President biden must use its executive authority to terminate the Mexico City Policy, also known as the global gag rule, as part of a series of executive actions on Thursday, according to three people familiar with the White House plans. Mexico City policy prohibits federal dollars from going to non-governmental organizations that provide abortions, who advocate the legalization and expansion of access to abortion or who provide advice on abortion.
This policy, first announced by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, has been regularly enacted by Republican administrations and terminated by Democratic administrations.
But the Mexico City Policy has been expanded under the Trump administration, banning funding from NGOs, which in turn fund other programs that offer abortion or abortion counseling.
A 2020 report by the Government Accountability Office found in 2017 at least 54 cases in which NGOs did not accept U.S. federal aid dollars because they did not want to interrupt their advocacy for access to abortion or limit abortion counseling. This resulted in the NGOs waiving US $ 153 million, according to the report.
Biden should also ask the Department of Health and Human Services to review a similar policy in the United States that prevents money from Title X, a federal program designed to help low-income patients pay for reproductive health care, to go to health centers. services that offer abortion counseling.
Finally, Biden is expected to reject or remove the United States endorsement of the Geneva Consensus in 2020, which is a non-binding international declaration signed by countries that oppose abortion. Led by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the United States was among more than 30 countries, namely Uganda, Hungary, Indonesia, Brazil and Egypt, to join the consensus. The text of the pact is also seen by critics as anti-LGBTQ and anti-same-sex marriage, since most of the nations involved have not legalized same-sex marriage and several others have criminalized and prosecuted their LGBTQ citizens.
These executive actions are expected to be part of additional health-related actions on Thursday, said people familiar with the plans.
Although these actions were expected, Mr. Biden did not always support expanding access to abortion. For decades, then Senator Biden supported the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal money for abortion services in most cases. But under pressure from progressive groups and fellow Democratic presidential candidates, Biden in June 2019 reversed his position and said he was now in favor of repealing the Hyde Amendment.
“I cannot justify leaving millions of women without access to the care they need and the ability … to exercise their protected constitutional right,” said Biden at the time.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.