Texas Congressman Takes on the World Health Organization

January of 2023 marked the beginning of the 118th Congress.

The process that led up to the election of the Speaker of the House turned out to be pretty high drama. It was also quite revealing, particularly when it comes to a pivotal Capitol Hill character, Congressman Chip Roy, R-Texas.

Rep. Roy played a key role in the negotiations that helped Kevin McCarthy ultimately take the gavel.

In addition to being a top negotiator, the congressman is a true idea man. One recent idea of his is particularly noteworthy. He has introduced legislation to stop sending taxpayer dollars to the World Health Organization (WHO).

There are plenty of good reasons to stop spending money that we don’t have. Sending gobs of cash to a highly questionable international organization is way up there on the list.

A glaring example of exactly the kind of group WHO has devolved into occurred in January 2020. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the organization, issued a statement on the then-emerging COVID outbreak.

“As I have said repeatedly since my return from Beijing, the Chinese government is to be congratulated for the extraordinary measures it has taken to contain the outbreak, despite the severe social and economic impact those measures are having on the Chinese people,” the statement read.

The WHO official wasn’t done praising the CCP yet.

“The speed with which China detected the outbreak, isolated the virus, sequenced the genome and shared it with WHO and the world are very impressive, and beyond words. So is China’s commitment to transparency and to supporting other countries,” the statement further read.

America didn’t agree. Neither did then-President Donald Trump, who promptly halted our nation’s financial support for the organization.

However, the Biden administration later reversed the decision and reinstated the WHO funding.

A significant reason why Congressman Roy and President Trump agree on defunding the WHO is the global group’s incessant promotion of abortion.

“Funneling millions of taxpayer dollars to the corrupt World Health Organization that serves the Chinese Communist Party is a slap in the face to hardworking American families struggling under record high inflation, and to all those whose lives and livelihoods were ruined and destroyed by the COVID pandemic,” Congressman Roy recently stated.

During the COVID pandemic, the WHO indicated in its statement that “services related to reproductive health are considered to be part of essential services during the COVID-19 outbreak,” adding, “Women’s choices and rights to sexual and reproductive health care should be respected, irrespective of whether or not she has a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection.”

Rep. Roy shared that his political philosophy took root as a result of his early Baptist faith and Reagan-era values upbringing.

As a young man he took field trips to the nation’s capital and Civil War battlefields, and enjoyed watching John Wayne and World War II movies alongside his parents.

“Fairly early on I had a belief in limited government being good for freedom,” he said. “I was raised on the idea of rugged individualism.”

The House member, who was once Senator Ted Cruz’s chief of staff as well as assistant attorney general of Texas, has been guided by his Christian faith into a deeper commitment to the pro-life cause.

Several years ago he co-wrote a piece for the National Review about the annual Women’s March.

“In their zeal to shock and to trumpet a convoluted notion of freedom to have their bodies ‘left alone,’ these marchers exclude the bodies of the unborn. What about the rights of an unborn child? What about the safety of an unborn child?” Rep. Roy wrote.

Motivated by his pro-life sensibilities, he introduced the subject bill to disallow any federal funding for the WHO. The legislation is titled “No Taxpayer Funding for the World Health Organization Act.”

Congressman Roy’s House colleagues, Tom McClintock, R-Calif., Jeff Duncan, R- S.C., Mary Miller, R-Ill., Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., Diana Harshbarger, R-Tenn., Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., Dan Bishop, R-N.C., John Moolenaar, R-Mich., Pat Fallon, R-Texas, Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, Clay Higgins, R-La., and Greg Steube, R-Fla., have joined with him in introducing the legislation.

In 2022, the WHO went on record seeking global abortion on demand and calling for pro-life nations to allow abortions without limits.

The WHO is also seeking to restrict medical conscience rights, eliminate physician approval, allow abortion pills via mail, and permit abortions for sex-selection.

Congressman Roy told the truth about the dishonest anti-life organization.

“The WHO not only regularly promotes abortion and radical gender ideology but also…has done nothing to hold the CCP accountable for the spread of COVID-19. It is far past time for Congress to use its power of the purse to cut off US funding to this corrupt international body…,” he stated.