Biden Scraps Ban on US Funds for Abortion Counseling

On Thursday, President Joe Biden rescinded a ban on US help money going to abortion therapy overseas, risking political blowback just days into his administration on a deeply contentious topic.

Biden reversed the so-called Mexico City Policy of 1984 on the eve of the annual March for Life of the anti-abortion movement, which bars US support for foreign non-profit organizations that provide abortion, reports AFP.

The move was part of the new Democratic president's wide package of health-related initiatives at a time when the nation is recovering from Covid-19 and struggling with a health care system that leaves millions of citizens uninsured.

“It is the policy of my administration to support women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health and rights in the United States, as well as globally,” the order that Biden signed said.

The restrictions on abortion-linked aid “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 gender-based violence,” it said.

Biden also ordered a review of regulations under the administration of Donald Trump that restricted government support for family planning clinics that refer women for abortions in the United States.

– UN funding –

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, shortly after Biden's decision, said the State Department was moving to make $32.5 million in funding available to the United Nations Population Fund.

The Trump administration cut off US funding for the fund on the grounds of claims, strongly refuted by the fund, that it sponsored forced sterilization and induced abortions in China.

Blinken also said the United States will withdraw its name from the 2020 Geneva Consensus Declaration, a statement of opposition to abortion by more than 30 countries.

“The United States is re-engaging multilaterally to protect and promote the human rights of all women and girls, consistent with the long-standing global consensus on gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights,” Blinken said in a statement.

Biden has approached the abortion issue gingerly, rarely using the word itself.

Abortion has been legal in the United States since a landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that guaranteed a woman’s “right to choose.”

Biden’s Democratic base largely supports abortion rights, and he has consistently supported the 1973 high court ruling.

But he is also a devout member of the Catholic Church which is firmly opposed to abortion.

Pressed last week on the abortion stance of the new president, particularly on legislation known as the Hyde Amendment that would prohibit Americans from using federal funds to pay for abortion, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki declined to directly respond.

“I will just take the opportunity to remind all of you that he is a devout Catholic and somebody who attends church regularly,” she told reporters.

– ‘Neo-colonial policy’ –

Biden signed the order just one day before the annual March for Life by the anti-abortion movement.

The march usually brings tens of thousands to Washington but, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will be held mostly online this year.

“Funneling US tax dollars to abortion groups overseas is an abhorrent practice that flies in the face of the ‘unity’ Joe Biden and (Vice President) Kamala Harris promised to inspire,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List.

But numerous women’s health advocates came out in support of Biden’s move, and called on him to do more to roll back other restrictions on abortion services.

Serra Sippel, president of the Center for Health and Gender Equity, said they were “thrilled” that Biden was to reverse what they called a cruel “neo- colonial policy.”

But she said Biden needs to go further, getting US embassies and agencies actively in support of the new policy.

“Global Health partners must be able to trust in US,” she said.