Protecting Women's Health at Home and Abroad, 33077-33079 [2021-13638]

Agencies

• Executive Office of the President

[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 [www.gpo.gov]
[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.
                
                
                    (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