Senator Hawley Calls on President Biden to Reconsider Rescinding Mexico City Policy, Funding Abortions in Foreign Countries

Press Release

Today U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to reconsider rescinding the Mexico City Policy, a rule that prevented U.S. aid money from being allocated to foreign nonprofit organizations (NGOs) who perform or actively support abortions.

Senator Hawley wrote, "For millions of pro-life Missourians, and millions more pro-life and religious conservatives across the country, your administration's effort to compel American taxpayers to fund foreign organizations working to snuff out the lives of unborn children around the world is an affront to their most deeply-held beliefs. Sadly, it provides further evidence that your appeals to unity were primarily words for a campaign -- words that you appear to have little intention of putting into action."

Read Senator Hawley's letter to President Biden here or below.

February 3, 2021

President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

I write today to urge you to reconsider your disastrous decision to rescind an important rule commonly referred to as the "Mexico City Policy." For millions of pro-life Missourians, and millions more pro-life and religious conservatives across the country, your administration's effort to compel American taxpayers to fund foreign organizations working to snuff out the lives of unborn children around the world is an affront to their most deeply-held beliefs. Sadly, it provides further evidence that your appeals to unity were primarily words for a campaign -- words that you appear to have little intention of putting into action.

As you know, the Mexico City Policy was originally introduced in 1984, and has been an important safeguard to ensure that foreign nonprofit organizations (NGOs) receiving U.S. aid money for family planning and global health assistance will not "perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning." This policy is common-sense. Regardless of where one stands on the moral question of abortion, we should all be able to agree that resources entrusted to the federal government by American taxpayers should be used for the defense, betterment, and advancement of American lives and American values, not to subsidize the killing of unborn children abroad.

Similarly perplexing is your decision to make this a top priority of your new administration. During your several decades in Congress, you regularly supported the Hyde Amendment -- an important safeguard against federal funds being used to support abortion procedures domestically.[1] Though you have recently changed your long-standing position on this issue, I must ask: How can you justify engaging in a taxpayer funded effort internationally that we have -- in a bipartisan way, no less -- long created safeguards against domestically in defense of life, liberty, and conscience?

A majority of Americans have consistently opposed the use of taxpayer dollars to subsidize abortions in the United States. A recent poll found that an even larger 77% of Americans, including 64% of abortion supporters, oppose taxpayer funding of abortions overseas.[2]Your efforts to rescind the Mexico City Policy clearly contradict the wishes of the citizens you represent, and are antithetical to the values we claim to stand for as a nation.

I will continue to advocate for the lives of the unborn, both in the United States and abroad. Today, I again ask you to resist partisan pressure and choose to protect life.

Sincerely,

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