Protecting Women's Health at Home and Abroad

• Published date: 24 June 2021
• Record Number: 2021-13638
• Section: Presidential Documents
• Court: Executive Office Of The President

Presidential Documents

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Vol. 86, No. 119

Thursday, June 24, 2021

Title 3—

The President

Memorandum of January 28, 2021

Protecting Women’s Health at Home and Abroad

Memorandum for the Secretary of State[,] the Secretary of Defense[,] the

Secretary of Health and Human Services[, and] the Administrator of the

United States Agency for International Development

Section 1. Policy. Women should have access to the healthcare they need.

For too many women today, both at home and abroad, that is not possible.

Undue restrictions on the use of Federal funds have made it harder for

women to obtain necessary healthcare. The Federal Government must take

action to ensure that women at home and around the world are able to

access complete medical information, including with respect to their repro-

ductive health.

In the United States, Title X of the Public Health Services Act (42 U.S.C.

300 to 300a–6) provides Federal funding for family planning services that

primarily benefit low-income patients. The Act specifies that Title X funds

may not be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning,

but places no further abortion-related restrictions on recipients of Title X

funds. See 42 U.S.C. 300a–6. In 2019, the Secretary of Health and Human

Services finalized changes to regulations governing the Title X program

and issued a final rule entitled ‘‘Compliance With Statutory Program Integrity

Requirements,’’ 84 FR 7714 (Mar. 4, 2019) (Title X Rule), which prohibits

recipients of Title X funds from referring patients to abortion providers

and imposes other onerous requirements on abortion providers. The Title

X Rule has caused the termination of Federal family planning funding for

many women’s healthcare providers and puts women’s health at risk by

making it harder for women to receive complete medical information.

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 Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151b(f)(1)), prohibits non-

governmental organizations (NGOs) that receive Federal funds from using

those funds ‘‘to pay for the performance of abortions as a method of family

planning, or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions.’’ The

August 1984 announcement by President Reagan of what has become known

as the ‘‘Mexico City Policy’’ directed the United States Agency for Inter-

national Development (USAID) to expand this limitation and withhold USAID

family planning funds from NGOs that use non-USAID funds to perform

abortions, provide advice, counseling, or information regarding abortion,

or lobby a foreign government to legalize abortion or make abortion services

more easily available. These restrictions were rescinded by President Clinton

in 1993, reinstated by President George W. Bush in 2001, and rescinded

by President Obama in 2009. President Trump substantially expanded these

restrictions by applying the policy to global health assistance provided by

all executive departments and agencies (agencies). 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 gender-based

violence. 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. Such restrictions on global health assistance are particularly harmful

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in light of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID–19) pandemic. Accordingly,

I hereby order as follows:

Sec. 2. Agency Revocations and Other Actions. (a) The Secretary of Health

and Human Services shall review the Title X Rule and any other regulations

governing the Title X program that impose undue restrictions on the use

of Federal funds or women’s access to complete medical information and

shall consider, as soon as practicable, whether to suspend, revise, or rescind,

or publish for notice and comment proposed rules suspending, revising,

or rescinding, those regulations, consistent with applicable law, including

the Administrative Procedure Act.

(b) The Presidential Memorandum of January 23, 2017 (The Mexico City

Policy), is revoked.

(c) The Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of

Health and Human Services, the Administrator of USAID, and appropriate

officials at all other agencies involved in foreign assistance shall take all

steps necessary to implement this memorandum, as appropriate and con-

sistent with applicable law. This shall include the following actions with

respect to conditions in assistance awards that were imposed pursuant to

the January 2017 Presidential Memorandum and that are not required by

the Foreign Assistance Act or any other law:

(i) immediately waive such conditions in any current grants;

(ii) notify current grantees, as soon as possible, that these conditions

have been waived; and

(iii) immediately cease imposing these conditions in any future assistance

awards.

(d) The Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of

Health and Human Services, and the Administrator of USAID, as appropriate

and consistent with applicable law, shall suspend, revise, or rescind any

regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies, and any other similar

agency actions that were issued pursuant to the January 2017 Presidential

Memorandum.

(e) The Secretary of State and the Secretary of Health and Human Services,

in a timely and appropriate manner, shall withdraw co-sponsorship and

signature from the Geneva Consensus Declaration (Declaration) and notify

other co-sponsors and signatories to the Declaration and other appropriate

parties of the United States’ withdrawal.

(f) The Secretary of State, consistent with applicable law and subject

to the availability of appropriations, shall:

(i) take the steps necessary to resume funding to the United Nations

Population Fund; and

(ii) work with the Administrator of USAID and across United States Govern-

ment foreign assistance programs to ensure that adequate funds are being

directed to support women’s health needs globally, including sexual and

reproductive health and reproductive rights.

(g) The Secretary of State, in coordination with the Secretary of Health

and Human Services, shall provide guidance to agencies consistent with

this memorandum.

Sec. 3. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this memorandum shall be

construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency,

or the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget

relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b) This memorandum shall be implemented consistent with applicable

law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c) This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right

or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by

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any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities,

its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

(d) The Secretary of State is authorized and directed to publish this

memorandum in the Federal Register.

THE WHITE HOUSE,

Washington, January 28, 2021

[FR Doc. 2021–13638

Filed 6–23–21; 8:45 am]

Billing code 4710–10–P

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