to write every name as most of you already know who they are. Secretary Sebelius’ actions are beyond belief. All I can do is pray for these stubborn, ignorant people that they will come to their senses and accept our Church’s teachings and God’s laws before it is too late. I don’t care what supporters of abortion choose to call it, to me it is the murder of innocents, may Our Heavenly Father have mercy on their souls.
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