WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. Mike Lee has introduced legislation intended to put “real teeth” into enforcement of the Helms Amendment.
“For years,” according to Lee, “American tax dollars have gone to fund foreign aid efforts that promote abortion, in direct violation of the Helms Amendment. This has been largely because there have been no real penalties for this grievous abuse – until now.”
Authored by former North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, the so-called Helms Amendment was added to the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act in 1973. That addendum states that “… no foreign assistance funds may be used to pay for the performance of abortion as a method of family planning or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions.”
Lee’s staff members here in Washington report that the State Department has recently admitted that, during the Biden administration, partners and grantees using funds from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) misused funds intended for HIV/AIDS prevention to perform abortions in the African nation of Mozambique.
Under the Trump administration, the State Department has suspended that funding and secured reimbursements which amounted to more than $1 million.
However, Lee’s staff member say that U.S. statutes don’t prescribe any real penalties or consequences for co-opting foreign aid funding to push the progressive abortion agenda with taxpayer dollars.
The legislation proposed by Utah senior senator would correct that statutory shortcoming.
“Our legislation – dubbed the Aid Accountability Act of 2025 – permanently cuts off aid to any organization which violates the abortion prohibition,” Lee explains, “and permanently fires any federal employee who knowingly facilitates it.”
Specifically, the Aid Accountability Act would make any grantee or contractor who violates the Helms Amendment prohibition ineligible for U.S. funding; bars any federal employee who facilitates that violation from civil service for life and makes them financially liable for those violations; and directs the Secretary of State to make final determinations of violations and penalties, subject to review by federal courts and by Congress.
In the Senate, Lee’s proposal is being co-sponsored by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ashley Moody (R-FL).
Companion legislation was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) on April 11.
The Aid Accountability Act of 2025 is also being supported by conservative rights groups, including the Family Research Council and the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.