No Taxpayer Dollars for Abortions

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Secretary of State Pompeo announced today that the U.S. State Department will enforce, to the broadest extent possible, regulations under the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance program that protects U.S. foreign aid funding from being used to pay for or promote abortion overseas. While the State Department will continue to refuse to provide assistance to foreign nongovernmental organizations that "perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning," the State Department will also refuse to provide assistance to foreign nongovernmental organizations that give to other foreign groups in the global abortion industry.

"American taxpayer dollars will not be used to underwrite abortions," said Pompeo. Within a week of taking office on January 23, 2017, President Trump reinstated and expanded the Mexico City Policy, now called the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance, which bans U.S. funding for abortions overseas. The expanded policy prohibits $9 billion in U.S. taxpayer money from funding foreign organizations that perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning. The pro-life policy applies global health assistance funding for international health programs, such as those for HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, malaria, global health security, and family planning and reproductive health, but not for abortion. The Mexico City Policy was originally announced by President Reagan in 1984 and required nongovernmental organizations to agree that they "would neither perform nor actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations" before receiving any federal funding. In 2009, President Barack Obama refused to honor the policy, resulting in a portion of over $400 million in federal funds being released to the abortion organizations like IPPF and Marie Stopes International for their foreign efforts. The IPPF reports that its affiliates ended the lives of nearly one million unborn children in 2015 alone and claims to have provided 16.8 million abortion-related services over the past five years. "President Trump and Secretary Pompeo are making significant progress to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to fund the murder of innocent babies," said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. "Former President Obama refused to honor the Mexico City Policy and ushered in a bloody eight years by his radical support of Planned Parenthood domestically and abroad. President Trump has now turned off the spigot of taxpayer funding for abortions outside of the United States," said Staver.