Millions in Defense Dollars Back Group Supporting ‘Safe Abortions’ Globally

The Department of Defense has given multimillion-dollar grants in recent years to a health organization that promotes “safe abortions” and “reproductive health” abroad. The DOD’s stated goal for the money is to mitigate the spread of HIV and AIDS in the military forces of U.S. allies.

The organization, Washington, D.C.-based Population Services International, supports “safe abortion” as well as “sexual & reproductive health,” according to its website’s “practice areas” page. 

“Through its global health engagement efforts, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) works with foreign nations to ensure health protection and medical readiness,” the organization’s website says. 

“The Department of Defense HIV/AIDS Prevention Program (DHAPP) is responsible for assisting foreign military partners with the development and implementation of culturally focused, military-specific HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment programs in over 65 countries,” the site continued.

The Defense Department funds other health nonprofits to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, but Population Services International jumped out to Robert Stilson, senior research analyst at the Capital Research Center, because of its support for abortion.

“There are few Defense Department grants that go to nonprofits and even fewer that go to ideological nonprofits,” Stilson told The Daily Signal. 

“This is a largely unobjectionable cause, HIV prevention. You can question whether U.S. tax dollars should fund foreign militaries. But even funding for an uncontroversial objective goes to an organization that supports something controversial like abortion,” he said.

Stilson’s research on the DOD grants noted $2.3 million in funding for the Lesotho Defense Forces, which he said has about 2,000 members. That’s an expense of $1,000 per service member, whether the service member is HIV positive or not, Stilson said.  

Lesotho is a small country in Southern Africa.

“I don’t think most Americans think about HIV protections for foreign militaries,” Stilson added. 

The U.S. Agency for International Development, better known as USAID, and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, also known as PEPFAR and created under President George W. Bush, have also given millions to Population Services International. 

“Per the cooperative agreement’s terms and conditions, all recipients agree to comply with all existing U.S. statutory abortion restrictions that apply to U.S. foreign assistance funding,” Peter Graves, a Military Health System spokesman, told The Daily Signal in an email.

Graves said agreements with Population Services International are done in cooperation with the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and that funding is transferred to the DOD from the State Department. The money is implemented in 12-month phases with the current phase ending Sept. 30, he said. 

“Award conditions are current to include all applicable executive orders, including the Presidential Memorandum to reinstate the Mexico City Policy (Jan. 24, 2025) and Enforcing the Hyde Act (Jan. 24, 2025),” Graves continued, referring to two of President Donald Trump’s executive orders mandating that taxpayer dollars do not go to the promotion of or payment for abortions. 

“These cooperative agreements do not and cannot support abortion services nor perform actions that motivate or coerce abortion practices,” he said.

Graves said three active grants are funded through the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity to support the Defense Department’s HIV/AIDS Prevention Program. The active grants are: 

• A $7 million grant from the Defense Department to Population Services International from October 2021 to September 2025 for the Burundi National Defense Force to control the spread of HIV/AIDS.
• A $2.3 million grant from September 2022 through September 2025 from the Defense Department to Population Services International for the Lesotho Defense Forces in a “Partnership for Sustainable HIV Epidemic Control.”
• A $305,352 grant from September 2024 through September 2025 from the Defense Department to Population Services International for the Guatemalan, El Salvadoran, and Honduran armed forces to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Other funding occurred during the Biden administration, the first Trump administration, or predated the first Trump administration.

According to the federal budget website USASpending.gov, some of the Defense Department grants to Population Services International for HIV/AIDS during the Biden administration included: 

• A Defense Department grant of $8.4 million to Population Services International from late 2020 through late 2024 “to train and assist selected foreign militaries in establishing and implementing HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment programs for their military personnel and dependents.”
• Another $3.9 million grant for HIV/AIDS prevention from January 2017 to January 2021. 
• Another $1.3 million grant from August 2020 to September 2024 to pay for HIV/AIDS prevention.

Population Services International was a party in the 1977 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Carey v. Population Services International that established a constitutional right to privacy for a minor to obtain contraceptives in the United States.

The organization says it operates in more than 20 countries, addressing malaria, HIV/AIDS, contraception, and other health issues. It says it has reached 63.8 million people with health care services for family planning, malaria, tuberculosis, and sanitation needs.  

The organization’s 2022 annual report listed the Defense Department as a “partner,” a term often used for donors. The governments of several countries, several United Nations agencies, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were also listed as partners. The most recent annual report on the organization’s website, from 2023, doesn’t reference the Defense Department. 

Population Services International had $218.9 million in overall funding from governments in 2023 out of a total in public and private contributions of $347.9 million, according to the organization’s filing with the Internal Revenue Service for that year. 

It reportedly received about $1 billion from the U.S. Agency for International Development for health and medical work abroad from 2013 to 2022, according to the Congressional Research Service. USAID was effectively defunded earlier this year. 

The Daily Signal previously reported that Population Services International was among two dozen groups that back abortion that were also receiving funding through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The organization received $96.5 million in that funding in 2021 and 2022, according to a report by the conservative Family Research Council. 

A spokesperson for Population Services International did not respond to numerous phone and email inquiries for this story.

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