Biden: Promises Kept / Promises Broken: on Abortion

Joe Biden: Restore federal Title X family planning program

PROMISE KEPT: (NPR News, 4/14/21): The Biden administration is moving to reverse a Trump-era family planning policy that critics describe as a domestic "gag rule" for reproductive healthcare providers. The proposal would largely return the federal Title X family planning program to its status before Trump took office. The current rules, implemented by Trump in 2019, forbid any provider who provides or refers patients for abortions from receiving federal funding through Title X to cover services such as contraception and STD screenings for low-income people.

ANALYSIS: Since 1970, the Title X Program provides family planning services, without abortion funding.

Joe Biden: Rescind Mexico City Policy "global gag rule"

PROMISE KEPT: (Time magazine, 1/28/21): Biden will rescind the Mexico City policy--sometimes called the "global gag rule"--in another rollback of a Trump policy that will bring major changes to reproductive health and rights around the world.

OnTheIssues ANALYSIS: The Mexico City Policy has been instituted and rescinded by Executive Order each time the president's party changed. Reagan initiated the policy in 1985; Clinton rescinded it in 1993; Bush reinstated it in 2001; Obama rescinded it in 2009; Trump reinstated it in 2017.