ACLU Claims Misuse Of Taxpayer $$$ In Trafficking Program

Both the Global Health and Women's Rights blogs list it among their most controversial issues: reproductive rights/abortion.  It's an explosive issue which is now being brought to the frontlines of the trafficking world by (who else but) the ACLU.

The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday asked a federal court to require the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to ensure that taxpayer money intended to help victims of human trafficking in rehabilitation is not being limited by religiously-based restrictions on reproductive health services.  According to the ACLU, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, one of the primary recipients of federal funding to serve trafficking victims, has been denying the reproductive rights of trafficked women.

For more than two years, the Bush administration has sanctioned the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' blatant misuse of taxpayer dollars," said Daniel Mach, Director of Litigation for the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief.  "It has allowed USCCB to impose its religious beliefs on trafficking victims by prohibiting sub grantees from ensuring access to services like emergency contraception, condoms, and abortion care."

The full text of the complaint is available here, but basically the ACLU claims that trafficking victims shouldn't be prevented from accessing safe, legal reproductive healthcare simply because they were identified and are being served by a Catholic organization which disagrees with some forms of reproductive healthcare.  And it's important to note that in this case, "reproductive healthcare" is not just being used as a euphamism/synonym for "abortion", but includes things like condoms, which are critical for trafficking victims who have been infected with HIV to decrease the likelihood of spreading it.

It's the dawning of a new era in so many movements, and the anti-trafficking movement is surely going to be shaken up with the rest of them.