Biden administration tries to bribe Sierra Leone to relax abortion restrictions

The Biden administration has been caught offering the African country Sierra Leone increases in foreign aid if it will adopt a more permissible posture toward abortion.

The country's laws currently prohibit most abortions, but legislation is up for passage that would decriminalize the procedure.

The Biden administration has dangled $480 million in aid before Sierra Leone's leaders, but only if the legislation passes.

The way Biden is getting away with this is that the aid will come from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a government-run funding source.

The aid requires Sierra Leone to follow "rigorous standards for good governance, fighting corruption and respecting democratic rights," and part of that is to allow abortion and provide access.

The organization has denied trying to force Sierra Leone's hand on abortion policies, saying in a statement, "The Millennium Challenge Corporation is unaware of any Sierra Leonean abortion legislation and has never made any requests to the Government of Sierra Leone regarding abortion policies. Any such legislation would be an internal matter for Sierra Leone with no U.S. government developments fund made contingent on its passage."