Biden rescinds abortion restrictions on US foreign aid

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday rescinded a regulation that barred U. S. foreign aid from being used to perform or promote abortions. His decision, while expected, was cheered by abortion- choice advocates and some humanitarian groups and denounced by anti-abortion groups.

The move also included a restoration of American funding to the U. N. Population Fund and withdraws the U.S. from an international accord that promotes antiabortion policies. The steps came just a week after he was inaugurated and fulfills a campaign pledge to reverse a policy that previous Republican presidents, including his immediate predecessor, Donald Trump, had instated immediately on taking office.

The policy — known as the “Mexico City” rule, after the place where it was first announced at an international population conference, or the “global gag rule” — has been a political ping-pong ball, bouncing back and forth between Republican and Democratic presidents since it was first enacted in 1985 during President Ronald Reagan's second term.

“These excessive conditions on foreign and development assistance undermine the United States' efforts to advance gender equality globally by restricting our ability to support women's health and programs that prevent and respond to genderbased violence,” Biden said in a memorandum to his Cabinet.

“The expansion of the policy has also affected all other areas of global health assistance, limiting the United States' ability to work with local partners around the world and inhibiting their efforts to confront serious health challenges such as HIV/ AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, among others,” he said. “Such restrictions on global health assistance are particularly harmful in light of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.”

Accompanying Biden's determination was a decision to restore funding to the United Nations Population Fund, which Trump had ended over its alleged support for forced abortions and sterilizations in China. The fund has denied those allegations. The year before Trump terminated the funding, the U. S. had provided $ 69 million to the UNFPA.

In addition, Biden directed the State Department and Department of Health and Human Services to withdraw from the so-called Geneva Consensus, an October 2020 document signed by 34 countries that sought to promote anti- abortion policies and others deemed “profamily” worldwide. The consensus had been cosponsored by the U.S. and was signed by numerous nations critics consider to be undemocratic or authoritarian.

Critics of Trump's policies say they had hurt women's reproductive health care and contributed to poverty worldwide. Supporters argue they are essential to preserve the sanctity of life.