President Donald Trump added to his excellent pro-life record today by reversing Joe Biden’s policy forcing Americans to fund International Planned Parenthood.
While on Air Force One today, President Trump signed crucial pro-life executive orders which pro-life advocates have strongly prioritized and advocated for.
During his first week in office last term, Trump signed the Mexico City policy in one of his first acts as president. The pro-life policy prohibits American tax dollars to groups that promote or provide abortions overseas. The move defunded two major abortion chains of hundreds of millions of American tax dollars. The International Planned Parenthood Federation alone estimated a $100 million loss from its budget.
The Mexico City policy, which began with President Ronald Reagan, historically has been supported by pro-life presidents and rescinded by pro-abortion presidents. Trump went further though. He not only reinstated the policy but also expanded it by increasing the number of global health assistance funds and government programs that are covered under the policy.
Today, Trump revoked Biden’s executive order canceling the Mexico City Policy:
I hereby revoke the Presidential Memorandum of January 28, 2021, for the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (Protecting Women’s Health at Home and Abroad), and reinstate the Presidential Memorandum of January 23, 2017, for the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (The Mexico City Policy).
I direct the Secretary of State, in coordination with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, to the extent allowable by law, to implement a plan to extend the requirements of the reinstated Memorandum to global health assistance furnished by all departments or agencies.
I further direct the Secretary of State to take all necessary actions, to the extent permitted by law, to ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars do not fund organizations or programs that support or participate in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.
This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
The Secretary of State is authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.
The Mexico City Policy is a policy that prohibits U.S. government global health funding from being used to fund foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that perform or promote abortion. The policy also blocks foreign organizations that receive global health grants from providing any type of financial assistance to other foreign NGOs that perform or promote abortion.
In 2017, the Trump administration renamed the Mexico City Policy the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance Policy (PLGHA).
Currently, the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance Policy only applies to certain kinds of U.S. government awards—the policy currently only applies grants and cooperative agreements. The new proposed rule issued by the Trump administration last week, however, would extend the policy to contracts as well.
The policy requires foreign contractors that sign onto U.S. government global health contracts to certify that they will not perform or promote abortion or provide financial assistance to any foreign pro-abortion organization for the duration of their award. Foreign contractors would be banned from conducting any activities directly aimed at encouraging women to seek abortion and they would be prohibited from lobbying activities in support of the legalization of abortion.
The Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance Policy in included as a clause in their contract agreement and contractors would be required to pass down the policy to any subcontractors.