President Donald Trump signed an order ending funding for overseas nongovernmental organizations that provide abortions or that promote and advocate for the killing of unborn humans.
He did so on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, put into law by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 and overturned in 2022, also by the Supreme Court, which stated that the laws on abortion are the responsibilities of individual states, not the federal government. There is no federal right to an abortion.
Federal law — the Hyde Amendment — does not permit use of taxpayer dollars to support abortion services in other countries, but abortion groups have worked around that by using federal dollars to advocate for abortions and advise women how to get them. Running on U.S. taxpayer dollars, they can then free up other money to pay for the abortions.
The policy is one that changes depending on whether Democrats or Republicans are in power. President Ronald Reagan enacted such a ban on the use of taxpayer dollars overseas, but Democrat presidents, including Joe Biden, have reversed that ban. Trump once again put it in place on his fourth day in office.
Opponents refer to it as the Mexico City Policy. The rule applies not only to organizations that receive U.S. taxpayer dollars but to the groups they work with that provide the abortions. The people of America, for the next four years, won’t be paying for the advocacy of abortion in other countries.
The United States is by far the largest funder of global health services and so-called family planning services. Of the over $15 billion U.S. taxpayers spend on overseas health programs, nearly $700 million is spent on “family planning.”
On Thursday, Trump pardoned several anti-abortion activists, including a Catholic priest, who protested and prayed at the entrances of abortion clinics.
Trump said it was “a great honor to sign this. They should not have been prosecuted.”
