Mike Levin: “over 25 years ago I was assistant administrator of AID, running the population program. This issue of fungibility came…”

“over 25 years ago I was assistant administrator of AID, running the population program. This issue of fungibility came up. We were assiduously implementing the Hyde amendment. So we tried through accounting mechanisms to address the fungibility issue. So then it was said that's not enough. So then Mexico City was proposed and implemented. This is not a repeal of the Mexico City policy. Whatever one thinks of it, it is not. This isn't about abortion, and it really isn't about fungibility. Mr. Wolf, if you take your position far enough, we should give no military assistance to any country that has a policy on family planning that you don't like because in that sense it is fungible. But that carries it beyond a rule of reason. And what this proposal does is to apply a rule of reason, as has been said, to contraceptives provided in kind to people who need these contraceptives. That is the long and the short of this. And, essentially, you are the ones who are blurring the issue, not us. And if you take your logic to the extreme, you will tie this appropriation process for numerous countries into knots. This is trying to untie a knot, if you want to put it that way, only in the sense of providing products in kind to people who need them. And if you say you are for family planning and you vote otherwise, you are voting against family planning.”