This week, President Donald Trump made a significant step in fulfilling his pro-life promises by expanding the Mexico City Policy. That Reagan-era rule, routinely dropped by Democrat presidents and reinstated by Republican ones, strips billions of dollars from international non-governmental organizations that promote or perform abortions.
Nearly $9 billion will now go to organizations that agree not to include abortion alongside health care for women.
Rep. Chris Smith, from New Jersey, praised the expansion in a commentary on The Daily Signal.
“This funding includes not only family planning, but other global health assistance such as maternal and child health, malaria and HIV/AIDs,” he said. “Also of significance, the new pro-child, pro-woman safeguards do not reduce funding for global health assistance by so much as a dollar.”
President Trump’s policy, dubbed Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance, includes exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother. It does not prevent NGO’s from providing care for any abortion-related illness or injury.
Pro-abortion activists have decried the expansion of the policy, but Marjorie Dannenfelser with the Susan B. Anthony List, said it’s a step in the right direction – and it’s exactly why pro-lifers put Donald Trump in the White House.
“With the implementation of Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance,” she said in a statement, “we have officially ceased exporting abortion to foreign nations. No longer will we undermine the pro-life laws and cultural commitments of other countries by funding organizations that obsessively promote and perform abortion. Our hard-earned tax dollars will now be used by health care entities that act consistently to save lives rather than destroy them.”
President Trump has made positive steps toward fulfilling many of his campaign promises to evangelicals. By undoing the Obama Title IX “bathroom” mandate he empowered states to protect the privacy and safety of students. Signing the religious freedom executive order was a first step toward strengthening our Constitutional freedoms and now the expansion of the Mexico City Policy that further protects human life, not just here, but around the globe.
“There is still much work that remains to be done,” said Stephanie Curry, policy manager with Family Policy Alliance. “As believers, we need to make sure that President Trump and Congress fulfill those promises, especially defunding Planned Parenthood and preventing government from targeting people and business owners of faith.”
