PAI’s “Washington Memo”: One Down, the Rest to Go: Global Gag Rule Reimposed on Family Planning
In this newsletter, PAI describes the publication of the new “Mexico City Policy (March 2017)” section in the guidance governing USAID funding to overseas nongovernmental organization (NGO) partners. The section “is ‘applicable to all awards that include family planning funds,'” according to the newsletter. “As outlined in a March 2nd agency notice to USAID headquarters and field staff, the [global gag rule (GGR)] section is to be inserted in new USAID family planning assistance grants and cooperative agreements and existing USAID FP agreements ‘when such agreements are amended to add incremental funding.’ The notice also reiterates for emphasis that the GGR does not apply to agreements with foreign governments or multilateral organizations, which are composed of governments, consistent with implementation during the previous Bush administration,” PAI adds, concluding, “Timing of the announcement of an implementation plan to apply the Trump global gag rule to the rest of U.S. global health assistance remains unclear but is moving forward through an interagency process which is expected to present recommendations to the secretary of state in the next several weeks” (3/6).