On Tuesday, Congressman Tom Cole (R-OK) called attention to a recent report by the Inspector General of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which reveals that the agency helped fund training to participate in abortions.
According to the report, CNCS (the federal agency that runs AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, and other national service initiatives) gave a grant to the National Association of Community Health Centers, which in turn trained AmeriCorps members to be abortion doulas at three New York health center locations, without discussing the move with CNCS for two years. The federal Serve America Act forbids AmeriCorps participants to partake in abortion.
“I am outraged by the terrible misuse of taxpayer dollars under the direction of the National Association of Community Health Centers,” Cole declared. “While participating in the Community HealthCorps program, it is absolutely unacceptable that AmeriCorps members were wrongfully instructed and encouraged to assist in abortion-related procedures and services at community health centers.”
In response to the revelations, Cole is calling on CNCS CEO Wendy Spencer to terminate grants to NACHC and launch an investigation into all of AmeriCorps grant recipients to identify and stop any similar potential violations. He has also sent a letter to the Inspector General of the Health and Human Services Department calling for an investigation into whether community health centers are following the federal ban on funding elective abortions.
