Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced legislation Friday that would make the administration’s “Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance” policy, formerly known as the Mexico City Policy, permanent statutory policy.
“The administration’s ban on funding overseas organizations that promote abortion has already saved and will continue to save countless lives across the globe,” Lee said. “We cannot leave the fate of these regulations up to the whims of successive presidents. Congress must now step up and do what they can to turn the ‘Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance’ executive order into law.”
In 1984, President Ronald Reagan established the ‘‘Mexico City Policy,’’ which prohibits foreign aid for family planning purposes from being given to foreign nongovernmental organizations that provide or promote abortion as an option for family planning, regardless of the source of funding. When applied, this prohibits any foreign private or nonprofit entity from receiving US family planning foreign assistance that provides or promotes abortion.
President Clinton and President Obama overturned the policy in 1993 and 2009, respectively. Apparently, they supported U.S. taxpayer dollars being used to end new life or to promote abortion.
The Department of State restored President Reagan’s policy in May of 2017 and renamed it “Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance.” As part of this modernization, the policy was expanded to cover all Federal aid, not just family planning assistance.
