WASHINGTON  - Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) – leading Republican voice in the Senate on Mexico City Policy - applauds President Trump’s bold, pro-life action taken today to reapply an updated version of the Reagan-era Mexico City Policy.

“I am delighted that this long-standing pro-life foreign aid restriction has been reapplied by President Trump,” Sen. Lee said. ‘Not only has it been reapplied; it has been modernized to take into account the current global health foreign aid environment and will be inclusive of other US foreign aid funding sources beyond simply the USAID family planning account.”

Senator Lee looks forward to working to put such pro-life restrictions into statute later this year.

On Friday, January 20, Senators introduced S. Res. 15, A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that the Mexico City policy should be permanently established, urging presidential action to reapply the Mexico City Policy or an updated version thereof. Senators Steve Daines (R-MT), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Ben Sasse (R-NE), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Ted Cruz (R-TX), John Cornyn (R-TX), Rand Paul (R-KY), and James Lankford (R-OK) are cosponsors of this resolution.

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan established the ‘‘Mexico City Policy,’’ which prohibits foreign aid for family planning purposes from being given to foreign nongovernmental organizations that provide or promote abortion as an option for family planning, regardless of the source of funding. When applied, this prohibits any foreign private or nonprofit entity from receiving US family planning foreign assistance that provides or promotes abortion. President Trump’s version of this policy is updated to encompass the UN Population Fund and other global health funding streams.

The resolution text can be found here.