Presidential Document2021-13638
Protecting Women's Health at Home and Abroad
Primary source
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Published
June 24, 2021
Signed
January 28, 2021
Issuing agencies
Executive Office of the President
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 86 Issue 119 (Thursday, June 24, 2021)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 119 (Thursday, June 24, 2021)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 33077-33079]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2021-13638]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 119 / Thursday, June 24, 2021 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 33077]]
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 reproductive 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 nongovernmental 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 International 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
[[Page 33078]]
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 consistent 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
Government 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
[[Page 33079]]
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.
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
(Presidential Sig.)
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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