Today, President Biden announced that he will rescind the pro-life Mexico City Policy.
The Mexico City Policy, established by President Reagan, prohibits U.S. foreign aid to groups that provide or promote abortion overseas. This policy has been a political football since President Clinton first rescinded it. One of President George W. Bush’s first administrative actions was reinstating this policy, and the policy has gone back and forth since then.
Why is it named for “Mexico City”?
In 1984, President Reagan gave a speech announcing the policy at the United Nations International Conference on Population Development (ICPD) hosted in Mexico City. President Reagan instituted this important new pro-life policy at this UN conference because its purpose was to ensure that U.S. federal money would not suppor any foreign nongovernmental organization (NGO) that “performs or actively promotes abortion as a method of family planning.”