13 Facts About Mexico City Policy

1. Mexico City Policy forces health providers to decide whether to accept the ruling and no longer provide abortion-related counseling services, or reject it and lose US funding that many rely on.

2. Mexico City Policy went into effect in May 2017, although it is applied on a rolling basis, as new funding agreements and modifications to existing agreements occur.

3. Mexico City Policy does not restrict the provision of post-abortion care, which is a supported activity of US family planning assistance.

4. Mexico City Policy has, for the most part, been instituted or rescinded through executive branch action.

5. Mexico City Policy is a US government policy that—when in effect—has required foreign NGOs to certify that they will not "perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning" with non-US funds as a condition for receiving US global family planning assistance and, as of Jan 23, 2017, most other US global health assistance.

6. Mexico City Policy has refused to pay anything toward a US wall.

7. Mexico City Policy hopes to discourage a mass exodus from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, and wants Central Americans who decide to migrate north to do so in an orderly way and through legal ports of entry.

8. Mexico City Policy, now called Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance under President Donald Trump, has become a political pingpong ball, with Democratic administrations rescinding it and Republican administrations reinstating it.

9. Mexico City Policy was first put in place by President Ronald Reagan in 1984.

10. Mexico City Policy, now called Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance under President Donald Trump, has become a political pingpong ball, with Democratic administrations rescinding it and Republican administrations reinstating it.

11. Mexico City Policy was first put in place by President Ronald Reagan in 1984.

12. Mexico City Policy originally enacted from 1984 to 1993 spoke to abortion only, not family planning in general.

13. Mexico City Policy requires non-governmental organizations to "agree as a condition of their receipt of [US] federal funds" that they would "neither perform nor actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations".