President Joe Biden issued a presidential memorandum today officially rescinding the Mexico City Policy, which prevented U.S. foreign aid from going to global groups that perform abortions.
This Mexico City policy is also sometimes referred to as the “global gag rule.” Ronald Reagan introduced this policy in 1984 to ban foreign nonprofits from performing or promoting abortions as a condition of receiving U.S. family planning aid. Since 1984, the Mexico City policy has been repealed by every Democratic president and reinstated by every Republican president. Under former President Trump, the policy was expanded, identifying a larger range of international aid programs that could fall under the ban.
Last week, NRB sent an open letter to President Biden urging him not to rescind the Mexico City Policy.
“People of faith across the religious spectrum oppose federal funding for a practice that violates their conscience,” NRB CEO Troy Miller wrote in the letter. “As your Catholic faith teaches, every human being, from conception to natural death, is made in the image of God and is deserving of respect and dignity.”
After President Biden’s action today, a number of NRB members responded.
“President Biden’s latest threat to freedom forces Americans to fund groups that perform or promote elective abortions globally under the guise of ‘protecting women’s health,’” said Alliance Defending Freedom General Counsel Kristen Waggoner. “In what is plainly an attempt to placate the abortion industry, these executive actions threaten the unborn and strip away the rights of taxpayers who do not wish to participate in funding organizations advocating for abortion. Rather than saving lives and empowering women, President Biden’s order targets women and children while forcing Americans to foot the bill.”
[click_to_tweet tweet=”President Biden’s latest threat to freedom forces Americans to fund groups that perform or promote elective abortions globally under the guise of protecting women’s health — @KWaggonerADF” quote=”President Biden’s latest threat to freedom forces Americans to fund groups that perform or promote elective abortions globally under the guise of protecting women’s health — Alliance Defending Freedom General Counsel Kristen Waggoner” theme=”style5″]
Family Research Council also criticized Biden’s swift repeal of this policy.
“Over 75% of Americans oppose taxpayer funding for abortions abroad. In repealing the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance Policy, President Joe Biden sided with the abortion industry over the American people,” said Mary Szoch, Director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council. “Though President Biden has promised to bring our nation together, his immediate attack on the most vulnerable among us, the unborn, will only cause further division. Abortion takes the life of an unborn child — executive action forcing American taxpayers to pay for this atrocity certainly isn’t unifying.”
