Jan 23, 2017
WASHINGTON, D.C. – One day after the 44th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s infamous abortion decision in Roe v. Wade, President Donald Trump today signed an executive order to restore the Mexico City Policy and defund International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).
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.
Former President Barack Obama overturned the policy that provided a portion of over $400 million in federal funds to the abortion businesses 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’s executive order to reinstate the Mexico City Policy stops taxpayer funding of groups that perform and promote abortions overseas, but does not stop non-abortion international assistance.
“Today we celebrate a significant step in the battle to make the womb a safe place again,” 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. It is also significant that President Trump did this on his first full day in the Oval Office and one day after the Roe v. Wade decision anniversary. We cannot reverse the deaths of more than 58 million children but we can reverse the tragic flow of money that allows Planned Parenthood to end the lives of innocent children,” said Staver.
Liberty Counsel represents Sandra Merritt, the journalist whose courageous undercover work exposed Planned Parenthood’s barbaric practices of harvesting organs from babies and selling them to StemExpress and other organ procurement organizations for extreme profit. The videos she helped produce stirred the conscience of America and led to the defunding of Planned Parenthood in more than 10 states.
Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.