Most Americans would agree to help individuals caught up in human trafficking, frequently women or children sold into servitude for sex, housework and other kinds of labor. Your tax dollars are being used to provide basic services for these people who are getting resettled into a new life. Sounds pretty good. After all, these people were basically kidnapped from their homes and put into some kind of indentured work and certainly deserve a helping hand.

Up to $6 million of your tax dollars are going to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to provide things like health care, rent, clothing, child care, English classes and immigration filing fees. This also sounds pretty good too – the USCCB probably has people’s best interests in mind. The USCCB then re-grants to local organizations to provide these services.

There’s one hitch that caught my eye: organizations cannot tell these formerly trafficked persons where they can get contraception or an abortion. Does the government require this? No. It simply allows the USCCB to impose this restriction on its sub-grantees. So these people were kidnapped, trafficked and, just when they get help and a first taste of freedom, they find out someone else now has control over their lives. If you’re really trying to help those who have been trafficked into sex work or who have been sexually abused, seems like you would encourage access to reproductive health care.

This is another case of disservice to people in need fostered by the Bush Administration’s intent to get more and more public dollars into the hands of organizations that can do things like block knowledge about and access to contraception.

Welcome to the “home of the free”.