What the Election Could Mean for the Mexico City Policy and U.S. Foreign Aid
Issue Brief
Per USAID Standard Provisions, when the MCP provision was included, “a foreign non-governmental organization is a for-profit or not-for-profit non-governmental organization that is not organized under the laws of the United States, any State of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any other territory or possession of the United States.” See USAID, “Standard Provisions for U.S. Nongovernmental Organizations: A Mandatory Reference for ADS Chapter 303,” ADS Reference 303maa, partial revision May 18, 2020; “Standard Provisions for Non-U.S. Nongovernmental Organizations: A Mandatory Reference for ADS Chapter 303,” ADS Reference 303mab, partial revision Aug. 18, 2020.
Specifically, funding appropriated to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Department of State, and the Department of Defense.
The policy included language that prohibited USAID from providing family planning assistance to any foreign private, nongovernmental, or multilateral organization until they certified that during the period for which the funding was made available 1) they would not perform abortions as a method of family planning in any foreign country and 2) they would not violate the laws of any foreign country regarding abortion and would not engage in lobbying any foreign country regarding abortion.
See FAR Case 2018–002, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/09/14/2020-17551/federal-acquisition-regulation-protecting-life-in-global-health-assistance.
In this analysis, NGOs include some U.S. public universities within the U.S. educational institution category, as well as some foreign public universities within the foreign educational institution category. It is possible that U.S. public universities could be exempted from the MCP if considered part of the U.S. government.
The analysis excluded approximately $2.9 billion in FY 2022 foreign aid funding that was identifiable as emergency COVID-19 assistance since it inflates the amount of foreign aid funding that may be subject to MCP in the event of reinstatement. However, it is notable that most of this COVID-19 funding was directed to non-USG recipients who also already received other foreign aid funding, suggesting their numbers are already accounted for in this analysis. Included in the total used for analysis is supplemental funding provided to Afghanistan and the Ukraine.
Number of countries represents countries that received funding directly from the U.S. government; additional countries may be reached through regional and worldwide programming.
U.S. NGOs have not been directly subject to the Mexico City Policy but, when in place in the past, must also agree to ensure that they do not provide funding to any foreign NGO sub-recipients unless those sub-recipients have first certified adherence to the policy. See KFF, The Mexico City Policy: An Explainer.
Includes number of foreign governments, multilaterals, and U.S. NGOs that received foreign assistance as well as the number of foreign NGOs that received non-health assistance only.