Letter to Hon. Chuck Shumer, Senate Majority Leader, and Hon. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House - On One-Year Anniversary of Global Gag Rule Reversal, Senator Baldwin Joins Letter to Senate & House Leadership Urging Permanent Repeal

Letter

Dear Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi,

As you finalize the State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations bill for
Fiscal Year (FY) 2022, we write to request the maintenance of language to permanently repeal
the Mexico City Policy, also known as the Global Gag Rule. Your support for this important
policy priority, included in the House and Senate bills, is critical.

As a global health leader, our nation's investments in global health programs have a significant
and sustained impact. In fiscal year 2021, U.S. international family planning and reproductive
health assistance made it possible for 27.2 million women to receive contraceptive services, as
well as prevented 12 million unintended pregnancies including 4.5 million unplanned births and
4 million abortions, the majority of which are provided in unsafe conditions. U.S. investments in
international family planning also prevented 19,000 maternal deaths. These numbers improve
consistently and they are a triumph of U.S. leadership in global health. But this impact is blunted
and oftentimes reversed by the Mexico City Policy. This harmful policy reduces access to vital
global health programs including contraceptive information and services. It also increases the
number of abortions performed, most in unsafe conditions. The Mexico City Policy fragments
public health systems that are forced to limit their services in order to continue receiving
desperately needed U.S. assistance, and it forces the U.S. to abdicate its role as a global leader in
support of women's health and rights.

When President Biden rescinded the Mexico City Policy implemented under the Trump
Administration, he restored assistance to global health programs that serve the most vulnerable
and hardest to reach populations. President Biden's actions also allow health care systems to start
recovering from four years of a dangerous policy that parses health care provision and denies
access to lifesaving treatments to women, girls, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer
and intersex (LGBTQI) individuals.

Unfortunately we cannot flip a switch and immediately recover from the effects of such a
dangerous policy. New research from the Center for Research on Environment Health and
Population Activities in Nepal demonstrates the difficulties in rescinding this policy. Despite the
policy being revoked in January, communicating the policy change to program implementers can
be slow. As the report details, "most of the stakeholders... did not receive formal
communications about the revocation of the policy from concerned organizations such as their
central office or headquarters or US funding agency, such as USAID."

The Mexico City Policy undercuts access to voluntary and comprehensive family planning and
reproductive health services and limits our efforts to end preventable maternal and child deaths,
reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV and combat gender-based violence. Permanently
repealing the policy is also fundamental to our broader development goals, including women's
economic empowerment by increasing women's ability to access education, employment and
entrepreneurial opportunities, as well as creating a healthier, more sustainable environment.

We urge you to seize this once-in-a-generation opportunity to permanently repeal the Mexico
City Policy. Since it first went into effect in 1985, this partisan policy has been instated and
rescinded, to the detriment of the most vulnerable people in the world. It is time to put an end to
this deadly cycle. We urge you to prioritize the full and permanent repeal of the Mexico City
Policy in the FY 2022 appropriations bill. We cannot let this moment pass us.

Sincerely,