What Is the Global Gag Rule? Mexico City Policy On Abortion Reinstated By President Donald Trump After Women's Rights Marches

Days after millions of women took to the street to march for women’s rights, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to reinstate a policy that limits funding for abortion education and procedures around the world. The Global Gag Rule was originally signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1984 and was reinstated by Trump Monday.

The law is formally known as the Mexico City Policy, named for the United Nations International Conference on Population where it was announced. The Mexico City Policy states that non-governmental organizations outside the United States who receive family planning funding from the United States can’t provide abortions, educate the public or government on the need for safe abortions or provide advice on where to get an abortion, according to the Center for Health and Gender Equality. The law contains an exception for cases of life endangerment, incest and rape.

The policy has been volleyed back and forth between Republican and Democratic presidents since Reagan left office. It was repealed by President Bill Clinton in 1993 but reestablished by President George Bush in 2001. In 2009, President Barack Obama once again repealed it, calling the policy “unnecessarily broad and unwarranted.”

In 2016, the U.S. budget allocated $607.5 million in funding for reproductive health around the world, according to the Guttmacher Institute. That funding goes to places like the International Planned Parenthood Federation, which provides services to people in more than 180 countries.

The U.S. has been sued in the past over the policy, though the lawsuits have been unsuccessful. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America sued the U.S. Agency for International Development in 1987 in an attempt to reverse the rule. The Supreme Court later dismissed the case. In 1989, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the Mexico City Policy didn’t violate constitutional rights to freedom of speech after the government was sued by the DKT Memorial Fund.