During CNN’s Presidential Town Hall discussing the “Climate Crisis” on Wednesday night, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders was asked by a teacher in the audience if he would talk about curbing population control with women as a way to address “climate catastrophe.”
“Well, the answer is yes. And the answer has everything to do with the fact that women in the United States of America, by the way, have a right to control their own bodies and make reproductive decisions. And the Mexico City agreement denies American aid to those organizations around the world that allow women to have abortions or even get involved in birth control is totally absurd. So I think especially in poor countries around the world where women don’t necessarily want to have
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The “Mexico City Policy” requires all foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to refrain from providing or promoting abortion services. Planned Parenthood International is the largest provider impacted by the policy that was first enacted by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. It was rescinded by President Bill Clinton, was restated by President George W. Bush, rescinded yet again when President Barack Obama took office and reinstated by President Donald Trump in 2017.
Trump modernized the policy. He directed the Secretary of State to implement a plan to extend the Mexico City Policy across all global health assistance funding. That language was not present in previous executive orders.
Secondly, the Secretary of State was also directed to ensure U.S. taxpayer dollars do not support organizations that support or participate in the management of a coercive abortion program like the United Nationals Population Fund. They have a long history of supporting the Chinese population control program, which has included forced abortions.
What the Mexico City Policy does not do, as Sanders suggests, is prohibit birth control.
Environmentalists have bemoaned our the world’s growing population. Disaster was predicted and failed to come to pass.
China implemented a strict population control policy with forced abortions. Would Sanders see this program to be a success? By any reasonable measure, China’s one-child policy has been a disaster from which that nation may not fully recover.
