Trump Blocks Federal Funding For Abortion in US and Abroad
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Blocking government funding for abortions both in the US and abroad, newly inaugurated President Donald Trump on Friday reinstated the Mexico City Policy and the Hyde Amendment.
The Mexico City Amendment is a Reagen-era policy that prohibits government funding of foreign organizations that provide and promote abortions. The policy was scrapped by Trump’s predecessor, Democratic incumbent Joe Biden, who revoked the order by executive order in January 2021. All Republican administrations since Ronald Reagan’s in the 1980s have implemented the Mexico City Policy, while all Democratic administrations since then have revoked it. Democrats claim the policy undermines women’s reproductive health and US partnerships in global health efforts.
“I direct the Secretary of State, in coordination with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, to the extent allowable by law, to implement a plan to extend the requirements of the reinstated Memorandum to global health assistance furnished by all departments or agencies,” Trump wrote in his order on the Mexico City Policy Friday. “I further direct the Secretary of State to take all necessary actions, to the extent permitted by law, to ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars do not fund organizations or programs that support or participate in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.”
First implemented in 1977, the Hyde Amendment prohibits federal funding for abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or where the pregnancy poses a threat to the woman’s life.
“For nearly five decades, the Congress has annually enacted the Hyde Amendment and similar laws that prevent Federal funding of elective abortion, reflecting a longstanding consensus that American taxpayers should not be forced to pay for that practice,” Trump’s order on Hyde Amendment reads. “However, the previous administration disregarded this established, commonsense policy by embedding forced taxpayer funding of elective abortions in a wide variety of Federal programs.”
“It is the policy of the United States, consistent with the Hyde Amendment, to end the forced use of Federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion,” the order states.
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