Oppose Efforts to Modify Mexico City Policy

Letter to House International Relations Committee Members


May 1, 2001


Dear House International Relations Committee Member:

I am writing about the pending mark-up of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for fiscal years 2002 and 2003.

I urge you to oppose any efforts to reverse or modify the "Mexico City" policy as reinstated by President Bush. The Mexico City policy would be severely undermined by revisions such as those suggested in H.R. 755, which would allow non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to receive U.S. funds so long as their practices could not be shown to violate the host country's law or U.S. federal law. Our foreign aid programs should not subsidize organizations that perform and promote abortions in developing nations under the guise of family planning. Equally unacceptable is any effort to reverse the President's policy by giving NGOs the same right to set abortion policies as if they were sovereign nations.

Poor women in developing nations need adequate education, food, housing, and medicine for themselves and their children so that they can lead lives of full human dignity. The Mexico City policy prevents the United States from exporting and encouraging a culture of death as a supposed answer to these needs. I urge you to reject any efforts to undermine this policy, and instead to respond directly to the real needs of poor women through a comprehensive poverty alleviation program and greatly increased development assistance.

Please also vote to maintain the President's current authority to prevent funding of groups involved in coercive population programs. No funds should be earmarked by Congress to the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) or any other organization supporting the program of coerced abortion and involuntary sterilization in the People's Republic of China.

Sincerely yours in the Lord,


Rev. Msgr. William P. Fay, Ph.D.
General Secretary