Global Health Assistance: Awardees' Declinations of U. S. Planned Funding Due to Abortion Related Restrictions
Abstract
The United States is the worlds largest donor of global health assistance. Congress provided about $8.7 billion for the Global Health Programs (GHP) account in fiscal year 2018. In 2017, the President reinstated and expanded a policy, which now requires foreign NGOs to agree that, as a condition of receiving global health assistance, they will not perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning or provide financial support during the award term to other foreign NGOs that conduct such activities. The Reagan administration first implemented this policy, known as the Mexico City Policy, in 1984, and subsequent administrations have rescinded and reinstated it. The Mexico City Policy initially applied only to family planning and reproductive health assistance, which received about $560 million of GHP funds in fiscal year 2018. Upon reinstating the policy, the Trump Administration renamed it PLGHA and applied it to all global health assistance to the extent allowable by law. GAO was asked to review the implementation of the PLGHA policy. This report identifies (1) global health assistance awards that U.S. agencies determined to be subject to the U.S. government's PLGHA policy requiring foreign NGOs to agree that they would not perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning, and (2) planned funding for awards involving NGOs that declined to accept the terms and conditions of this policy. GAO analyzed data provided by U.S. agencies of awards subject to the PLGHA policy and awards in which NGOs declined to accept the terms and conditions of this policy.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1098947
Entities
People
- Aldo Salerno
- Alexander Welsh
- Andrew Kurtzman
- Christopher Keblitis
- David Gootnick
- Fatima Sharif
- Howard Cott
- Kelsey Griffiths
- Leslie Holen
- Martin de Alteriis
- Michael Mcatee
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office