On January 22, 2001, President George W. Bush issued an executive order directing the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) to halt federal funds going to family planning groups that support abortion overseas. The decision came on the 28th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade court case, which established a constitutional right to abortion. It affects $425 million in federal funds expected to be distributed to such groups this year.

The order reinstated a policy that was in place during the administrations of Bush's father and former President Ronald Reagan, but was reversed during the Clinton administration. Also known as the Mexico City policy, it is named after a conference where the policy was first issued by Reagan in 1984.

The administration reissued the order in March as a memorandum of understanding to avoid possible action in Congress to void it using the Congressional Review Act, a maneuver used earlier this year to overturn a Clinton-era regulation affecting repetitive motion injuries on the job. 

The House lent support to the Bush action on May 16, voting 218-210 to strip language out of a pending State Department authorization bill that would have blocked it. The language had been inserted at the committee level by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), who argued that federal law has precluded the use of federal money for abortions since 1973, and that the Bush policy would merely restrict privately funded activities by recipient organizations. (5/16/01)