President Biden he is expected to use his executive power 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 being allocated to non-governmental organizations that provide them abortions, advocate for the legalization and expansion of access to abortion or provide advice on abortion.
This policy, first announced by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, has been regularly enacted by Republican administrations and overturned by Democratic administrations.
But Mexico City’s policy expanded under the Trump administration, banning funding for NGOs that in turn fund other programs that offer abortions or abortion counseling.
A 2020 report from the Office of Government Accountability found in 2017 at least 54 cases in which NGOs did not accept U.S. federal aid dollars because they did not want to stop defending access to abortion or limiting it. ‘advice on abortion. This caused the NGOs to give up $ 153 million, according to the report.
It is also expected that Mr. Biden is asking the Department of Health and Human Services to review a similar policy in the United States that prevents Title X money, a federal program designed to help low-income patients afford reproductive health care. care centers that offer abortion counseling.
Finally, Mr. Biden is expected to reject or suppress U.S. approval for the 2020 Geneva Consensus, which is a non-binding international declaration signed by countries opposed to abortion. Led by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the United States was part of more than 30 countries, namely Uganda, Hungary, Indonesia, Brazil and Egypt. Critics also consider the text of the pact to be anti-LGBTQ and anti-gay marriage, as most of the nations involved have not legalized same-sex marriage and several others criminalize and prosecute their LGBTQ citizens.
These executive actions are expected to be part of additional health care-related actions on Thursday, according to people familiar with the plans.
While these actions were expected, Mr Biden has not always supported 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, in June 2019 Biden reversed his stance and said he was now in favor of repealing the Hyde amendment.
“I can’t justify leaving millions of women without access to the care they need and the ability … to exercise their constitutionally protected right,” Biden said at the time.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.