How many foreign NGOs are subject to the Expanded Mexico City Policy?
Posted by Maria Codina on December 7, 2017 at 11:04 am
A new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that at least 1,275 foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and approximately $2.2 billion in global health funding could be subject to the expanded Mexico City Policy. In addition, at least 469 U.S. NGOs could be required to ensure that their foreign NGO sub-recipients are in compliance with the policy.
The Trump administration’s reinstated and expanded policy requires foreign NGOs to certify that they will not perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning with any funds as a condition of receiving U.S. global health assistance, going beyond prior iterations. While it is not yet known how many NGOs will be affected, this new analysis sought to understand the potential impact by identifying the number of foreign NGOs that received global health assistance during FY 2013-2015 and would have been subject to the policy had it been in place during that time.
The expansion of the policy greatly increased its reach, according to the analysis. Among prime recipients alone, most affected foreign NGOs (92%) and funding (88%) would not have been subject to the policy under its pre-expansion terms. Since its inception in 1984, the Mexico City Policy has usually been applied under Republican presidents and rescinded under Democratic presidents for family planning funds; the Trump policy is broader, encompassing most global health aid.
